_The Spanish Colonies in America_

Everybody knows that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus, who
served under the King and Queen of Spain, and who made four trips, in which
he discovered most of the islands now known as the West Indies and part of
the central and southern regions of the American continent. Long before the
English speaking colonies which now constitute the United States of
America were established, the Spaniards were living from Florida and the
Mississippi River to the South, with the exception of what is now Brazil,
and had there established their culture, their institutions and their
political system.

In some sections, the Indian tribes were almost exterminated, but generally
the Spaniards mingled with the Indians, and this intercourse resulted in
the formation of a new race, the mixed race (mestizos) which now comprises
the greater number of the inhabitants of what we call Latin America.

African slavery added another racial element, which is often discernible in
the existing population.

The Latin American peoples today are composed of European whites, American
whites (creoles), mixed races of Indian and white, white and Negro,
Negro and Indian, Negro and mestizo, and finally, the pure Indian race,
distinctive types of which still appear over the whole continent from
Mexico to Chile, but which has disappeared almost entirely in Uruguay and
Argentina. Some countries have the Indian element in larger proportions
than others, but this distribution of races prevails substantially all over
the continent.