of wild hogs, one of which, the peccary, is remarkable for having its navel on the back. The woods are infefted with feveral fpecies of tigers, but with no other ravenous or dangerous animals. The rivers are rendered dangerous by alligators, from four to feven feet long, and a man was a fhort time fince crushed between the jaws of a fifh, but its name is not known. Scorpions and tarantulas are found here of a large fize and great venom, and other infects without number, fome of them very dangerous and troublefome. The torporific eel, the touch of which, by means of the bare hand or any conductor, has the effec of a strong electrical fhock. Serpents alfo, fome of which are venomous, and others, as has been afferted by many credible perfons, are from twenty-five to fifty feet long. In the woods are monkeys, the floth, and parrots in all their varieties; alfo fome birds of beautiful plumage, among others the flamingo, but few or no finging birds. Paramaribo, fituated on Surinam river, four leagues from the fea, north latitude 6o, weft longitude 55° from Greenwich, is the prin cipal town in Surinam. It contains about two thousand whites, one half of whom are Jews, and eight thousand flaves. The houfes are principally of wood, fome few have glafs windows, but generally they have wooden fhutters. The streets are fpacious and straight, and planted on each side with orange or tamarind trees. About seventy miles from the fea, on the fame river, is a village of about forty or fifty houfes, inhabited by Jews. This village, and the town above mentioned, with the intervening plantations, contain all the inhabitants in this colony, which amount to three thousand two hundred whites, and forty-three thoufand flaves. The buildings on the plantations are many of them coftly, convenient, and airy. The country around is thinly inhabited with the native Indians, a harmless friendly race of beings. They are, in general, fhort of ftature, but remarkably well made, of a light copper colour, ftraight black hair, without beards, high cheek bones, and broad shoulders, In their ears, noses, and hair the women wear ornaments of filver, &c. Both men and women go naked. One nation or tribe of them tie the lower part of the legs of the female children, when young, with a cord bound very tight for the breadth of fix inches about the ancle, which cord is never afterwards taken off but to put on a new one, by which means the flesh, which should otherwise grow on that of the leg, increases the calf to a great fize, and leaves the bone Ff2 part below below nearly bare. This, though it muft render them very weak, is reckoned a great beauty by them. The language of the Indians appears to be very foft. They are mortal enemies to every kind of labour, but nevertheless manufacture a few articles, fuch as very fine cotton hammocks, earthen water pots, baskets, a red or yellow dye called roucau, and fome other trifles, all which they exchange for fuch articles as they ftand in need of. They paint themfelves red, and fome are curiously figured with black. Their food confifts chiefly of fish and crabs; and caflava, of which they plant great quantities, and this is almoft the only produce they attend to. They cannot be faid to be abfolutely wandering tribes, but their huts being merely a few cross sticks covered with branches, fo as to defend them from the rain and fun, they frequently quit their habitations, if they fee occafion, and establish them elfewhere. They do not fhun the whites, and have been ferviceable against the runaway negroes. Dr. Bancroft obferves, that the inhabitants of Dutch Guiana are either whites, blacks, or the reddish brown aboriginal na tives. The promiscuous intercourse of these different people have generated feveral intermediate cafts, whofe colours depend on their degree of confanguinity to either whites, blacks, negroes, or Indians. The river Surinam is guarded by a fort and two redoubts at the entrance, and a fort at Paramaribo, but none of them of any trength, fo that one or two frigates would be fufficient to make themfelves mafters of the whole colony, and never was there a people who more ardently wifhed for a change of government than the inhabitants of this colony do at this time. The many grievances they labour under, and the IMMENSE BURTHEN OF TAXES, which threaten the ruin of the colony, make them excufable in their general defire to change the Dutch for a French government. This is precifely the cafe in Europe, the taxes are fo enormous, and the oppreffion of the Statholderian government fo great, that we may venture to affert, that no human power (and we cannot think a Divine one will interfere) can poffibly prevent much longer a revolution from taking place. The colony is not immediately under the States General, but under a company in Holland, called the Directors of Surinam, a company firft formed by the States General, but now fupplying its own vacancies; by them are appointed the governor and all the principal officers both civil and military. The interior government confifts of a governor, and a fupreme and inferior council; the members of the latter are chofen by the governor from a double nomination of the principal inhabitants, and those of the former in the fame manner. By thefe powers, and by a magiftrate prefiding over all criminal affairs, juftice is executed, and laws are enacted neceffary for the interior government of the colony; thofe of a more general and public nature are enacted by the directors, and require no approbation by the court, The colony is guarded by about one thousand fix hundred regular troops, paid by the directors. Thefe troops, together with a, corps of about two hundred aud fifty free negroes, paid by the Dutch government, and another small corps of chaffeurs, and as many flaves as the court thinks fit to order from the planters, from time to time, are difperfed at poíts placed at proper distances on a cordon, furrounding the colony on the land fide, in order, as far as poffible, to defend the diftant plantations and the colony in general, from the attacks of feveral dangerous bands of runaway flaves, which from very fmall beginnings have, from the natural prolificacy of the negro race, and the continual addition of fresh fugitives, arrived at fuch a height as to have coft the country very great fums of money, and much lofs of men, without being able to do thefe negroes any effectual injury. This colony was first poffeffed by the French as early as the year 1630 or 40, and was abandoned by them on account of its unhealthy climate. In the year 1650 it was taken by fome Englishmen, and in 1662 a charter grant was made of it by Charles II. About this time it was confiderably augmented by the fettlement of a number of Jews, who had been driven out of Cayenne and the Brafils, whofe defcendants, with other Jews, compofe at prefent one half of the white inhabitants of the colony, and are allowed great privileges. In 1667 it was taken by the Dutch, and the English having got poffef fion about the fame time of the then Dutch colony of New-York, each party retained its conqueft; the English planters most of them retired to Jamaica, leaving their flaves behind them, whofe language is ftill English, but fo corrupted as not to be understood at first by an Englishman. ABORIGI ABORIGINAL AMERICA, OR THAT PART WHICH. THE ABORIGINAL INDIANS POSSESS. ΑΜΑΖΟΝΙΑ. AMAZONIA is fituated between the equator and 20° fouth latitude; its length is one thoufand four hundred miles, and its breadth nine hundred miles: it is bounded on the north by Terra Firma and Guiaña; on the east by Brafil; on the fouth by Paraguay; and on the weft by Peru. The air is cooler in this country than could be expected, confidering it is fituated in the torrid zone. This is partly owing to the heavy rains which occafion the rivers to overflow their banks one-half of the year, and partly to the cloudinefs of the weather, which obfeures the fun great part of the time he is above the horizon. During the rainy feafon the country is fubject to dreadful storms of thunder and lightning. The foil is extremely fertile, producing cocoa nuts, pine apples, ́bananas, plantains, and a great variety of tropical fruits; cedar, redwood, pak, ebony, logwood, and many other forts of dying wood; together with tobacco, fugar canes, cotton, potatoes, balfam, honey, &c. The woods abound with tigers, wild boars, buffaloes, deer, and game of various kinds. The rivers and lakes abound with fish. 'Here are alfo fea-cows and turtles; but the crocodiles and water ferpents render fishing a dangerous employment. The river Amazon is the largest in the known world. This river, fo famous for the length of its courfe, this great vaffal of the fea, to which it brings the tribute it has received from fo many of its own tributaries, feems to be produced by innumerable torrents, which rufh down with amazing impetuofity from the eaftern declivity of the the Andes, and unite in a fpacious plain to form this immenfe river.In its progrefs of three thoufand three hundred miles it receives the waters of a prodigious number of rivers, fome of which come from far, and are very broad and deep. It is interfperfed with an infinite number of iflands, which are too often overflowed to admit of culture: it falls into the Atlantic ocean under the equator, and is there one hundred and fifty miles broad. The natives of this country, like all the other Americans, are of a good ftature, have handfome features, long black hair, and copper complexions. They are faid to have a tafte for the imitative arts, efpecially painting and fculpture, and make good mechanics. Their cordage is made of the barks of trees, and their fails of cotton, their hatchets of tortoife fhells or hard ftones, their chisels, plains and wimbles, of the horns and teeth of wild beafts, and their canoes are trees hollowed. They spin and weave cotton cloth, build their houses with wood and clay, and thatch them with reeds. Their arms in general are darts and javelins, bows and arrows, with targets of cane or fifh fkins. The feveral nations are governed by their chiefs or caziques; it being obfervable, that the monarchical form of government has prevailed almost universally, both among ancient and modern barbarians, doubtlefs on account of its fuperior advantages with refpect to war and rapine, and as requiring a much less refined policy than the republican fyftem, and therefore beft adapted for the favage ftate. The regalia, which diftinguish the chiefs, are a crown of parrots feathers, a chain of tigers teeth or claws, which hangs round the waift, and a wooden fword, which, according to fome authors, were intended for hieroglyphics. As early as the time of Hercules and Thefeus, the Greeks had imagined the existence of a nation of Amazons; with this fable they embellished the hiftory of all their heroes, not excepting that of Alexander; and the Spaniards, infatuated with this dream of antiquity, transferred it to America. They reported, that a republic of female warriors actually existed in America, who did not live in fociety with men, and only admitted them once a year for the purpofes of procreation. To give the more credit to this romantic ftory, it was reported, not without reason, that the women in America were all fo unhappy, and were treated with fuch contempt and inhumanity by the men, that many of them had agreed to thake off the yoke of their tyrants. It was farther faid, that being accuftomed to follow the men into the forefts, and to carry their provisions and baggage. H |