Page:A History of American Anthropology.pdf/23

Rh Here indeed do we read of the birth of all that science and  industry has wrought in present America, the dominant thought in its writings and achievement since John Elliot, Roger Williams, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, through Cooper and Irving down to the days of the expeditions of Powell and Cushing, to the North Pacific Arctic and Antarctic expeditions of the present day. It was an objective need that evoked the expanding group-spirit and even when the immediate objective need was no more, new mental frontiers were sought out and created in Naga-ed-Dar or Ur, Balearic Isles or Mongolia. Thus, the content of geography, geology and anthropology was developed around concrete objectives co-ordinate with ever-receding barriers.

A far different tale has to be told of another impetus, one which did not fix its eyes on the frontier, but cast longing, lingering looks behind; one in which every step forward was for the consolidation of the ancient Church and not the achievement of something new. The Spanish cultural expansion in the New World may be compared to the sudden, dominant emergence of the titanic reptiles of the Mesozoic age, rapidly developed, the more rapidly to decay. While the springs of this later evolution were lying hidden in the insignificant mammals who, none the less, were preparing for the newer mutations, contemporaneous titanic monarchs of the earth were fast using up all energy.

The cause for this lay in that Spain had conquered well-organized states, simply replacing the machinery at the top by its own. The American Indians, under its control, was a subject people and except for occasional protests from kindhearted Catholic Fathers, Spain's only concern was to keep the system going with the least disturbance. On the other hand, France and the New England colonists were faced with the problem of subduing large masses of unknown people scatter-