is that which is best watered"* there are at least fifty rivers, as large as the Rhine or Danube, whose names are scarcely known, even to those who may be considered as well informed respecting South America. These at some future day, will afford the means of carrying on an internal trade, compared to which that of China, so much boasted, will appear insignificant. Those mighty rivers the Orinoko, the Amazon, the Magdalena, the Plata, and their hundred arms, stretching in every direction over the continent, will afford facilities of intercourse between the remotest regions. The points at which the two oceans may be connected, have given rise to frequent speculation; I shall probably in the course of this work, make some observations on the subject; at present, I will only remark, that from every thing I have been able to learn, the most eligible is that from Guasacualco to Tehuantepec. Should this isthmus become the connecting point, it will be a subject of great interest to the United States. New Orleans or Havanna, will then probably be the great mart of the East India trade. From the Balize a steamboat would run down in a few days to Guasacualco; and at farthest, two days would suffice, for the transportation of merchandize to the Pacific. By this means, a direct intercourse would

* Burke's History of European Settlements.

† Humboldt seems to be of this opinion. See his Essay on New Spain. The deadly nature of the climate of the isthmus of Darien is a serious consideration: from the proximity of the two oceans, the clouds gathered by the trade winds are continually settling on its lofty summits, the rainy season is said to continue during two thirds of the year, which under a vertical sun must render it peculiarly uuhealthy.

be established between Europe and the United States, with the countries on the Pacific. The introduction of steamboats on this coast, as well as on that of Brazils, and in the Carribean sea, will no doubt follow in the course of human improvements, and will effect the most singular changes in human affairs. Great difficulties oppose the passage across the isthmus of Darien or Panama; a proof of which is, that Spain instead of sending troops to Lima in this direction, prefers the circuitous voyage around Cape Horn. It is true, however, that a very considerable trade has always been kept up between Porto Bello and Panama, notwithstanding the ruggedness of the passage. But the important trade of Spain with the East Indies, has been carried on from Acapulco, the only good port of New Spain; while the products of Lima, and Guiaquill, have been transported across the isthmus of of Tehuantepec. In the hands of an enterprizing nation, this wonderful country would be found to possess facilities of communication approximating remote parts, which at present can scarcely be imagined; at the same time, that there exists the most extraordinary advantages for defence, when it should require the interruption of that intercourse. At present, the inhabitants north of the Orinoko, on account of the uninhabitable wilderness of Amazonia, have no direct communication with the provinces on the Plata; they are almost as completely separated as if they were on opposite sides of the ocean. The eastern ridges of the Andes, oppose a barrier scarcely less formidable.

Humboldt has remarked, that in no part of the world, is the population so unequally distributed as in Spanish America. This principally arises, from

the circumstance of the Spaniards occupying the same seats, with the half-civilized aborigines whom they subdued. In Mexico, in the kingdom of the Incas in Peru, and of the Zac of St. Fee de Bogota, the population was very considerable, and in a state of civilization, not much below that of the East Indies. In these countries the Indians still constitute the great mass of population; the lower class are an indolent, harmless peasantry, and in the comforts of civilized life, probably not below the boors of Russia, or even the peasantry of Poland or Hungary. By a long and systematic course of oppression, they have become spiritless and submissive, although on a few occasions, when roused by chiefs of their own origin, whom they venerate, they have manifested acts of great desperation; as in the instance of the insurrection of Tapac Amaru, which broke out in the year 1783, in the upper provinces of La Plata.

The number of female Spanish emigrants to South America, compared to the males, especially in Mexico and Peru, having always been very small, there were many intermarriages between the Europeans and the natives. There was less repugnance to this, than in any part of our country, those natives being in some measure a civilized people. The Spanish conquerors willingly contracted alliances with the principal families; by which they acquired extensive possessions. Many of the descendants of the native chiefs, are educated in the same manner with persons of the first classes, and enjoy wealth and consideration. There have even appeared among the Indians, men distinguished for their literary attainments; Garcillaso and Torquemada, two of the best historians of the new world, were of the

aboriginal race; one a descendant of the Incas, the other a citizen of the republic Tlascala, who availed himself of the Roman alphabet, forty years after the conquest, to write a history of the important events which had taken place. The preceptor of the cele. brated astronomer Velasques, was a Mexican Indian. In the universities of Lima and Mexico, there are professorships of the native languages, into which several works have been translated. Tupac Amaru, was a well educated and accomplished gentleman; he was driven to desperation, in consequence of his unavailing efforts to obtain some alleviation in the treatment of the common people, the descendants of those who had been the subjects of his ancestors. The lower class of the Spaniards, think themselves superior to the Indian peasantry; but there is little or no distinction between the higher classes of mixed blood, and the American Spaniards. In fact, in all parts of South America, with the exception of Caraccas, Chili and the Provincias Internas, the American Spaniard contains more or less mixture with the native races. In the declamatory writings and speeches of the patriots, when they cry out against their having been oppressed for three hundred years, one would suppose they had no Spanish blood in their veins, but were the very people who had been subdued by Cortes and Pizarro. They continually identify themselves with the aborigines, and in this manner have generally succeeded in bringing them over to their side. The distinction therefore, is not so much in blood, as in condition; there is no deep rooted enmity to prevent them from uniting in a common cause. In the insurrection of 1783, the Indians at first, made a distinc

tion between the American and European Spaniards, until the former declared against them; and in the present contest, wherever the Indians have taken a side at all, it has generally been in favor of the Americans. The unsubdued Indians on the borders of the settlements have shewn no particular inclination to either side, except in very few instances; but they can contribute but little in either scale.

The next class in point of numbers are the American Spaniards, but who are much more important, in consequence of their possessing greater privileges, better education and more general wealth. Although they are the great landholders of the country, their influence is less than it might be, on account of their careful exclusion from participation in the government; it being the policy of Spain, to keep them in a state of idleness and vice, as the surest means of retaining her sway in these distant countries; they have, therefore, been deprived of nearly all those incentives which tend to elevate the character of a people. The same policy, but a very erroneous one in this instance, has induced her to foster enmities between the European Spaniards and the Americans;* the dreadful consequences of which, have been manifested in the incidents of the present revolutions. There is a considerable diversity in the character of the Americans, in different parts of Spanish America; produced principally, by the circumstances of the countries which they inhabit. It is, perhaps, in Chili alone, that the Spanish race in America, may be considered pure and unmixed; which may be attributed to the constant hos

* For this, I have the respectable authority of Humboldt, 2 vol.