ABSTRACT
Whereas North America is divided between two vast states, in Central and South America and the Caribbean islands there are twenty independent states together with colonial territories of three European and one American Power. The official languages of all the twenty republics are European (Portuguese in Brazil, French in Haiti and Spanish in the rest), but numerous Indian languages are also spoken. As we saw in an earlier chapter, the proportion of pure Indian population and the proportion of Indian blood in the mestizo element varies, being highest in the Andean republics of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia and negligible in Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica. There is also a negro element, dominant in the Caribbean islands and considerable in Brazil, where negro slavery was not abolished until 1888. In two British colonies, Trinidad and Guiana, there is a large proportion of Indians from India.
