ere remained numerous bands of roving savages, fierce
and predatory, to render travel unsafe; and though the efforts of the
missionaries and others brought gentler ways to some in course of time,
the whole of the colonial era was characterized by the presence of
utterly fierce and vindictive bodies of aboriginals, while sufficient
reprisals were indulged in by the Spaniards to keep alive the flame of
hostility.

[Illustration: AN ISLAND PASSAGE OF THE RIVER AMAZON.

_From the "Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para, 1836."_]

There is something in the transportation of the European to tropical
climates and the control of an inferior race which, in certain
circumstances, appears to loose and to intensify all the most cruel
instincts and desires of which humanity is capable. In reckoning up the
racial contests in New Granada, reader and historian alike must give the
aboriginal his due. He was by no means the gentle savage such as he is
frequently depicted. Indeed, many of his native customs were completely
brutal. Nevertheless, it is necessary to debit against the invader
numerous excesses and deeds of cruelty directed against the inferior or
subject race. And since popular feeling, which ranges on the side of the
oppressed to-day, was undoubtedly on the side of the oppressor during
the earlier centuries, there can be little doubt that the ferocity of
the Indians of New Granada, and their hesitating acceptance of the
missionary's doctrine, were not without excuse.

Although the soil of New Granada offered endless possibilities to the
colonists, the cost of transport and the difficulties attendant on this
necessary commercial operation rendered agriculture in the interior of
little importance as an industry. Each settlement grew sufficient for
its own needs, and no more. Other factors in the slight use made of the
rich soil were the natural indolence and the improvident habits of the
people--habits not yet quite eradicated, since at the present day
Venezuela, although it possesses some of the richest and best
maize-growing lands in the world, still imports maize from the United
States. From the creation of the Viceroyalty onward, attempts were made
by the Spanish authorities to make the people industrious and thrifty,
but these met with scant success.

The power and character of the aboriginal tribes may be estimated from
the fact that, up to the end of the colonial period, Spanish authority
in the immense territory