GOVERNMENT. 25 Maliomeclan manners must, no doubt, have had considerable effect in forwarding the same object. In whatever country of the Archipelago arbitrary- government exists, the titles of the prince, of his nobility, and of many of the offices of go- vernment, will generally be found purely Hindu ; but in the federal associations, their political in- stitutions do not afford a restio:e of the lansuasre of India. The feebleness, unskilfulness, and barbarism even of the most improved of the nations of the Indian islands, have always prevented them from establishing permanent empires, and the most con- siderable states have been but of momentary dura- tion. A succession of princes of ability overthrew the federal establishments : from the feeble hands of a succession of weak ones, power fell into the hands of the governors of provinces, who became hereditary lords of their respective jurisdictions. The society having, however, become familiar with to the soil, and dcvclopcs the love of country. Thus ^vc sec that, in the southern part of Anahuac, in the cultivated re- gion adjacent to Tcnichtitlan, the arctic colonists patiently- endured the cruel vexations exercised towards them by their conquerors, and suffered every thing rather than quit the soil ■which their fathers had cultivated. But, in the northern provinces, the natives yielded to the conquerors their unculti. vated savannahs, which served for pasturage to the buffa. loes." Humboldt's New Spai7t, Book II. chap. 0.
