such a small addition of supernumerary mouths soon exhausted their The inhabitants of South scanty stores, and brought on a famine. America, compared with those of North America, are generally more feeble in their frame, less vigorous in the efforts of their minds, of a gentle but dastardly spirit, more enslaved by pleasure, and sunk in indolence. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA. THIS great western continent, frequently denominated the NEW WORLD, extends from the 80th degree north, to the 56th degree south latitude; and, where its breadth is known, from the 35th to the 136th degree of west longitude from London; stretching between 8 and 9000 miles in length, and its greatest breadth 3690. It lies in both hemispheres, has two summers, and a double winter, and enjoys all the variety of climates which the earth affords. It is washed by the two great oceans. To the eastward it has the Atlantic, which divides it from Europe and Africa; and to the west the Pacific, or Great South Sea, by which it is separated from Asia. By these seas it may, and does; carry on a direct commerce with the other three parts of the world. It is composed of two great continents, one on the north, the other on the south, which are joined by the kingdom of Mexico, which forms a kind of isthmus 1500 miles long, and in one part, at Darien, so extremely narrow, as to make the communication between the two oceans by no means difficult, being only sixty miles over. In the great gulf which is formed between the isthmus and the northern and southern continents, lie a multitude of islands, many of them large, most of them fertile, and denominated the West Indies, in contradistinction to the countries and islands of Asia beyond the Cape of Good Hope, which are called the East Indies. Before we proceed to treat of separate countries in their order, if will be proper to take notice of those mountains and rivers which disdain, as it were, to be confined within the limits of particular provinces, and extend over a great part of the continent. For, though America, in general, be not a mountainous country, it has the greatest mountains in the world. In South America, the Andes, or Cordilleras, run from north to south along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. They exceed in length any chain of mountains in the other parts of the globe: extending from the isthmus of Darien to the straits of Magellan, they divide the whole southern parts of America, and run a length of 4300 miles. Their height is as remarkable as their length; for, though in part within the torrid zone, they are constantly covered with snow. Chimborazo, the highest of the Andes, is 20,608 feet; of this about 2400 feet from the summit are always covered with snow. Carazon was ascended by the French astronomers, and is said to be 15,800 feet high. In North America, which is chiefly composed of gentle ascents or level plains, we know of no considerable mountains, except those towards the pole, and that long ridge which lies on the back of the American States, separating them from Canada and Louisiana, which we call the Apalachian or Allegany mountains; if that may be considered as a mountain, which upon one side is extremely lofty, but upon the other i a level with the rest of the country. America is, without question, that part of the globe wh watered; and that not only for the support of life, and all { of fertility, but for the convenience of trade, and the int each part with the others. In North America, those va country situated beyond the Apalachian mountains, at an in unknown distance from the ocean, are watered by inland the Lakes of Canada: which not only communicate with but give rise to several great rivers, particularly the Miss ning from north to south till it falls into the Gulf of Mex course, including its turnings, of 4500 miles, and receiving gress the vast tribute of the Illinois, the Misouri, the Ohio great rivers, scarcely inferior to the Rhine or the Danube; north, the river St. Laurence, running a contrary course fro sissippi, till it empties itself into the ocean near Newfound! them being almost navigable to their heads, lay open the inmo of this great continent, and afford such an inlet for commerc produce the greatest advantage, whenever the country adj come to be fully inhabited by an industrious and civilised peo eastern side of North America, besides the noble rivers Hud ware, Susquehana, and Potowmack, supplies several others depth, length, and commodious navigation: hence many på settlements are so advantageously intersected with navigable creeks, that the planters, without exaggeration, may be sai each a harbour at his door, South America is, if possible, in this respect even more! It supplies much the two largest rivers in the world, the river zons, and the Rio de la Plata, or Plate River. The first, risin not far from the South Sea, passes from west to east, and falls ocean between Brasil and Guiana, after a course of more th miles, in which it receives a prodigious number of great and n rivers. The Rio de la Plata rises in the heart of the country, a ing its strength gradually augmented by an accession of many I streams, discharges itself with such vehemence into the sea, as its taste fresh for many leagues from land. Besides these, u other rivers in South America, of which the Oronoko is the m siderable. A country of such vast extent on each side of the equator r cessarily have a variety of soils as well as climates. It is a tre nature, producing most of the metals, minerals, plants, fruits, tre wood, to be met with in the other parts of the world, and i them in greater quantities and higher perfection. The gold an of America have supplied Europe with such immense quantities valuable metals, that they are become vastly more common; the gold and silver of Europe now bear little proportion to th price set upon them before the discovery of America. This country also produces diamonds, pearls, emeralds, ame and other valuable stones, which, by being brought into Europe contributed likewise to lower their value. To these, which are the production of Spanish America, may be added a great num other commodities, which, though of less price, are of much greate and many of them make the ornament and wealth of the British e in this part of the world. Of these are the plentiful supplies of neal, indigo, anatto, log-wood, brasil, fustic, pimento, lignum vitæ, rice, ginger, cocoa, or the chocolate nut; sugar, cotton, tobacco, barillas, red-wood, the balsams of Tolu, Peru, and Chili, that valuable article in medicine the Jesuits' bark, mechoacan, sassafras, sarsaparilla, cassia, tamarinds, hides, furs, ambergris, and a great variety of woods, roots, and plants, fo which, before the discovery of America, we were either entire strangers, or forced to buy at an extravagant rate from Asia and Africa, through the hands of the Venetians and Genoese, who then engrossed the trade of the eastern world. This continent has also a variety of excellent fruits, which here grow wild to great perfection; as pinc-apples, pomegranates, citrons, lemons, oranges, malicatons, cherries, pears, apples, figs, grapes; great numbers of culinary, medicinal, and other herbs, roots, and plants: and so fertile is the soil, that many exotic productions are nourished in as great perfection as in their native ground. Though the Indians still live in the quiet possession of many large tracts, America, so far as known, is chiefly claimed, and divided into colonies, by three European nations, the Spanish, English, and Portuguese. The Spaniards, as they first discovered it, have the largest and richest portions, extending from New Mexico and Louisiana, in North' America, to the Straits of Magellan, in the South Sea, excepting the large province of Brasil, which belongs to Portugal; for, though the French and Dutch have some forts upon Surinam and Guiana, they scarcely deserve to be considered as proprietors of any part of the southern continent. Next to Spain, the most considerable proprietor of America was Great Britain, who derived her claim to North America from the first. discovery of that continent by Sebastian Cabot, in the name of Henry VII. anno 1497, about six years after the discovery of South America by Columbus, in the name of the king of Spain. This country was in general called Newfoundland, a name which is now appropriated solely to an island upon its coast. It was a long time before we made an attempt to settle in this country. Sir Walter Raleigh, an uncommon genius and a brave commander, first showed the way, by planting a colony in the southern part, which he called Virginia, in honour of his mistress, queen Elizabeth. The French, from this period until the conclusion of the war in 1763, laid a claim to, and actually possessed, Canada and Louisiana, comprehending all that extensive inland country, reaching from Hudson's bay on the north, to Mexico, and the gulph of the same name, on the south; regions which all Europe could not people in the course of many ages The multitude of islands, which lie between the two continents of North and South America, are divided amongst the Spaniards, English, and French. The Dutch indeed possess three or four small islands, which in other hands would be of no consequence; and the Danes have one or two, but they hardly deserve to be named among the proprietors of America. We shall now proceed to the particular provinces, beginning, according to our method, with the north; but Labrador, or New Britain, and the country round Hudson's Bay, with those vast regions towards the pole, are little known. |