Slike strani
PDF
ePub

baggage when they went out to fight or to hunt, they must neceffarily have been inured to hardships, and rendered capable of forming fo bold a refolution. Since this story has been propagated, infinite pains have been taken to find out the truth of it, but no traces could ever be discovered.

The mind of a good man is pleafed with the reflection, that any part of South-America has escaped the ravages of European tyrants. This country has hitherto remained unfubdued; the original inhabitants, therefore, enjoy their native freedom and independence, the birthright of every human being.

PATA

PATAGONIΙΑ.

PATAGONIA

GONIA is fituated between 350 and 54° fouth latitude; its length is eleven hundred miles, and its breadth three hundred and fifty: it is bounded north by Chili and Paragua; eaft by the Atlantic ocean; fouth by the straits of Magellan; weft by the Pacific ocean.

The climate is faid to be much colder in this country than in the north under the fame parallels of latitude, which is imputed to the Andes, which país through it, being covered with eternal fnow: it is almost impoffible to fay what the foil would produce, as it is not at all cultivated by the natives. The northern parts are covered with wood, among which is an inexhaustible fund of large timber; but towards the fouth, it is faid, there is not a fingle tree large enough to be of ufe to mechanics. There are, however, good paftures, which feed incredible numbers of horned cattle and horfes, first carried there by the Spaniards, and now increased in an amazing degree.

It is inhabited by a variety of Indian tribes, among which are the Patagons, from whom the country takes its names, the Pampas and the Coffores they all live upon fifh and game, and what the earth produces fpontaneoufly: their huts are thatched, and, notwithstanding the rigour of the climate, they wear no other clothes than a mantle made of feal fkin, or the fkin of fome beaft, and that they throw off when they are in action: they are exceedingly hardy, brave and active, making ufe of their arms, which are bows and arrows headed with flints, with amazing dexterity.

Magellan, who firft difcovered the ftraits which bear his name, and after him Commodore Byron, have reported, that there exists, in these regions, a race of giants; but others, who have failed this way, contradict the report. Upon the whole we may conclude, that this story is, perhaps, like that of the female republic of Amazons. The Spaniards once built a fort upon the straits, and left a gar rifon in it to prevent any other European nation paffing that way into the Pacific ocean; but most of the men perifhed by hunger, whence VOL. IV.

G g

the

the place obtained the name of port Famine, and fince that fatal event, no nation has attempted to plant colonies in Patagonia. As to the religion or government of these favages, we have no certain information: fome have reported, that these people believe in invifible powers, both good and evil; and that they pay a tribute of gratitude to the one, and deprecate the wrath and vengeance of the other.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

We have now traversed the several provinces of that extensive region, which is comprehended between the ifthmus of Darien and the fifty-fourth degree of fouth latitude. We have taken a cursory view of the rivers, the foil, the climate, the productions, the commerce, the inhabitants, &c.

The hiftory of Columbus, together with his bold and adventurous actions in the discovery of this country, we have but flightly noticed in this account, as we had done this in a preceding part of this work.* His elevated mind fuggefted to him ideas fuperior to any other man of his age, and his aspiring genius prompted him to make greater and more noble efforts for new discoveries: he croffed the extenfive Atlantic, and brought to view a world unheard of by the people of the ancient hemifphere. This excited an enterprifing, avaricious, fpirit among the inhabitants of Europe; and they flocked to America for the purposes of plunder. In confequence of which, a scene of barbarity has been acted, of which South-America has been the principal theatre, which shocks the human mind, and almoft staggers belief. No fooner had the Spaniards fet foot upon the American continent, than they laid claim to the foil, to the mines, and to the fervices of the natives, wherever they came. Countries were invaded, kingdoms were overturned, innocence was attacked, and happiness had no afylum. Def potifm and cruelty, with all their terrible fcourges, attended their advances in every part: they went forth, they conquered, they ravaged, they destroyed: no deceit, no cruelty, was too great to be made ufe of to fatisfy their avarice: juftice was difregarded, and mercy formed no part of the character of these inhuman conquerors: they were intent only on the profecution of schemes most degrading and moft fcandalous to the human character. In South-America, the kingdoms of Terra Firma, of Peru, of Chili, of Paragua, of Brafil, and of Guiana, fucceffively fell a facrifice to their vicious

#Sec vol. i. page 1.

am

ambition and avarice. The history of their feveral reductions was too copious to be inferted at large in a work of this kind; but we have endeavoured to afford the reader a brief view of those transactions which have blasted the character of all those who had any thing to do with the conqueft of this part of the globe. Let us then turn from thefe diftreffing fcenes; let us leave the political world, where nothing but spectacles of horror are prefented to our view; where scenes of blood and carnage diftract the imagination; where the avarice, injuftice and inhumanity of men, furnifh nothing but uneafy fenfations; let us leave these, and enter the natural world, whofe laws are constant and uniform, and where beautiful, grand and fublime objects continually present themselves to our view.

We have given a description of those beautiful and spacious rivers which every where interfect this country; and of that immense chain of mountains, which runs from one end of the continent to the other. These enormous maffes, which rife to fuch prodigious heights above the humble furface of the earth, where almost all mankind have fixed their refidence; these maffes, which in one part are crowned with impenetrable and ancient forefts, that have never refounded with the ftroke of the hatchet, and in another, raise their towering tops, and arreft the clouds in their course, while in other parts they keep the traveller at a distance from their fummits, either by ram parts of ice that furround them, or from vollies of flame iffuing forth from the frightful and yawning caverns; these masses giving rife to impetuous torrents defcending with dreadful noise from their open fides, to rivers, fountains and boiling fprings, fill every beholder with aftonishment.

The height of the most elevated point in the Pyrenees is, according to Mr. Coffini, fix thousand fix hundred and forty-fix feet. The height of the mountain Gemini, in the canton of Berne, is ten thousand one hundred and ten feet. The height of the peak of Teneriffe, is thirteen thousand one hundred and feventy-eight feet. The height of the Chimborazo, the most elevated point of the Andes, is twenty thousand two hundred and eighty feet. Thus, upon comparison, the highest part of the Andes is feven thoufand one hundred and two feet higher than the peak of Teneriffe, the mos elevated mountain known in the ancient hemifphere.

[blocks in formation]

HISTORY

OF THE

WEST-INDIA ISLANDS.

THE vaft continent of America is divided into two parts, North

and South, the narrow isthmus of Darien ferving as a link to con nect them together; between the Florida fhore on the northern peninfula, and the gulf of Maracabo on the fouthern, lie a multitude of islands, which are called the West-Indies, from the name of India, originally affigned to them by Columbus; though, in confequence of the opinions of fome geographers of the fifteenth century, they are frequently known by the appellation of Antilia or Antilles: this term is, however, more often applied to the windward or Caribbean iflands.

Subordinate to this comprehenfive and fimple arrangement, neceffity or convenience has introduced more local distinctions: that portion of the Atlantic which is feparated from the main ocean to the north and east by the iflands, though known by the general appella tion of the Mexican gulf, is itself properly divided into three diftinct parts; the gulf of Mexico, the bay of Honduras, and the Carib bean fea, fo called from that clafs of islands which bound this part of the ocean on the east. Of this clafs, a group nearly adjoining to the eastern fide of St. John de Porto Rico is likewise called the Virgin ifles. The name of Bahama iflands is likewife given, or

It may be proper to obferve, that the old Spanish navigators, in fpeaking of the Weft-India iflands, frequently diftinguith them into two claffes, by the terms Barla venia and Sotavento, from whence our Windward and Leeward iflands, the Caribbean conftituting, in strict propriety, the former clafs, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hifpaniola and Porto-Rico the latter; but the English mariners appropriate both terms to the Caribbean iflands only, fubdividing them according to their situation in the course of trade; the Windward iflands, by their arrangement, terminating, I be lieve, with Martinico, and the Leeward commencing at Dominica and extending to Porto-Rico. Edwards' Hift, Vol. I. P. 5.

applied,

« PrejšnjaNaprej »