Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/121

Rh The following account of the income in 1812, may be advantageously subjoined, as showing what has been, for the present at least, lost, and altered, by the separation from Spain.

Manners, Education, Occupation, &c.—The upper classes in the Isthmus are of the common stock, but by no means so far advanced in civilization as their neighbours. The white people, and particularly the women, are noted for a tinge of European complexion, which can hardly be reconciled with their geographical position. They are the most superstitious, and the least freed from the shackles of their religion, of all the Columbians; and thus, although their commuication with the English is considerable, and they admire and profess to imitate our domestic habits, we are not in general favourites with them.

The women are retired and even unsocial, scarcely ever leaving their houses but to mass, or to follow in a religious procession. They are also altogether uninformed, and rear their children in the worst manner, allowing them to associate indiscriminately with the lowest negroes of their own age. Hence, though there is a college at Panamà, the head of which is a most excellent, well-informed clergyman, and considerable pains are here taken to instruct the youth in mathematics, natural philosophy, and other, the higher, sciences,—yet the formation of their character, and the instilment of honourable principle, and right feeling in them, are neglected; and billiards, cockpits, gambling, and smoking in low company: are their exclusive amusements. It is not probable,