man," it seems questionable whether a language of words is really needed.

4. The instance alluded to is that of the WILD PEOPLE OF BORNEO, who are described by Dalton* in the following words:" Further towards the north are to be found men living absolutely in a state of nature, who neither cultivate the ground, nor live in huts; who neither eat rice nor salt, and who do not associate with each other, but rove about some woods, like wild beasts. The sexes meet in the jungle, or the man carries away a woman from some campong. When the children are old enough to shift for themselves, they usually separate, neither one afterwards thinking of the other. At night they sleep under some large tree, the branches of which hang low. On these they fasten the children in a kind of swing. Around the tree they make a fire, to keep off the wild beasts and snakes. They cover themselves with a piece of bark, and in this also they wrap their children. It is soft and warm, but will not keep out the rain. These poor creatures are looked on and treated by the Dayaks as wild beasts. Hunting parties of twenty-five and thirty go out, and amuse themselves with shooting at the children in the trees with the sumpit, the same as monkeys, from which they are not easily distinguished. The men taken in these excursions are invariably killed, the women commonly spared if they are young. It is somewhat remarkable, that the children of these wild people cannot be sufficiently tamed to be entrusted with their liberty. Selgie told me he never recollected an instance when they did not escape to the jungle the very first opportunity, notwithstanding many of them had been treated kindly for years. The consequence is, all the chiefs who call themselves civilised, no sooner take them, but they cut off a foot, sticking the stump in a bamboo of molten damar; their escape is thus prevented, and their services in paddling canoes retained. An old Dayak loves to dwell upon his success on these hunting excursions; and the terror of the women and children, when taken, affords a fruitful theme of amusement at all their meetings." The

* In the Singapore Chronicle, March and April, 1831. Reprinted in Moore's Papers on the Indian Archipelago.

following additional information is, however, somewhat unexpected. After speaking of the excellence of the iron and steel of the interior of Borneo, and of the extent of its manufacture among the Dayak tribes, Dalton continues: "Those men whom I have noticed, living in a state of nature, building no habitations of any kind, and eating nothing but fruits, snakes, and monkeys, yet procure this excellent iron, and make blades, sought after by every Dayak, who, in their hunting excursions, have in view the possession of the poor creature's spear or mandow, as much as his head, improbable as it may appear."

Above will be found something like evidence, that mankind have the ability to diffuse themselves widely over the globe, without associating, and in the absence of the invention of language.

Beginning now at the extreme West: let us consider some of the barriers to such a diffusion, the means of overcoming them, and the geographical position of adjoining

countries.

The fertile portion of Africa is surrounded by water on every side except the north, where a vast uninhabitable space seems impassable to man in his ruder state.

There exists, however, a natural highway across the Sahara, in the unique geographical position of the Nile; and individuals, by following the banks, or floating on the bosom of this remarkable river, could easily reach the countries of the North.

The acquisition of domestic animals, and more particularly that of the camel, wrought a change throughout the region in question; and one of the camel routes may be here specified as connecting countries which make a conspicuous figure in History. Commencing in the table-land of Abyssinia, and crossing the entrance of the Red Sea, the route leads northward, and through the narrowest part of Arabia, to Persia (a country more conveniently accessible from the heart of Africa than may at first be supposed); continuing eastward, the route terminates in Hindostan, at the second grand natural barrier of races and nations, the Himalaya range of mountains.

In order to a clear understanding of the history of Oriental nations, it is necessary to observe, that the above

Desert tract contains four principal oases: the first consists of Egypt, or of the alluvial flats of the Nile; the second consists of the alluvial flats of the Euphrates; the third, of a strip of land along the southern margin of the Caspian; and the fourth, of the alluvial flats of the Indus.

The difference in the circumstances between intercourse by land and by sea involves a corresponding difference in the state of the diffusion of knowledge; but successive waves of social revolution are traceable in the relics of ancient nations preserved in Hindostan, likewise in the slow progress of innovation in mountain fastnesses and in other secluded situations. Thus the people of the western Sahara continue to entertain the belief, that Cimmerian darkness overhangs the Atlantic, and that the sun rises only for themselves. They have been known to ask visitors, "Do you sow barley in your houses ?" meaning the ships, in which they supposed that Europeans were born and passed their lives.

CHAPTER XIX.

ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE.

THE alimentary resources offered to man by the natural vegetation of different countries are by no means in proportion to the fertility of the soil or the variety of the productions; and the wanderer would be in more danger of perishing from hunger in the wilds of Brazil than in Terra del Fuego.

The first part of the voyage of the Expedition led into regions which present striking peculiarities and marked contrasts in the vegetable growth; and, after visiting successively Madeira, the Cape Verd Islands, Brazil, Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, Chili, the Chilian Andes, and Lower Peru, I hardly anticipated further novelty in the general aspect of vegetation. A new phase, however, awaited me at the very next stage of my progress, and one in regard to which I will enter into some details.

The western slope of the Peruvian Andes, at the elevation

of from six thousand to eleven thousand feet, presents nothing of the wildness and magnificence of primeval forests: it is not, like some Northern "prairies," clothed with a grassy sward, or, at one season of the year, with fleeting array of a few kinds of flowers; neither, again, like most open countries, is it fairly arid. There is no general tendency to the production of spines; and if occasionally a woody plant of moderate height has a tree-like trunk, there are yet no marks of stunted growth. Proper shrubs, of various affinity, are common enough; yet they nowhere grow in contiguity, or form thickets. Cacti, too, are everywhere conspicuous; not such as are familiarly known in green-houses, but a varied and peculiarly fantastic series. The soil, however, is principally occupied by herbaceous and other humble plants, growing, not in such a manner as to cover the surface, but detached, almost as if artificially set out. Ornamental plants are in profusion; and, in the absence of all rankness of habit, they are precisely such as meet the general taste of florists. The most abundant of these showy plants may be enumerated in the order of colours: and here, again, instances will be observed, contravening our usual associations. Scarlet shines forth in Salvias, Scutellaria, Mutisias, and Indigofera, interspersed and tempered amid the blue of other Salvias, of Lupines, Plumbago, and Polygalea; orange, too, is present in the frequent Tropaeolums, Lobelia, and Loasas; and likewise purple in Bacasia, and in large-flowered Boerhaavias; but, over all, yellow predominates, from the profusion of Calceolarias, and of Senecios and other rayed Composite.

While travelling in the midst of what I could only compare to an artificial flower-garden, outspread over hill and dale, the thought arose: In a region like this, producing also esculent and tuberous roots, how natural would be the origin of agriculture; how little seems here wanting to disclose to man, in searching for his daily food, the secret of multiplying his means of subsistence.

In a forest, supposing a useful plant to be discovered, its cultivation would require a clearing, which seems too complex an idea for a first suggestion. On the other hand, the aridity of most open countries precludes cultivation, unless with the aid of irrigation, and this requires even further

advancement. Of countries not altogether barren we have an instance in Oregon, where, notwithstanding that the natives annually seek subsistence from bulbous and other roots, (none, however, tuberous,) the idea of assisting nature by art has not been developed." Again, on the Sacramento River of California, where, by a singular approximation to the use of grain, minute seeds of grasses and other plants constitute an article of food, the natives, nevertheless, have not advanced beyond gathering the spontaneous crop.

In considering the topographical resemblance between. Mexico and Peru, and the aboriginal condition of these countries, when compared with that of the rest of America, the conclusion seems hardly avoidable, that table-lands are the natural birthplaces of civilisation. A further inference would seem to follow: that, on entering a woody country, man will naturally relapse into a ruder state; and he must either conquer and destroy the forest, or he will himself yield before its influence.

The remote and widely isolated geographical position of Peru favours the supposition of a spontaneous development of civilisation; and there are attendant circumstances which point to the same conclusion.

In the mountain-region above described, and particularly in its more elevated portion, I met with small plantations devoted to three articles of aboriginal culture; the Basella tuberosa, the Oxalis crenata, and the Tropaeolum tuberosum. These are plants, which, besides, appear to belong naturally to the region in question; and they all have tuberous roots. A fourth tuber-bearing plant was seen cultivated side by side; one, which did not aboriginally reach Mexico, but which has now become universally known, the common potato.

Again, Peru is possibly the only part of America that possessed indigenous domestic animals. The lama and the guinea-pig,* like the above-named cultivated plants, are

The fact may be here noted, as of some interest in Zoology,—that these two animals have become particoloured, and also subject to individual variation in colour, like other domestic animals. This change has equally taken place in the turkey, accompanied with one of the additional marks of servitude -the dewlap.