sight of land; but about 200 years after that discovery, Columbus, a Genoese, aware that the earth was round, conceived, that if he sailed from Europe westward, he should in time arrive at the East Indies, without having to sail around Africa.

357. He sailed accordingly from Cadiz, in the autunin of the year 1492, across the Atlantic; and, on the morning of the 12th of October, one of his anxious and mutinous crew spied land; not the East Indies, but Cat Island, one of the Bahamas, and part of a new world, till then unknown to the other three quarters.

358. In fact, Columbus could not reach the Indies in this direction; because the immense continent of America intervened from the North Pole almost to the South. America, and all its islands, were found, at this time, to be peopled by the race described in Art. 324; and among them were established the two. extensive and populous empires of Mexico and Peru.

359. Unhappily these empires, and many other parts. of this new world, abounded in gold and silver; and, as the inhabitants knew not the use of gunpowder, and the rapacity of the Spaniards had no bounds, they destroyed nearly thirty millions of the natives, in a few years, to get possession of their riches.

360. The bloody successes of the Spaniards, however, led other European nations to embark in the same enterprise; and, within a century, the Portuguese established themselves in the Brazils, the English in Virginia, and the French in Canada.

Soon after, the fine islands called the West Indies, were successively colonized by different powers, for the sake of their produce in sugar, rum, and other tropical luxuries.

361. At length, in 1776, the populous English colonies in North America declared themselves independent; and, after a bloody contest of seven years, they were recognised as a new empire, under the title

of the United States of America, then thirteen, but now twenty-four in number.

362. These States, under a free, prudent, and wise government, form now the happiest and most flourishing countries in the world; and are the refuge of people driven from the various nations of Europe, by ruinous wars and political revolutions. Their head is called a President; he is chosen for four years, and governs according to laws made by two houses of the legislature.

363. The chief towns are Washington, Philadelphia, New-York, Boston, Baltimore and Charleston. The chief rivers and the finest in the world, are the Delaware, the Susquehanah, the Hudson, the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Missouri.

364. North and westward of the United States, lie Upper and Lower Canada, two immense districts still subject to the British empire; the capitals of which are Quebec and Montreal, both situated on the immense river St. Lawrence.

Obs. This great river joins five lakes of fresh water, the largest in the world; and between two of them are the grand falls of Niagara.

365. Southward of the United States, lies the Gulf of Mexico; in which are situated the islands called the West Indies-as Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Barbadoes, Martin.co, Guadaloupe, Tobago, St. Kitts, &c.

366. By turning to a map, it will be seen that North America is joined to South America by a long slip of land called Mexico, and the Isthmus of Darien, occupied or governed by the Spaniards, as well as the greater part of South America itself, from the time of the discoveries of Columbus, to the revolutions which took place a few years since, in those countries.

367. In this immense continent, Mexico, Peru, and Buenos-Ayres, each more extensive than all Europe, and abounding in gold and silver, and various valuable

productions, have been governed for three centuries previous to their revolt from Spain, by three Spanish Viceroys.

368. South America is watered by the largest rivers in the world, as the Amazons, La Plata, and Oronooko. In the Andes, it possesses the highest chain of mountains, some of them four miles high; and among them are the most productive gold and silver mines in the world.

369. South of Peru is Chili; and south of Chili the inhospitable and frozen regions of Patagonia; among whose scanty inhabitants are some tribes of gigantic statures, from six and a half to seven feet high. Terra del Fuego, or the Land of Fogs, is the most southerly region of America, and Cape Horn is its extreme point.

370. The following is an enumeration of the ized districts and countries of America:

NORTH AMERICA.

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371. The United States of America, consist of the following states and territories, each having a separate government which extends to the regulation of its own

872. The Great or Pacific Ocean is filled with numerous clusters of islands, called the Society Islands, the Friendly Islands, the Sandwich Islands, Phillips's Island, &c. all discovered by the English within the last fifty years. The inhabitants live in a natural savage state; and the anecdotes of their simple manners form the charm of the voyages of Wallis, Cook, and

others.

373. MAPS are exact portraits of the surface of the earth, viewed as from an eminence, or laid down according to a scale, in which every part retains its exact proportion.

The top of a map is the north, the bottom the south, the right hand is the east, and the left hand the west: when these points are indicated by a compass engraved on the map, the north is indicated by a fleur-de-lis.

Obs. 1.—It would be well to convey the idea of the principle of maps to children, by showing them a plan of the place where they live, or a map of their county or district, laying it in the position of the places.

2. Young persons should be taught the use of maps, by means of the problems in Goldsmith's Royal Atlas. 374. The figures running from north to south, or

south to north, at the side of a map, indicate the latitude or distance in degrees or minutes from the equator. The lines across are mere guides to the eye, to connect the figures on each side, and are called the parallels of latitude. When the figures increase upward, it is north latitude; if downward, it is south latitude.

375. An imaginary line, which passes over every person or place on the earth, from the north pole to the south pole, is called the meridian; and the distance between these meridians, measured at the equator, is called the longitude.

The figures at the bottom and top of the map indicate such distances between meridians, and the lines which join them are called meridians. The longitude is east. when the distance increases from left to right; or west when it increases from right to left.

Obs. See a map of the whole world, and examine, study and copy it.

376. A globe is an exact portrait of the earth or heavens. For the facility of working problems, it is provided with a universal brass meridian; with a universal wooden horizon; with an hour circle to reduce its motion into time; with a compass to set it due north and south; and with a quadrant to measure distances and altitudes.

377. As the earth, which is 360 degrees round, turns any place to the sun in every 24 hours, of course 15 degrees turn to and from the sun in every hour, and one degree in every four minutes.

The hour of the day, therefore, at different places, depends on their difference in longitude, calculated in the above proportion; all places to the east moving under the sun, or having their noon sooner than those the west, because the earth turns from west to east.

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Obs. Albany is nearly longitude three degrees west of Boston; it therefore passes under the sun twelve minutes later than Boston arrives at the sun; and of course, when it is twelve o'clock at Boston, it wants twelve minutes of twelve Albany; or when it is twelve in Albany, it is twelve min