conducted in Arabic, a system which evoked horrified protests from
Bishops in other parts. Be that as it may, it is certain that the
Spaniards had, with the sole exception of the Portuguese, been more
concerned with the African races and dark blood than any other nation in
Europe. Thus, once in South America, although the actual helplessness of
the Indians was immediately remarked and taken advantage of, no question
of inferiority from a mere racial point of view arose. The Indian went
to the wall, not because he was an Indian, but because his powers were
less than those of the European who had invaded his lands.

[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA.

_From a portrait in colour in a Spanish MS. (Sloane, 197, fol. 18) in
the British Museum._]

If this was the case with the Spaniard, it was far more marked in the
case of the Portuguese. In some respects, perhaps, no nation colonized
with quite the same amount of enthusiasm as this. Its pioneers once
definitely settled in the country, whichever it might be, there arose no
question of looking upon the new conquest as a place to be resided in
for a certain number of years and no more. The Portuguese went to the
east and to the south-west to make themselves part and parcel of the
soil of the country they had annexed. To this end they mingled from the
very start with the natives, and inter-married with an entire want of
restraint with the Indian women.

Thus from the very inception of the Portuguese colonial era we are
confronted with a race of half-castes, and we see the forces brought
about by a mixture of blood and climatic conditions working more
powerfully in the Portuguese colonies than in any others. The result