the labour of three hundred and sixty thousand men for twenty years, 128

If, passing from the history of Asia and Africa, we now turn to the New World, we shall meet with fresh proof of the accuracy of the preceding views. The only parts of America which before the arrival of the Europeans were in some degree civilized, were Mexico and Peru;129 to which may probably be added that long and narrow tract which stretches from the south of Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. In this latter country, which is now known as Central America, the inhabitants, aided by the fertility of the soil,130 seem to have worked out for themselves a certain amount of knowledge; since the ruins still extant, prove the possession of a mechanical and architectural skill too considerable to be acquired by any nation entirely barbarous. 131 Beyond this, nothing is known of their history; but the accounts we have of such buildings as Copan, Palenque, and Uxmal, make it highly probable that Central America was the ancient seat of a civilization, in all essential points similar to those of India and Egypt; that is to say, similar to them in respect to the unequal distribution of wealth and power, and the thraldom in which the great body of the people consequently remained. 132

enough that there is some exaggeration; still no one can dispute the fact of an enormous and unprincipled waste of human life.

128 Τριάκοντα μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἓξ μυριάδες ἀνδρῶν, ὥς φασι, ταῖς τῶν ἔργων λειτουργίαις προσήδρευσαν, τὸ δὲ πᾶν κατασκεύασμα τέλος ἔσχε μόγις ἐτῶν εἴκοσι διελθόντων. Diod. Sic. Bibliothec. Hist. book i. chap. lxiii. vol. i. p. 188.

129 "When compared with other parts of the New World, Mexico and Peru may be considered as polished states." History of America, book vii. in Robertson's Works, p. 904. See to the same effect, Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. v. p. 355.

139 Compare Squier's Central America, vol. i. pp. 34, 244, 358, 421, vol. ii. p. 307, with Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. iii. p. 59, vol. viii. pp. 319, 323.

131 Mr. Squier (Central America, vol. ii. p. 68), who explored Nicaragua, says of the statues, "the material, in every case, is a black basalt, of great hardness, which, with the best of modern tools, can only be cut with difficulty.' Mr. Stephens (Central America, vol. ii. p. 355) found at Palenque "elegant specimens of art and models for study." See also vol. iii. pp. 276, 389, 406, vol. iv. p. 293. Of the paintings at Chichen he says (vol. iv. p. 311), "they exhibit a freedom of touch which could only be the result of discipline and training under masters." At Copan (vol. i. p. 151), "it would be impossible, with the best instruments of modern times, to cut stones more perfectly." And at Uxmal (vol. ii. p. 431), "throughout, the laying and polishing of the stones are as perfect as under the rules of the best modern masonry." Our knowledge of Central America is almost entirely derived from these two writers; and although the work of Mr. Stephens is much the more minute, Mr. Squier says (vol. ii. p. 306), what I believe is quite true, that until the appearance of his own book in 1853, the monuments in Nicaragua were entirely unknown. Short descriptions of the remains in Guatemala and Yucatan will be found in Larenaudière's Mexique et Guatemala, pp. 308-327, and in Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. iii. pp. 60-63.

132 See the remarks on Yucatan in Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. v. p. 348: "a great and industrious, though perhaps, as the writer above cited (Gallatin) observes, an enslaved population. Splendid temples and palaces attest the power of the priests and nobles, while as usual no trace remains of the huts in which dwelt the mass of the nation."

But although the evidence from which we might estimate the former condition of Central America is almost entirely lost,133 we are more fortunate in regard to the histories of Mexico and Peru. There are still existing considerable and authentic materials, from which we may form an opinion on the ancient state of those two countries, and on the nature and extent of their civilization. Before, however, entering upon this subject, it will be convenient to point out what those physical laws were which determined the localities of American civilization; or, in other words, why it was that in these countries alone, society should have been organized into a fixed and settled system, while the rest of the New World was peopled by wild and ignorant barbarians. Such an inquiry will be found highly interesting, as affording further proof of the extraordinary, and indeed irresistible, force with which the powers of Nature have controlled the fortunes of Man.

The first circumstance by which we must be struck, is that in America, as in Asia and Africa, all the original civilizations were seated in hot countries; the whole of Peru proper being within the southern tropic, the whole of Central America and Mexico within the northern tropic. How the heat of the climate operated on the social and political arrangements of India and Egypt, I have attempted to examine; and it has, I trust, been proved that the result was brought about by diminishing the wants and requirements of the people, and thus producing a very unequal distribution of wealth and power. But, besides this, there is another way in which the average temperature of a country affects its civilization, and the discussion of which I have reserved for the present moment, because it may be more clearly illustrated in America than elsewhere. Indeed, in the New World, the scale on which Nature works, being much larger than in the Old, and her forces being more overpowering, it is evident that her operations on mankind may be studied with greater advantage than in countries where she is weaker, and where, therefore, the consequences of her movements are less conspicuous.

If the reader will bear in mind the immense influence which an abundant national food has been shown to exercise, he will

133 Dr. M'Culloh (Researches concerning the Aboriginal History of America, pp. 272-340) has collected from the Spanish writers some meagre statements respecting the early condition of Central America; but of its social state and history, properly so called, nothing is known; nor is it even certain to what family of nations the inhabitants belonged, though a recent author can find "la civilisation guatemalienne ou misteco-zapotèque et mayaquiche, vivante pour nous encore dans les ruines de Mitla et de Palenque." Mexique et Guatemala par Larenaudière, p. 8, Paris, 1843. Dr. Prichard, too, refers the ruins in Central America to "the Mayan race: Prichard on Ethnology, in Report of British Association for 1847, p. 252. evidence for these and similar statements is very unsatisfactory.

see

But the

easily understand how, owing to the pressure of physical phenomena, the civilization of America was, of necessity, confined to those parts where alone it was found by the discoverers of the New World. For, setting aside the chemical and geognostic varieties of soil, it may be said that the two causes which regulatethe fertility of every country are heat and moisture. 134 Where these are abundant, the land will be exuberant; where they are deficient, it will be sterile. This rule is, of course, in its application subject to exceptions, arising from physical conditions which are independent of it; but if other things are equal, the rule is invariable. And the vast additions which, since the construction of isothermal lines, have been made to our knowledge of geographical botany, enable us to lay this down as a law of nature, proved not only by arguments drawn from vegetable physiology, but also by a careful study of the proportions in which plants are actually distributed in different countries. 135

A general survey of the continent of America will illustrate the connexion between this law and the subject now before us. In the first place, as regards moisture, all the great rivers in the New World are on the eastern coast, none of them on the western. The causes of this remarkable fact are unknown;136 but it is certain that neither in North, nor in South America, does one considerable river empty itself into the Pacific; while on the opposite side there are numerous rivers, some of enormous

134 Respecting the connexion between the vegetable productions of a country and its geognostic peculiarities, little is yet known; but the reader may compare Meyen's Geography of Plants, p. 64, with Reports on Botany by the Ray Society, 1846, pp. 70, 71. The chemical laws of soil are much better understood, and have a direct practical bearing on the use of manures. See Turner's Chemistry, vol. ii. pp. 1310-1314; Brande's Chemistry, vol. i. p. 691, vol. ii. pp. 1867-1869; Balfour's Botany, pp. 116-122; Liebig and Kopp's Reports, vol. ii. pp. 315, 328, vol. iii. p. 463, vol. iv. pp. 438, 442, 446.

135 As to the influence of heat and moisture on the geographical distribution of plants, see Henslow's Botany, pp. 295-300, and Balfour's Botany, pp. 560-563. Meyen (Geog. of Plants, p. 263) says, "I, therefore, after allowing for local circumstances, bring the vegetation of islands also under that law of nature, according to which the number of species constantly increases with increasing heat and corresponding humidity." On the effect of temperature alone, compare a note in Erman's Siberia, vol. i. pp. 64, 65, with Reports on Botany by the Ray Society, pp. 339, 340. In the latter work, it is supposed that heat is the most important of all single agents; and though this is probably true, still the influence of humidity is immense. I may mention as an instance of this, that it has been recently ascertained that the oxygen used by seeds during germination, is not always taken from the air, but is obtained by decomposing water. See the curious experiments of Edwards and Colin in Lindley's Botany, vol. ii. pp. 261, 262, Lond. 1848; and on the direct nourishment which water supplies to vegetables, see Burdach's great work, Traité de Physiologie, vol. ix. pp. 254, 398.

136 There is a difference between the watersheds of the eastern and western ranges, which explains this in part, but not entirely; and even if the explanation were more satisfactory than it is, it is too proximate to the phenomenon to have much scientific value, and must itself be referred to higher geological considerations.

137

magnitude, all of great importance, as the Negro, the La Plata, the San Francisco, the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Mississippi, the Alabama, the Saint John, the Potomac, the Susquehannah, the Delaware, the Hudson, and the Saint Lawrence. By this vast water-system the soil is towards the east constantly irrigated;' but towards the west there is in North America only one river of value, the Oregon; 138 while in South America, from the Isthmus of Panama to the Straits of Magellan, there is no great river at all.

139

But as to the other main cause of fertility, namely, heat, we find in North America a state of things precisely the reverse. There we find that while the irrigation is on the east, the heat is on the west.1 This difference of temperature between the two coasts, is probably connected with some great meteorological law; for in the whole of the northern hemisphere, the eastern part of continents and of islands is colder than the western. 110 Whether, however, this is owing to some large and comprehensive cause, or whether each instance has a cause peculiar to itself, is an alternative, in the present state of knowledge, impossible to decide; but the fact is unquestionable, and its influence upon the early history of America is extremely curious. In consequence of it, the two great conditions of fertility have not been united in any part of the continent north of Mexico. The countries on the one side have wanted heat; those on the other

157 Of this irrigation some idea may be formed from an estimate that the Amazon drains an area of 2,500,000 square miles; that its mouth is ninety-six miles wide; and that it is navigable 2200 miles from its mouth. Somerville's Physical Geography, vol. i. p. 423. Indeed it is said in an Essay on the Hydrography of South America (Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. ii. p. 250), that with the exception of one short portage of three miles, water flows, and is for the most part navigable, between Buenos Ayres, in 35° south latitude, to the mouth of the Orinoco, in nearly 9' north. See also on this river-system, vol. v. p. 93, vol. x. p. 267. In regard to North America, Mr. Rogers (Geology of North America, p. 8, Brit. Assoc. for 1834) says, "the area drained by the Mississippi and all its tributaries is computed at 1,099,000 square miles." Compare Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 164.

138 The Oregon, or Columbia as it is sometimes called, forms a remarkable botanical line, which is the boundary of the Californian flora. See Reports on Botany by the Ray Society, p. 113.

139 For proof that the mean temperature of the western coast of North America is higher than that of the eastern coast, see Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. ix. p. 880, vol. xi. pp. 168, 216; Humboldt, la Nouvelle Espagne, vol. i. pp. 42, 336; Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. pp. 214, 218, 219, 259, 260. This is well illustrated by the botanical fact, that on the west coast the coniferæ grow as high as 68 or 70° north latitude; while on the east their northern limit is 60°. See an Essay on the Morphology of the Coniferæ, in Reports on Botany by the Ray Society, p. 8, which should be compared with Forry on the Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences, New York, 1842, p. 89.

140 "Writers on climate have remarked that the eastern coasts of continents in the northern hemisphere have a lower mean temperature than the western coast." Richardson on North American Zoology, p. 129, Brit Assoc. for 1836: see also Report for 1841, Sections, p. 28; Davis's China, vol. iii. pp. 140, 141; Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. xxii. p. 176.

side have wanted irrigation. The accumulation of wealth being thus impeded, the progress of society was stopped; and until, in the sixteenth century, the knowledge of Europe was brought to bear upon America, there is no instance of any people north of the twentieth parallel, reaching even that imperfect civilization to which the inhabitants of India and of Egypt easily attained." On the other hand, south of the twentieth parallel, the continent suddenly changes its form, and, rapidly contracting, becomes a small strip of land, until it reaches the Isthmus of Panama. This narrow tract was the centre of Mexican civilization; and a comparison of the preceding arguments will easily show why such was the case; for the peculiar configuration of the land secured a very large amount of coast, and thus gave to the southern part of North America the character of an island. Hence there arose one of the characteristics of an insular climate, namely, an increase of moisture, caused by the watery vapour which springs from the sea. 142 While, therefore, the position of Mexico near the equator gave it heat, the shape of the land gave it humidity; and this being the only part of North America in which these two conditions were united, it was likewise the only part which was at all civilized. There can be no doubt that if the sandy plains of California and southern Columbia, instead of being scorched into sterility, had been irrigated by the rivers of the east, or if the rivers of the east had been accompanied by the heat of the west, the result of either combination would have been that exuberance of soil by which, as the history of the world decisively proves, every early civilization was preceded. But inasmuch as, of the two elements of fertility, one was deficient in

141 The little that is known of the early state of the North-American tribes has been brought together by Dr. M'Culloh in his learned work, Researches concerning America, pp. 119-146. He says, p. 121, that they "lived together without laws and civil regulations." In that part of the world, the population has probably never been fixed; and we now know that the inhabitants of the north-east of Asia have at different times passed over to the north-west of America, as in the case of the Tschuktschi, who are found in both continents. Indeed, Dobell was so struck by the similarity between the North-American tribes and some he met with nearly as far west as Tomsk, that he believed their origin to be the same. See Dobell's Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia, 1830, vol. ii. p. 112. And on this question of intercourse between the two continents, compare Crantz's History of Greenland, vol. i. pp. 259, 260, with Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. i. pp. 362, 363, and Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. iv. pp. 458-463, vol. v. pp. 371, 378.

142 From general physical considerations, we should suppose a relation between amount of rain and extent of coast; and in Europe, where alone we have extensive meteorological records, the connexion has been proved statistically. "If the quantity of rain that falls in different parts of Europe is measured, it is found to be less, other things being equal, as we recede from the sea-shore." Kaemtz's Meteorology, 1845, p. 139. Compare pp. 91, 94. Hence, no doubt, the greater rarity of rain as we advance north from Mexico. "Au nord du 20°, surtout depuis les 22° au 30o de latitude, les pluies, qui ne durent que pendant les mois de juin, de juillet, d'août et de septembre, sont peu fréquentes dans l'intérieur du pays." Hum boldt, la Nouvelle Espagne, vol. i. p. 46.