1518.

BOOK dence to carry this important intelligence to Spain, to exIII. hibit the rich productions of the countries which had been discovered by his means, and to solicit such an increase of authority as might enable and encourage him to attempt the conquest of them. Without waiting for the return of his messenger, or for the arrival of Grijalva, of whom he was become so jealous or distrustful that he was resolved no longer to employ him, he began to prepare such a powerful armament, as might prove equal to an enterprise of so much danger and importance.

But, as the expedition upon which Velasquez was now intent, terminated in conquests of greater, moment than what the Spaniards had hitherto achieved, and led them to the knowledge of a people, who, if compared with those tribes of America with whom they were hitherto acquainted, may be considered as highly civilized; it is proper to pause before we proceed to the history of events extremely different from those which we have already related, in order to take a view of the state of the new world when first discovered, and to contemplate the policy and manners of the rude uncultivated tribes that occupied all the parts of it with which the Spaniards- were at this time acquainted.

BOOK IV.

of America

were thea

Tw WENTY-SIX years had elapsed since Columbus con- BOOK ducted the people of Europe to the new world. Dur- IV. ing that period the Spaniards had made great progress in What parts exploring its various regions. They had visited all the islands scattered in different clusters through that part of known. the ocean which flows in between North and South America. They had sailed along the eastern coast of the continent, from the river De la Plata to the bottom of the Mexican gulf, and had found that it stretched without interruption through this vast portion of the globe. They had discovered the great Southern ocean, which opened new prospects in that quarter: they had acquired some knowledge of the coast of Florida, which led them to observe the continent as it extended in an opposite direction; and though they pushed their discoveries no farther towards the north, other nations had visited those parts which they neglected. The English, in a voyage, the motives and success of which shall be related in another part of this history, had sailed along the coast of America, from Labrador to the confines of Florida; and the Portuguese, in quest of a shorter passage to the East Indies, had ventured into the northern seas, and viewed the same regions. Thus, at the period where I have chosen to take a view of the state of the new world, its extent was known almost from its northern extremity to thirty-. five degrees south of the equator. The countries which Herrera, dec. 1, lib. vi, c, 16,

IV.

BOOK stretch from thence to the southern boundary of America, the great empire of Peru, and the interior state of the extensive dominions subject to the sovereigns of Mexico, were still undiscovered.

The vast extent of the new world.

Grand ob

sents to

When we contemplate the new world, the first circumstance that strikes us is its immense extent. It was not a small portion of the earth, so inconsiderable that it might have escaped the observation or research of former ages, which Columbus discovered. He made known a new hemisphere, larger than either Europe, or Asia, or Africa, the three noted divisions of the ancient continent, and not much inferior in dimensions to a third part of the habitable globe.

America is remarkable not only for its magnitude, but for its position. It stretches from the northern polar circle to a high southern latitude, above fifteen hundred miles beyond the farthest extremity of the old continent on that side of the line. A country of such extent passes through all the climates capable of becoming the habitation of man, and fit for yielding the various productions peculiar either to the temperate or to the torrid regions of the earth.

Next to the extent of the new world, the grandeur of jects it pre-the objects which it presents to view is most apt to strike the of an observer. Nature seems here to have careye ried on her operations upon a larger scale, and with a bolder hand, and to have distinguished the features of

view.

tains.

Its moun- this country by a peculiar magnificence. The mountains in America are much superior in height to those in the other divisions of the globe. Even the plain of Quito, which may be considered as the base of the Andes, is elevated farther above the sea than the top of the Pyrenees. This stupendous ridge of the Andes, no less remarkable for extent than elevation, rises in different places more than one third above the Pike of Teneriffe, the highest land in the ancient hemisphere. The Andes may literally be said to hide their heads in the clouds; the storms often roll, and the thunder bursts below their sum

mits, which, though exposed to the rays of the sun in BOOK the centre of the torrid zone, are covered with everlasting

snows.

IV.

From these lofty mountains descend rivers, proportion. Rivers. ably large, with which the streams in the ancient continent are not to be compared, either for length of course, or the vast body of water which they roll towards the ocean. The Maragnon, the Orinoco, the Plata in South America, the Mississippi and St. Laurence in North Ame rica, flow in such spacious channels, that, long before they feel the influence of the tide, they resemble arms of the sea rather than rivers of fresh water.+

The lakes of the new world are no less conspicuous Lakes. for grandeur than its mountains and rivers. There is no thing in other parts of the globe which resembles the prodigious chain of lakes in North America. They may properly be termed inland seas of fresh water; and even those of the second or third class in magnitude are of larger circuit, (the Caspian sea excepted), than the greatest lake of the ancient continent.

to com

merce.

The new world is of a form extremely favourable to Its form commercial intercourse. When a continent is formed, favourable like Africa, of one vast solid mass, unbroken by arms of the sea penetrating into its interior parts, with few large rivers, and those at a considerable distance from each other, the greater part of it seems destined to remain for ever uncivilized, and to be debarred from any active or enlarged communication with the rest of mankind. When, like Europe, a continent is opened by inlets of the ocean, of great extent, such as the Mediterranean and Baltic; or when, like Asia, its coast is broken by deep bays advancing farther into the country, such as the Black sea, the gulfs of Arabia, of Persia, of Bengal, of Siam, and of Leotang; when the surrounding seas are filled with large and fertile islands, and the continent itself watered with a variety of navigable rivers, those regions may be said to possess whatever can facilitate the

IV.

BOOK progress of their inhabitants in commerce and improvement. In all these respects America may bear a comparison with the other quarters of the globe. The gulf of Mexico, which flows in between North and South America, may be considered as a Mediterranean sea, which opens a maritime commerce with all the fertile countries by which it is encircled. The islands scattered in it are inferior only to those in the Indian archipelago, in number, in magnitude, and in value. As we stretch along the northern division of the American hemisphere, the bay of Chesapeak presents a spacious inlet, which conducts the navigator far into the interior parts of provinces no less fertile than extensive; and if ever the progress of culture and population shall mitigate the extreme rigour of the climate in the more northern districts of America, Hudsons bay may become as subservient to commercial intercourse in that quarter of the globe, as the Baltic is in Europe. The other great portion of the new world is encompassed on every side by the sea, except one narrow neck, which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific ocean; and though it be not opened by spacious bays or arms of the sea, its interior parts are rendered accessible by a number of large rivers, fed by so many auxiliary streams, flowing in such various directions, that, almost without any aid from the hand of industry and art, an inland navigation may be carried on through all the provinces from the river De la Plata to the gulf of Paria. Nor is this bounty of nature confined to the southern division of America; its northern continent abounds no less in rivers, which are navigable almost to their sources, and by its immense chain of lakes provision is made for an inland communication, more extensive and commodious than in any quarter of the globe. The countries stretching from the gulf of Darien on one side, to that of California on the other, which form the chain that binds the two parts of the American continent together, are not destitute of peculiar advantages. Their coast on one side is washed by the Atlantic ocean, on the