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the fire is not yet extinguished, nor will be, until there ceases to be any combustible materials. The incidents of the war in Venezuela, are also tolerably well known; but, excepting in the island of Margarita, the contest still rages. On the plains of Calabozo and Caraccas, the bloody and exterminating war it is feared, will not soon be brought to a close. It is only in the viceroyalty of La Plata, that the progress of independence has been firm and sure. It is true, this mighty cause, has been desperately contested in the rugged mountains of the provinces on the heads of the Paraguay and Amazon; the theatre on which La Plata has been struggling for liberty with various success, for the last eight years. Chili in close alliance with this republic, may bid defiance to Spain: without this, if we may judge from the past, the question is doubtful. The only viceroyalty of South America, which has remained quiet from the beginning of the contest, is Peru; the most feeble, and with the exception of its mineral wealth, the least important of them all.* This was the point first seized upon by Pizarro, and his daring followers; it was, therefore, the seat of government for all the rest of South America, on their successive discovery and conquest. From the reluctance of Spain in the adoption of any new measures called for by the exigence of circumstances, the inconve

* It contains about a million of inhabitants, more than one half composed of the spiritless Indian peasantry; of the other half the greater part is made up of negroes and mulattoes. Scarcely a fifth are whites, and the number of monks and nuns is greater than in any other catholic country in the world, and may account for the slow progress of population and the dissoluteness of morals. The staple manufactory of Peru, is priests; and of them, a sufficient number is made to supply all South America.

nience of this arrangement, was long felt before the remedy could be applied. Some of the provinces lay two thousand miles from Lima, the residence of the viceroy; and being separated by trackless deserts, the greatest inconvenience was experienced, from the want of communication with the capital. It was not until 1718, that New Grenada was erected into a vice royalty, nor until 1731 that the provinces of Venezuela, were placed under a separate government. Chili was erected into a captain-generalship about the same time. In the year 1778, La Plata was erected into a viceroyalty, together with the upper provinces of Peru, which have already been spoken of as the theatre of war; and which, in point of wealth, and numerical population, constitute by far the most important portion of the viceroyalty.*

In the physical configuration of America, there are many interesting peculiarities. The great traveller, Humboldt, has exhibited the principal of these, in the works already published by him; in those which he is still preparing for the press, the magnificent outline will be filled up. The most striking features of the new world, constituting the principal difference between it and the other quarters of the globe, are its mountains and rivers. The chain of the Andes, is undoubtedly the longest in the world, traversing both North and South America, and in some points, (unless we except the mountains of Thibet,) the most elevated. Beyond the isthmus these mountains separate, and traverse the continent in three distinct chains or ridges. The first is the Cordilleras, which runs along

* See the report of Mr. Rodney for a clear and succinct notice of the establishment of the different colonial governments.

the Pacific, and is in fact a continuation of the rocky mountains of North America. The second is the chain, which branches from the Cordillera in the province of Quito, passes through New Grenada towards the Atlantic, and pursuing a course nearly parallel, is interrupted by the Orinoko, reappears in Guyana, and approaches the Amazon, when it is in like manner broken by the immense valley of this river. It afterwards shews itself in Brazil, traversing it in the whole extent, again subsiding in the highlands of Maldonado near La Plata. The third chain, called the Eastern Cordillera of Peru, runs towards the tropic, whence it takes an inclined direction, and terminates in the south east, in the plains of the Grand Chaco. There is another chain, which runs close along the coast of Brazil, and forms the great valley of the river St. Francis. There are besides a number of interior chains, particularly those which separate the valleys of the great rivers of Brazil. From the eastern ridges, there is a gradual slope to the interior, while on the coast their ascent is abrupt and steep. Their elevation is considerably less than the Codillera or Andes, and they are more irregular and broken. The vast tract of country which stretches along the heads of the Amazon and La Plata, upwards of three thousand miles in length, and probably more than three hundred in breadth, is one of the most rugged and mountainous on the globe; it is a continued succession of deep vallies, of various dimensions, enclosed by mountains whose summits in general, are covered with perpetual snows. In the northern part, there are plains of such elevation as to afford all the advantages of the most temperate and delightful climates; to the

south, the vallies are in general lower, and although extremely fertile, are more hot.

The land communication from one valley to another, is exceedingly difficult; which is not the case with the water communication, although circuitous. The difficulties of passing the mountains which separate these vallies, as related to us by travellers, seem almost to border upon the marvellous. If Johnson had been acquainted with this country, it would have been unnecessary for him to have resorted to invention, in his beautiful story of Rasselas. In tracing the minute descriptions of Sobreviela, and the difficulties of passing from one valley into another, I often thought of the prison of the prince of Abyssinia. Although the mountains of Brazil are not so elevated as the Andes, they are much more so than the Alleghanies; and their ridges abound in mineral wealth.

The coast of the Atlantic differs in several very important particulars, from that of the Pacific. Being in general bold and rocky, and having the estuaries of the great rivers, it affords a number of the finest harbors in the world. The coast of Brazil especially, a length of three thousand miles, is highly favored in this respect. La Plata forms an exception, and it is ́probable, that there are no very good harbors south of it. The whole extent of this coast, is highly fertile, and capable of sustaining the most crowded population. The coast of the Pacific is, with some interruptions, steril and dreary; and as it never rains over a great extent of it, there are considerable tracts as barren as the deserts of Arabia. These almost entirely interrupt the land communication between Lima and Chili, and even form considerable obstacles to the

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intercourse between the different districts of the viceroyalty. It is somewhat surprising, that the African camel, has never been introduced for the purpose of travelling over these sandy plains, although in use in Mexico. The communication between different places on the Pacific, is therefore carried on by water; but there is great difference between the voyage north, and that to the south; the latter having to encounter adverse wind and current, Although the coast of the Pacific is not so well supplied with commodious harbors, as that of Brazil and Terra Firma, there is by no means a deficiency in this respect. It is remarkable, that the same difficulties exist in the internal communication between different places on the opposite sides of the continent, but for different reasons; on the Atlantic, the extraordinary mass of vegetation, which covers the ground, opposes the most serious obstacle to the opening of roads; obstacles that in this country we can scarcely conceive; the thickest cane brakes in the southern parts of the United States are trifles compared to them; besides the facilities of navigation on that delightful coast, where dangers by sea are almost unknown, take away all inducements to any extraordinary labor in opening roads. Between the two great cities of St. Salvador, and Rio Janeiro, there is no land communication, and much of the intermediate space is occupied by ferocious and unsubdued Indians. To make amends for the difficulties of internal intercourse by land, there is no part of the world which possesses such a number of fine navigable rivers as South America. An elegant writer has observed, "that of all the portions of the globe, America

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