ies
to traffic and the several colonies were given also the privilege of
exchanging their products among themselves, the volume of exports
and imports increased and gave an impetus to activity which brought a
notable release from the torpor and vegetation characterizing earlier
days. Yet, even so, communication was difficult and irregular. By sea
the distances were great and the vessels slow. Overland the natural
obstacles to transportation were so numerous and the methods of
conveyance so cumbersome and expensive that the people of one province
were practically strangers to their neighbors.

Matters of the mind and of the soul were under the guardianship of the
Church. More than merely a spiritual mentor, it controlled education and
determined in large measure the course of intellectual life. Possessed
of vast wealth in lands and revenues, its monasteries and priories, its
hospitals and asylums, its residences of ecclesiastics, were the finest
buildings in every community, adorned with the masterpieces of sculptors
and painters. A village might boast of only a few squalid huts, yet
there in the "plaza," or central square, loomed up a massively imposing
edifice of worship, its towers pointing heavenward, the sign and symbol
of triumphant power.

The Church, in fact, was the greatest civilizing agency that Spain
and Portugal had at their disposal. It inculcated a reverence for
the monarch and his ministers and fostered a deep-rooted sentiment of
conservatism which made disloyalty and innovation almost sacrilegious.
In the Spanish colonies in particular the Church not only protected the
natives against the rapacity of many a white master but taught them the
rudiments of the Christian faith, as well as useful arts and trades. In
remote places, secluded so far as possible from contact with Europeans,
missionary pioneers gathered together groups of neophytes whom they
rendered docile and industrious, it is true, but whom they often
deprived of initiative and selfreliance and kept illiterate and
superstitious.

Education was reserved commonly for members of the ruling class.
As imparted in the universities and schools, it savored strongly of
medievalism. Though some attention was devoted to the natural sciences,
experimental methods were not encouraged and found no place in lectures
and textbooks. Books, periodicals, and other publications came under
ecclesiastical inspection, and a vigilant censorship determined what was