As the tranquillity of the country became esta blished, and the natives became reconciled to their new master, the arts of life from Europe were intro.. duced ; and though, from The richness of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, there were few in ducements to much exertion, yet a gradual increase has been going on in population ; and having no wars, either external or internal, to rouse their ener gies, the quiet and peaceful country has enjoyed a degree of repose unknown in any other part of the globe. New Granada has exhibited none of those mixed scenes of glory and of suffering which other countries have displayed. During two centuries and a half the furious passions have not been displayed ; the whole prospect has been calm, still, and quiet; amidst the indulgence of every degree of indolence, however, this country has been gradually progressive; it has increased in numbers with considerable rapidity; in knowledge and civilization with a slower pace ; but in great powers of mind, if any progress has been made, it is scarcely perceptible. Two insurrections, indeed, have happened within our time, but the power of that soporific superstition which Spain has fostered in all her settlements, with most sedulous anxiety, lulled to rest the waves of tumult, and calmed the temporary rage of the population. The particulars of these partial risings, and the narrative of the more important events, which arose out of the occupation of Spain by the troops of Bonaparte, will, with more propriety, be related, after we have described the classes of the inhabitants, and the forms of govern ment and law, by which, since their first establish ment, they have been regulated.
All the various classes of inhabitants in the Spa nish settlements, numerous as they are, and dis tinguished by jealousies greater in proportion to their proximity, are derived from the three races of Euro peans, Indians, and Africans. Considerable num bers of each of these races have continued, ever since the first settlement of New Granada, with out any mixture with the other classes. Many fa milies of the European race, the descendants of the first conquerors, or the more early settlers, have continued, without any legitimate intercourse with the other races, to transmit through successive ge nerations the pure Castilian blood. These have the rank, and frequently the titles of nobility; they are the proprietors of the most extensive estates, and sometimes of the most valuable mines. Their pride is excessive, and their power over the inferior casts is exercised with considerable rigour; notwithstand ing the restraints placed on their authority by the mild laws which are framed in Europe. Those whites of ancient origin, but -of American birth, are very rarely trusted with any high offices in the church, the state, or the navy. The few white in habitants. of European birth who are sent by the court of Madrid to America, are in almost exclusive possession of eery office of emolument or authority. The ancient nobility of America view the officers who are sent from Spain with a mixture of envy, jealousy, hatred, and disdain, but ill suppressed by the fear of the superior power with which they are invested.
The fact cannot be disguised, that a long re sidence in a country where the principal labour is performed by slaves and inferior casts, has a ten dency to destroy those fine feelings of justice, and that warm sympathy with distress, which is created by the approximation towards equality, which prevails, in a greater or less degree, throughout Europe. The white natives of America have lost the idea that a slave is a man, and consider him as a thing, a subject of gain or of loss, rather than an object of sympathy and fellow-feeling. The Indians and Ne
groes, and all the mixed variety of intermediate races, are too sensible of the light in which they are regarded by their white fellow-countrymen to look up to them with any other feelings than that of dread and hatred. When they want protection from in jury, or redress for their wrongs, they look up to the few Europeans who are settled there to ad minister the government, who have the power, and are supposed alone to have the inclination, to pro tect them. The natives of Europe are so few in number, and so conscious of their weakness, that they endeavour to secure the affections of the Indians and Negroes by such conduct as is most adapted for that purpose, as far as it does not inter fere with the principal object of their desire, that of amassing wealth, with which to return and enjoy themselves in Europe. The policy of the Court of Spain towards its American subjects is not very dissimilar to that which prevailed in Europe during the existence of the feudal system ; it was then the desire of the monarchs to lessen the power of the nobles by supporting the commons, and even the peasants, against them. The ancient white inhabit ants of Spanish America are a species of nobles, and these appearing to support the Indians and the Negroes who are the commons and peasants of Ame rica, 'lives a firmness and authority to the Court of Madrid, which it could not have retained by any other system of proceeding.
Besides the unmixed race of native whites, there are great numbers of inhabitants descended from the European men and Indian women. The first and se cond generation of these are considered as a degrad ed cast ; but in the course of a few generations, each increasing in the proportion of the white blood, they come to be considered as whites, and though they scarcely attain to the dignity of the pure European race, they assume a rank in proportion to their near er approximation to that complexion. This descrip tion of persons increases more rapidly than any other cast. Every union with a white person elevates the offspring one step in society, and hence all the vari ous tints are ambitious of contracting matrimony with those who are whiter than themselves. The intermediate casts, after several crosses, are gene rally, when speaking of the mass, confounded with the pure whites, and distinguished from the Euro. peens by the name of Creoles. It is under this de nomination we shall speak of them in the future part of this article, as it will be a sufficient distinction be tween them and the other casts. The proportion of the numbers of the Creoles to the other inhabitants varies in the different settlements, but in the king dom of New Granada they bear a larger proportion to the whole population than in any other country. In the whole of Spanish America they are estimated at one-fourth, but in this viceroyalty they are con sidered to be between one-third and two-fifths of the inhabitants. Their wealth far exceeds the propor tion of their numbers; the land, the mines, the cattle, the utensils, and the arts of industry, are principally to be found in this class ; the few manufactories that have been established are conducted by them, and the Indians are employed as their workmen. The oppressions they practise towards that unfortunate race are such as no laws have yet been able to re lieve them from ; every salutary regulation that could be devised in their behalf has been enacted, but the execution has been lamentably defective.