At Saint Paul, the earliest unions were from the first regularly contracted, thanks to the intervention of Fathers Nobrega and Anchieta. In consequence of different circumstances, the mamalucos, who were the result of these marriages, were at once accepted as the equals of the pure Whites. Here the crossing then was accomplished under normal conditions, a fact, perhaps, unique in the history of our colonies.
In reality, the mixture of races elsewhere owes its origin to the worst passions; prejudices of blood have caused half-breeds to be regarded as tainted by the vice to which they owed their origin, as outcasts from society, or one might say, outlawed. Now what branch of the pure white race being born, growing, and thriving under contempt and oppression, would preserve an elevated and moral character? Moreover, would the white fathers furnish examples capable of influencing for good the children which they had abandoned? The contrary is evidently the case. Unrestrained debauchery on one side, and servile submission on the other, are the elements in the production of a half-breed race. What could heredity transmit in the way of moral character to the products of such unions?
If anything should surprise us, it is that half-breeds produced under such detestable conditions should already have been able to raise themselves. Now this has happened, even with the mulattoes, in all cases where prejudices of race have been less deeply rooted, and have yielded to personal merit. In Brazil, most of the artists and musicians are mulattoes, say MM. Troyer and de Lisboa. In confirmation of this testimony, M. Lagos added that the political capacity and scientific instinct are scarcely less developed among them than artistic aptitude. Several are doctors and medical practitioners of the highest distinction. Lastly, M. Torres Caïcedo enumerated to me among the mulattoes of his country, orators, poets, public men, and a vice-president of New Grenada, who was at the same time a distinguished author.
If the case is not the same where a social condemnation weighs upon the man of colour, the reason is that the moral and social conditions of life never lose their rights any more than the physical conditions. But the preceding will, I think, be a sufficient proof that, when placed under normal conditions, the half-breed of the Negro and the European would certainly justify in every place the words of the old traveller Thevenot: “The mulatto can do all that the white man can do; his intelligence is equal to ours.”
IV. Although I protest against the doctrines which tend to depreciate mixed races, I am far from pretending that the crossing is at all times and in all places fortunate. Undoubtedly, if the union has taken place between inferior races, the product will remain at the level of the parents. But these unions are few in number. Even in South America, the Zambo is relatively rare. The Negro appearing everywhere in slavery, has been despised by the indigenous populations, who, in spite of their dependent condition, have preserved their individual liberty, and have avoided union with the Negro.
It is the White who, impelled by his restless ardour, has invaded the world, and is every day multiplying his conquests and colonies. It is he who has searched out the home of the coloured races, and who everywhere mingles his blood with their own. Almost all the half-breed populations recognize him as their father, and this gives rise to a double result. These races are at once raised above the maternal race, and the two brought closer together, as if they possessed a common element.
Will this connection extend as far as fusion, as Serres and Maury have admitted? Will all our present races sooner or later be replaced by a single homogeneous race, everywhere endowed with the same aptitudes and governed by a common civilization? I do not think so; and what has just been said justifies the statement that this uniformity is impossible.
Doubtless the mixture of races, favoured and multiplied by the growing facility of communication, appears to me to prepare a new era. The races of the future, differing less in blood, and brought together by railways and steamers, will have far more inclinations, wants, and interests in common. Hence a state of things will rise superior to that with which we are acquainted, although our civilization ought, it seems to me, to continue growing in spite of present evils and approaching storms. We know how the Greek, Roman, and the modern world were developed in succession; the modern future will embrace the entire globe.
But, although this civilization will become more general and more widely spread, it will not suppress certain differences in the conditions of life. As long as there are poles and an equator, continents and islands, or mountains and plains, races will exist distinguished by characters of every kind, and superior or inferior in a physical, intellectual, and moral point of view. In spite of crossings, varieties and inequalities will continue. But as a whole, mankind will be perfected; it will have grown; and the civilizations of the future, without causing those of the past to be forgotten, will outstrip them in some as yet unknown direction, just as ours have outstripped those of our predecessors.