provifions and baggage when they went out to fight or to hunt, they muft 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 efcaped 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. PATAGONIA. PATAGO ATAGONIA is fituated between 35 and 54° fouth lati tude 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 ftraits 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 pass through it, being covered with eternal fnow: it is almoft impoffible to say 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 name, the Pampas and the Coffores: they all live upon fish and game, and what the earth produces fpontaneously: 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 use of their arms, which are bows and arrows headed with flints, with amazing dexterity. Magellan, who first discovered the ftraits which bear his name, and after him Commodore Byron, have reported, that there exifts, 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 ftraits, and left a garrifon in it to prevent any other European nation paffing that way into the Pacific ocean; but most of the men perifhed *. by hunger, whence 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 extenfive region, which is comprehended between the ifthmus of Darien and the fifty-fourth degree of fouth latitude. We have taken a curfory 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 extensive 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 fcene of bar-. barity has been acted, of which South-America has been the principal theatre, which shocks the human mind, and almoft ftaggers 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. Defpotism 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 use of to fatisfy their avarice: juftice was disregarded, and mercy formed no part of the character of these inhuman conquerors: they were intent only on the prosecution of schemes moft degrading and most scandalous 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 ambition and avarice. The history of their *See vol. i. page 1. G g feveral reductions was too copious to be inserted 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 conquest of this part of the globe. Let us then turn from thefe diftreffing scenes; let us leave the political world, where nothing but fpectacles of horror are prefented to our view; where fcenes of blood and carnage distract the imagination; where the avarice, injustice and inhumanity of men, furnish nothing but unealy fenfations; let us leave thefe, and enter the natural world, whofe laws are conftant and uniform, and where beautiful, grand and sublime objects continually prefent themselves to our view. We have given a defcription of those beautiful and fpacious 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 malfes, which rise 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 forests, that have never refounded with the stroke of the hatchet, and in another, raise their towering tops, and arreft the clouds in their courfe, while in other parts they keep the travelfer at a diftance from their fummits, either by ramparts of ice that surround them, or from vollies of flame iffuing forth from the frightful and yawning caverns; these maffes giving rife to impetuous torrents defcending with dreadful noife from their open fides, to rivers, fountains and boiling Springs, fill every be-holder with astonishment. The height of the most elevated point in the Pyrenees is, according to Mr. Coffini, fix thoufand fix hundred and forty-fix feet. The height of the mountain Gemmi, 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 thousand one hundred and two feet higher than the peak of Teneriffe, the moft clevated mountain known in the ancient hemifphere. THE vaft continent of America is divided into two parts, North and South, the narrow ifthinus of Darien ferving as a link to connect them together; between the Florida shore on the northern peninfula, and the gulf of Maracabo on the southern, lie a multitude of islands, which are called the Weft-Indies, from the name of India, originally affigned to them by Columbus; though, in confequence of the opinions of fome geogra phers 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 islands. Subordinate to this comprehenfive and fimple arrangement, neceffity or convenience has introduced more local diftinétions : that portion of the Atlantic which is separated from the main ocean to the north and caft by the islands, though known by the general appellation of the Mexican gulf, is itself properly divided into three diftin&t parts; the gulf of Mex ico, the bay of Honduras, and the Caribbean sea, so called from that clafs of iflands which bound this part of the ocean on the east. Of this clafs, a group nearly adjoining to the eastern side of St. John de Porto Rico is likewife called the Virgin ifles,* The name of Bahama islands is likewise given, or * It may be proper to obferve, that the old Spanish navigators, in fpeaking of the Weft-India iflands, frequently diftinguifh them into two claffes, by the terms Barlovento and Sotavento, from whence our Windward and Leeward iflands, the Caribbean conftituting, in strict propriety, the former class, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hifpaniola and Porto Rico the latter; but the English marines appropriate both terms to the Caribbean iflands only, fubdividing them according to their fituation in the courfe of trade; the Windward iflands, by their arrangement, terminating, I believe, with Martinico, and the Leeward commencing at Dominica and extending to Porto Rico. Edzard's Hyt. Vol. 1. p. 5. |