New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-03-16


The following passages from Mr.. Buckles His
tory Of Civilization indicate in glowing colors the
obstacles which the prodigality Of Nature may op-
pose to the progress Of man:
Brazil, which is nearly as large as the whole Of
Europe is covered with vegetation OF incredible
profusion Indeed, so rank and lHxuriant il the
growth, that Nature seems to riot in the very wan
tonness of power. A great part of this immense
country is filed with dense aud tangled forests,
whose noble trees blossoming in unrivaled beauty,
and exquisite with a thousand hues, throw out
their produce in endless prodigality. On their
summit are perched birds of gorgeous plumage,
which nestle in their dark and lofty recesses.
Below, their base and trunks are crowned with
brushwood, creeping plants, Innnmefable para
sites all swarming with life. There, too, are my
rads of insects of every variety reptiles of strange
and singular form serpents and lizards, spotted
with deadly beauty; all of which find means of ex-
istence in this vast workshop and repository Of
Nature. And, that nothing may be wanting to this
land of maryes, the forests are skirted BY enor-
nous meadows, which, reeking with heat and
moisture, supply nourishment to countless herds of
wild cattle that browse and fatten on the herhage
while the adjoining plains, rich IN another form Oh
life are the chosen abode of the suhtlest and most
ferocious animals, which prey on each other, but
which it might almost seem no human power can
hope to extrpate.
But amid this pomp and splendor of nature no
place is left for man. He is reduced to insigniiii-
cance by the majesty with which he is surrounded.
The forces that oppose him are SO formidable
that he has never been able to make head against
them never been able to rally against their accu-
muIated pressure. The whole of Brazil, notwlth-
standing its immense apparent advantages, has
always remained entirely unciyilized; Its inhabi-
| tants wandering savages, incompetent to resist
| those obstacles which the very bounty OF nature
had put in their way. In their country the physl-
cal causes are so active, and do their work on a
| scale of such unrivaled magnitude, that it has
hitherto been found impossible to escape from the
| effects of their united action. The progress o.
agriculture is stopped by impossible forests, and
| the harvests destroyed by innumerabe insects
The mountains too high to scale, the rivers tot
4 wide to bridge every thing is contrived to repres
! the human mind and keep back its rising ambition
1t is thus that the energies OF nature have hampere
1 the spirit of man And the mind, eoWed BY tn
/ UNEQUAL struggle, has not only been unable to ad
vance, but without foreign aid itwould undoub
| edly have receded. Brazil, the country where, (
| all others, physical resources are most powerful
| where both vegetables and animals are mo-
| abundant, where the soil is watered by the noble
| rivers, and the coast studded with the finest ha
| bors-this immense territory, which is more thi
4 twelve times the size of France, contains pepul
ton not exceeding six millions of people. Prof
sor Anstead adds to this his testimony to the effe
that the native Indian seems to be irredeemab
and sunk in tho most wretehed barharisms a
that there appears. no prospect whatever of al
improvement in the district, since man can ii
no SPIT on which to commence its operations.
l.