Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-08-22
SOUTH AMERICA.

SOUTH AMERICA. |,
Why That Country IL So Far Behind the
Unsted states.
From time to time, numbers of peo-
ple are seized with a craze to emigrate
to some portion OF South America, I'M
der the hallucination that certain pros
perity awaits the settler in any part OF
that country. The fertility of its soil.
the delightfulness Of its climate, the
fabulous richness of its mines of gold.
silver and precious stones are set forth
IN glowing terms, and the fairy tale Is
believed until the deluded emigrants
arrive at their estimation. Then they
are speedily disitlusioned. and after |
struggling q few years against the ad-
verse circumstances OF their environ
ment, they either die, or return to the |
United States broken in fortune and IN
health.
A correspondent. who has been
tempted to try his fortune in the south
ern half of the western hemisphere,
but who seems to have thought 1T best
to act with circumspection, wishes to
know why the fertile countries OF
South America advance SO slowly In
wealth and population. That is a very
interesting question. In all that contf-
nent which is nearly rs large as
North America, there are but twenty
six millions of inhabitants, while North
America contains almost three times
that number. Brazil, for example,
which is about as large as the United
States, and was settled sooner, con-
tains only about ten millions Of people,
and nowhere exhibits anything like the
prosperity which has marked every
period OF our own history.
The principal reasons OF this differ
cnce are three in number. In the first
place. nature herself in South America
interposes mighty obstacles to the pur-
poses of man. Vast plains exist, which,
in the rainy season, are covered with
luxuriant verdure, and in the dry sea-
son assume the appearance of desert
The forests, owing to the fertility OF
the soil under tropical sun, are SO
dense and tangled rs almost to battle
the efforts of the pioneer to remove
them The principal rivers, which are
the largest in the world, are more like
flowing seas than ravigabie streams
The Plata, for example, is one hundred
and thirty miles wide at its mouth, and
is full of strong, irregular currents.
The Amazon, too, which is four thou
sand miles in length, and navigable fol
one-half that distance, is. in many
places. so wide that the navigator ha:
to sail by the compass The mountains
also, are PERCEPTIONS and difficult of &C
cess, and contain thirty active vol
canoes. All nature, in fact. is on pro
digious scale, and the very richness o
the soil is frequently an injury rathe'
than help to man.
In the next place, the Spanish an
Portuguese, who settled this continent
drawn thither by the lust of gold, wcr
little fitted to wrcStle with the OF
stacies which nature placed in thei
path. Lastly, the Spanish and Port,
guese governments, narrow, bigotc'
ignorant and tyranuicaf, for three Gel
turics cramped the energies Of the pc
pie and oppressed them by mcrciie
exactions.
People who are thus oppressed f
centuries lose heart and manliness
spirit: they sink into ignorance and S
perstition; they learn to be conte
with lives but little raised above Il
life of brutes, and so become incapa
itated for prosperity. When. carly
the century. owing to the heroisn1 a
virtue of Simon Bolivar, the yoke
Spain was thrown off by the fine
provinces in South America, the Ion
oppressed inhabitants We're unable
profit by their liberation. They we
totally unaccustomcd to sef-govel
ment; they had no conception of
binding obligations of public law
private agreements: they were T
amenable to the influence of enlig
cned public opinion; they were incal
BILE of restraining their provoked p
sions for the purpose of securing la
ing future good, and so they have &C
on from revolution to revolution, wi
out stable governments, or steady
dustry. or thrifty commerce, and
now but little in advance of their C
dition half a century ago.
1t is useless for citizens of the Uni
States. who all their lives have b
accustomed to obey and revere
laws which their fathers and thu
selves have made, to seek for a sa
factory home among people who h
but crude ideas of the sacredness
public law and private obligations