Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Steppes, However, Were
No More Heretofore The Rampart Of Civilization Than They Are Now The
Rampart Of The Liberty Of The Hordes That Live In The Forests.
They
have not hindered the nations of the Lower Orinoco from going up the
little rivers and making incursions to the north and the west.
If,
according to the various distribution of animals on the globe, the
pastoral life could have existed in the New World - if, before the
arrival of the Spaniards, the Llanos and the Pampas had been filled
with those numerous herds of cows and horses that graze there,
Columbus would have found the human race in a state quite different.
Pastoral nations living on milk and cheese, real nomad races, would
have spread themselves over those vast plains which communicate with
each other. They would have been seen at the period of great droughts,
and even at that of inundations, fighting for the possession of
pastures; subjugating one another mutually; and, united by the common
tie of manners, language, and worship, they would have risen to that
state of demi-civilization which we observe with surprise in the
nations of the Mongol and Tartar race. America would then, like the
centre of Asia, have had its conquerors, who, ascending from the
plains to the tablelands of the Cordilleras, and abandoning a
wandering life, would have subdued the civilized nations of Peru and
New Grenada, overturned the throne of the Incas and of the Zaque,* and
substituted for the despotism which is the fruit of theocracy, that
despotism which arises from the patriarchal government of a pastoral
people.
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