Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/514

 474 MEXICO. of desolation ; and the country would be so far thrown back in the career of civilization, that the majority of its in- habitants would be compelled to revert to a Nomade life, and to seek a precarious subsistence amidst their flocks and herds, like the Gaucho of the Pampas, of whose Indian habits Cap- tain Head has given us so spirited, and so faithful a picture. I desire no better proof of this than the contrast, existing at the present day in every part of New Spain, between the degraded situation of the husbandman, or small landed proprietor, in any district without an outlet, and that of a proprietor, (however small,) in the vicinity of the mines. The one is without wants, and almost without an idea of civilized life; clothed in a leather dress, or in the coarsest kind of home-made woollen manufactures ; — living in primi- tive simplicity perhaps, but in primitive ignorance, and bru- tality too ; — sunk in sloth, and incapable of exertion, unless stimulated by some momentary excitement : while the other, acquires wants daily, with the means of gratifying them ; and grows industrious, in proportion as the advantages which he derives from the fruits of his labour increase ; his mind opens to the advantages of European arts ; he seeks for his off- spring, at least, that education which had been denied to himself ;* and becomes, gradually, with a taste for the de- lights of civilization, a more important member, himself, of the civilized world ! Who can see this, as I have seen it, without feeling, as I have felt, the importance, not only to Mexico, but to Europe, of a branch of industry capable of producing such beneficial effects ? And alone capable of pro- ducing them : for Mexico, without her mines, (I cannot too often repeat it,) notwithstanding the fertility of her soil, and the vast amount of her former Agricultural produce, can • Amongst the young Mexicans who have been sent to England, or the United States, for their education, I could mention several from the Mining districts, as the sons of Don Narciso Anitua, at Sombrerete, and those of the principal Agent of Count Regla, at Real del Monte.