represented a distant authority interested in the welfare of its
humbler subjects and came less into actual daily contact with the
natives. While it would hardly be correct to say that the
Spaniard was viewed as a protector and the Creole as an
oppressor, yet the aborigines unconsciously made some such hazy
distinction if indeed they did not view all Europeans with
suspicion and dislike. In Brazil the relation of classes was much
the same, except that here the native element was much less
conspicuous as a social factor.

These distinctions were all the more accentuated by the absence
both of other European peoples and of a definite middle class of
any race. Everywhere in the areas tenanted originally by
Spaniards and Portuguese the European of alien stock was
unwelcome, even though he obtained a grudging permission from the
home governments to remain a colonist. In Brazil, owing to the
close commercial connections between Great Britain and Portugal,
foreigners were not so rigidly excluded as in Spanish America.
The Spaniard was unwilling that lands so rich in natural
treasures should be thrown open to exploitation by others, even
if the newcomer professed the Catholic faith. The heretic was
denied admission as a matter of course. Had the foreigner been
allowed to enter, the risk of such exploitation doubtless would
have been increased, but a middle class might have arisen to weld
the the discordant factions into a society which had common
desires and aspirations. With the development of commerce and
industry, with the growth of activities which bring men into
touch with each other in everyday affairs, something like a
solidarity of sentiment might have been awakened. In its absence
the only bond among the dominant whites was their sense of