though he has not neglected thofe who have written fince that time; out of whofe various and contradictory relations he appears to have taken no fmall pains to fift the truth; disguised through the credulity of fome, or intentionally violated by the difingenuity of others. The Author has reduced this immenfe chaos of obfervations and events into fome degree of order, and prefents us with the refults of his own reflections upon these and other incidental fubjects, in fo agreeable and interefting a manner, that we are convinced we fhall give pleasure to fuch of our readers as do not understand the language of the original, or may not have an opportunity of feeing it, if we follow him regularly through the whole of this philofophical, lively, and amufing performance: obferving however, that the author does not undertake to give the natural and civil history of America, and of its inhabitants, in a fyftematical order; but contents himself, amidst such a multitude of objects, to select the most interefting, which he difcuffes in a detached and unconnected manner; attending principally to those points, his obfervations on which have truth, novelty, or importance to recommend them to the notice of the reader. The work is divided into fix parts, and these into fections. In the first part, M. de P. treats of America in general. He does not enter into any particular difcuffion of the manner in which this great continent was originally peopled. Notwithstanding the numerous volumes written by the learned on this queftion, he confiders it as the most futile of all problems. He ftops however to take notice of the hypothefes of Mobius, and M. de Guignes; and particularly ridicules the fyftem of a certain divine, who has proved in form that Noah and his family, having embarked on board the ark to fave themselves from a deluge in Afia, afterwards failed, and caft anchor on the top of a mountain in Brafil; that they got a few children a la bâte on the coaft of Fernambouc, and having dispatched this business with the utmoft expedition, re-embarked in order to perform the fame good office for Europe, and the remainder of the old continent. If the Americans troubled them felves with folving problems of this kind, might not they, he obferves, juft as properly afk in what manner Europe was first peopled, as we inquire when, and how, men were firft produced in America? Voltaire, we remember, fomewhere afks, Who planted men in America? And anfwers, the fame Being, doubtlefs, who produced the trees and the grafst which grow there. Paracelfus, if we are not miftaken, formany folved this difficulty at once, by afirming that each hemifphere had an Adam to itself. The Author and Mr. Valtaire, in conformity to their principles, treat this problem with very little refpect: but to thofe who believe that the whole human race proceeded from the loins of Noah and his children, fettled in Afia, the queftion does not appear altoge ther ther fo abfurd; though it has undoubtedly given rife to a great number of very ridiculous fuppofitions and difputes. One of the most remarkable circumftances, in our opinion, attending the difcovery of America, is that the whole of this immenfe continent, though comprehending all poffible varieties of climates, and of fituations, was found inhabited by people either abfolutely favage, or who had made very finall advances in the arts, or towards a ftate of civilization; nor have any monuments been difcovered, which might indicate that the fciences or the arts had, at any diftant period of time, flourished In this part of the globe. Our own continent bears an air of antiquity upon the face of it; and during a long fucceffion of ages, men have, at different times, and in different parts of it, been united in fociety, and have cultivated, with more or less fuccefs, all the ufeful and the agreeable arts: and even those regions, which are now funk in ignorance and barbarity, furnish us with coins, ruins, or other monuments, that evince, if other proofs were wanting, that learning and the arts had formerly had their feat there: but no memorials of this kind have ever been discovered in the other hemifphere. This would almost tempt us to conclude with the Author, that the foil and climate of the new world are unfavourable to the perfectibility of the human fpecies; or that this part of the globe has fuffered fome great inundation, convulfion, or other phyfical catastrophe, much pofterior to thofe which have affected our own continent; and that nature may therefore be considered as til in her infancy, in America: where, at the time of the difcovery, two nations only were found living in fome ftate of order and regular fociety; and even thefe had not very long emerged from a ítate of the molt perfect barbarifim. From hence, and from fome other confiderations, M. de P. inclines to the opinion of D' Acosta, and infers that the Americans have, in no very diftant period, come down from the rocks and mountains, whither they had been driven by fome general inundation; and that they have but recently occupied the low countries, left by the waters; where the marshy nature of the foil, and the confequent infalubrity of the air, account for the boily and mental debility of the inhabitants, and the uncivilifed flate in which they were found, at the end of the 15th century. The fkeletons of that immenfe animal, of which we have lately had occafion to fpeak, under the name of the Incognitum t, found buried in great numbers near the banks of the Ohio, at Lima, and in Brafil, give an air of probability to this opinion. They feem to evince, at least, that fome great catastrophe has formerly befallen this part of the globe; and + See Monthly Review, February, 1770, page 1c8, &c. L13 the the high preservation in which they are found, appear to indicate the period of it to have been confiderably pofterior to the deluge of Noah. a 1 The difcovery of this extenfive part of the globe is not only an inter fting event, confidered as an object of geography: but the rapidity with which the conqueft of the most confiderable part of it was effected, by a few private adventurers, furnithes an object of fpeculation, equally curious, confidered in a political light. The painter of antiquity, who (to make use of a reflection of an ingenious writer of our own country) exercifed his fatyrical pencil upon Cimon the Athenian reprefenting fortune catching cities for him, in a net, while he flept, might, with more juftice, have drawn Ferdinand and the emperor Charles V. afleep, while that goddefs was bufied in throwing a net over half the globe, and laying the whole draught at their feet. Cortes, uncommiffioned, and unfupported by Spain, with only 400 affaffins at his heels, takes poffeffion of the capital of Mexico, and foon makes himself master of the whole empire; while two private men, obfcure and ignorant, Pizarro, who had been a fhepherd in Spain, and Almagro, a foundling, joining themselves with a prieft, who furnished money for the expedition, plan, undertake, and fucceed with equal facility, in the conqueft of Peru; and in the space of a few years add 30 degrees of latitude to the dominions of Spain. At the battle of Caxamalca which, fays M. de P. may be called the battle of Arbela for the empire of Peru, Pizarro had only 170 foot, and 30 horfe, with which he cut to pieces the innumerable troops of the Inca, Atabaliba, and made him prifoner. Now, making all due allowances for the circumftances which facilitated thefe conquefts; fuch as, the fhameless perfidy of the Spaniards; the distracted ftate of Peru, in particular, at the time of their invasion; the use of fire arms; and the ftill more effectual fervices performed by the wolf dogs which accompanied them : thefe events feem to justify the character which the Author, throughout every part of this work, gives of the Americans; whom he defcribes as little better than the abortions of nature; as weak, effeminate, and daftardly, equally devoid of ftrength of body and vigour of mind; qualities which M. de P. afcribes not to the Mexicans and Peruvians * Account of the European fettlements in America, At this battle, the van of the Spanish army was formed of a line' of dogs, whe did fuch execution on the Peruvians, that the court of Spain, charmed with their exploits, granted them regular pay. It appears from papers ftill remaining in the proper offices, that one of thefe dogs, in particular, named Berecillo, diftinguished himself fq much in battle, as to have an extraordinary allowance of two reals per month. alonça alone, but to all the inhabitants of this immenfe continent, from one extremity of it to the other. In Europe, it seems, doubts were at firft entertained whether the Americans were not a race of Orag Outangs, fomewhat more accomplished than ordinary; and his holiness the Pope, in his great wisdom, found it expedient to iffue out a bull in form; in which he declared that it feemed good to him and to the Holy Ghoft, to acknowledge thefe doubtful beings for real men. The Pizarros and the A magros, however, feem to have paid little regard to this formal decifion of Chrift's vicar; but continued their practice of hunting them down, and deftroying them as fo many beafts. In difcuffing the question, how far the discovery and conquest of America have been beneficial or prejudicial to Europe, the Author juftly confiders thefe events as having been the cause of the political ruin of Spain and Portugal in particular. The go'd and filver imported into thefe kingdoms would not produce a fingle ear of corn, or a blade of grafs, the true riches of a state. On the contrary, they produced a total neglect of cultivation and manufactures. The gold brought from Brafil to Lisbon, fays M. de P. remained fcarce an inftant in the country; but was immediately fent out to purchase food and raiment, the neceffaries of life. Philip the Second, who fo long poffeffed the treasures of the new world, lived long enough to feel the ill effects occafioned by them, and actually, before his death, became a bankrupt; leaving his fucceffors under the deplorable neceffity of even adulterating the current coin of the kingdom. To the other inconveniences arifing from this difcovery, the Author adds the multiplicity and extenfiveness of the interefts created by it, among the European princes; and the frequent and various occafions it has furnished for difputes among them. A fingle fpark of difcord for a few acres of land in Canada now puts all Europe in a flame: and when Europe is engaged in war, not corner of the earth can be in peace. A concuffion sudden and irrefiftable, like the electric fhock, pervades every part of it. The stroke is even felt in Afia, if a few merchants happen only to wrangle for a little logwood, or a few beaver fkins, in America. One of the greatest misfortunes brought upon the old continent by the difcovery of this country, was the importation of the venereal difeafe from thence: and perhaps America, on the other hand, did not fuffer fo much by the avarice, perfidy and inhumanity of the Europeans, as by receiving the small-pox from them in return. About the year 1492 the great and small pox met, probably for the first time, in the island of Cuba; where this double fcourge, but principally the latter, destroyed 60,000 perfons in lefs than fix months; and even double that L1 4 number number in the island of Hifpaniola. The European diftempet has ever fince raged with the utmoft fury throughout the whole of the new continent, which it has tended greatly to depopun late. The progrefs of the American difeafe in the old continent was equally rapid; though not perhaps equally, or at least fo fuddenly deftructive. The Moors, driven from Spain, speedilyi communicated it to Africa and to Afia.,, In less than two years it proceeded from Barcelona into the northernmost parts of France; where in 1496 the parliament of Paris, thrown into the utmost confternation by its ravages, published that famous edict, by which all perfons infected with it were forbid to appear in the streets under pain of being hanged; and all strangers? were commanded to leave the capital within 24 hours, under the fame penalty. From this edict, it would feem that the parliament thought that this distemper might be communicated without amorous: concourfe, but fimply by an infection conveyed through the medium of the air; and it is not wonderful that fo new and. terrible a disease, all at once appearing, raging with the greatest violence, and spreading fo univerfally, (as no remedies were then known capable of stopping or even retarding its progrefs) should excite apprehenfions of this kind, and give rife to the ftriaeft precautions on the part of the police: but we rather wonder that the Author, on no other grounds than the quick communication of this difeafe, fhould pofitively affirm that it must have been. propagated even without contact, and merely by its miamata floating in the atmosphere. Columbus, it feems, on his return to the port of Palos. from his firft voyage in 1493, went, as wel are told by a cotemporary writer, to Barcelona, accompanied by forty of his companions, to give an account of the fuccefs of his expedition to Ferdinand and Ifabella, who then refided there. Suddenly this diftemper made its appearance, and speedily fpread. through every part, and through all ranks of people in the citys The confternation became general: prayers, public proceffions, and aims were employed against it; but these effected no cures. From this fudden and extenfive propagation of the difeafe, the Author decifively affirms that its malignity muft then have been fo highly exalted, as to contaminate the atmosphere itself, and infect thofe who breathed in it. But furely, without violating probability in the least degree, we may eafily conceive, without recurring to any aerial, contagion, how this new and very fociable diftemper might fpeedily vifit all ranks and orders in Barcelona, although conveved through no other medium than that through which it. paffes at prefent It need not take many fieps, or much time, to diffeminate itself, in this laft mode of conveyance, and ftride from the cabbin-boy of Columbus to the foot even of the throne. Forty |