sophic mind, than that which would explain the original peopling of this great continent. Various conjectures have been formed on the subject. Some writers have` ascribed the first settlements in America to the Canaanites; and others to the Phoenicians, to the Carthaginians, to the Greeks, to the Scythians, and to various other nations. But, to account for these settlements, by supposing that, in a remote period, some vessel may have accidentally been driven thither from the eastern parts of the world, is to rely upon a vague and improbable conjecture. Other writers are inclined to think, that the two continents of America and Africa were originally united, and that they were subsequently severed by some violent convulsion of nature. This likewise is a conjecture, unsupported by evidence. An inspection of a map of the world, however, will show that, at this day, the north-eastern parts of Siberia, and the north-west part of America, are nearly joined; that is, they are separated by a strait not more than twenty miles in width; and that, in a lower latitude, a chain of islands reaches almost from one shore tothe other. The inhabitants of these opposite shores resemble each other in features, complexion, manners, habits, and customs; and it is far from improbable, that some families or tribes of wandering Tartars may have migrated across Behring's Straits, and may thus have given origin to the population of America. Among all the American tribes, the Esquimaux excepted, there is a great resemblance, both in form of body, and in qualities of mind; and, in every prevailing feature, both of person and disposition, they resemble the tribes that are scattered through the north-east parts of Asia. The Esquimaux are not unlike the Greenlanders, in their aspect, dress, mode of life, and language; and Labrador and Greenland are separated from each other only by a narrow strait.

America has not long been known to Europeans. It is true that the discovery of this continent has been claimed by some nations at remote periods; but all

accounts of it, anterior to the voyage of Columbus, in 1492, are considered to be fabulous. At a period, however, when darkness had long settled upon Europe, when science was only beginning to raise its head, and when the guides to knowledge were few, this great navigator formed the design of crossing the Atlantic, in the hope of being able to discover a passage by sea to the East Indies, nearer than that which had then been ascertained by the south of Africa. Although this was a bold and hazardous project, he obtained the command of a small squadron of ships from Spain, and engaged in it. The notions that had been entertained respecting the practicability of a western passage, proved fallacious; but Columbus made some important and unexpected discoveries. In his first voyage, he fell in with one of the West Indian islands, and, in his second, he discovered the continent of America. The merit of the latter discovery was indeed claimed by Americus Vespucius, a Florentine navigator, also in the service of Spain; and who, after the death of Columbus, was appointed to an important office in the Spanish navy. This gave him a control over the maritime affairs of that kingdom; and he appears to have taken advantage of it, to publish the first description of America that appeared; to call it after his own name, and to impose upon mankind a notion that his discovery of it was anterior to that of Columbus. His assertions, however, on this subject, have been proved false, and the merit is now universally attributed to bis illustrious predecessor.

When we cast our eyes upon the western world, particularly upon those parts of it that are habitable, we are astonished by their extraordinary magnitude. The length of America, from north to south, is more than nine thousand miles, and its greatest width four thousand six hundred. The objects which it presents to our view, are chiefly distinguished by their grandeur and magnificence. The operations of nature seem here to have been conducted on a larger scale, and

with a greater proportion of materials than in any other quarter of the globe. All is noble and majestic. The Alps and the Pyrenees, those long celebrated mountains of Europe, sink into insignificance before the Andes or Cordilleras. Chimborazo, the loftiest point of the Andes hitherto known, has nearly five thousand feet of elevation greater than that of the highest mountain in Europe. As the mountains of the new world are elevated and grand, so its plains are extensive and beautiful. In some places, and at certain seasons of the year, the eye feels its imperfection when it attempts to look over the verdant surface of these plains; and the traveller wishes in vain for rocks and woods to relieve his sight. In other parts, there are forests widely extended and almost impenetrable, except to the animals which inhabit them, or to the savages by whom those animals are pursued. Its rivers and lakes are equally remarkable. Of the former, the Plata, the Oronoko, the Marignon or Amazon, and the Mississippi, flow in such spacious channels, that, towards the lower part of their course, they resemble arms of the sea, rather than streams of fresh water. In dimensions and extent they far exceed any of the rivers of the old continent. In North America a chain of lakes extends from east to west. These are of magnitude so immense, that they are rather like inland seas than lakes, and, except the Caspian Sea, they exceed in size the greatest collections of water which any other part of the globe can boast.

In Europe and Asia mankind, and the distinctions of civilization, form the principal features which interest the traveller and the historian. In the new world, man and his productions almost disappear amidst the stupendous display of wild and gigantic nature. The human race here either presents but a few remnants of indigenous hordes, slightly advanced in civilization, or it presents that uniformity of manners and institutions which are observable in the European colonists. But if America occupy no very important place in the history of man

kind, and of those revolutions which have agitated the human race, it offers an ample field to the labours of the naturalist. A luxuriance of vegetation, an eternal spring of organic life, climates varying by stages as we climb the sides of the Andes, majestic rivers, and the means which it affords for the study of geology, mineralogy, and natural philosophy, infinitely exceed those of any other part of the world.

The climate differs, in many respects, from that of the old continent. In America the atmosphere is in general much colder than it is in the same latitudes of Europe and Asia. The northerly winds, passing over the vast extent of land which stretches towards the north pole, acquire a piercing keenness that suffers scarcely any abatement till they reach the Gulf of Mexico. The rigour of the frigid zone extends over half of that which, by its position, should be temperate. On the other hand, the heat of the torrid zone is mitigated by the cooling breezes which descend from the Andes; and, towards the Strait of Magellan, there are countries scarcely habitable on account of the cold.

With regard to the people dispersed through this widely extended region, there are only two nations that have formed any sort of political society. These are the Peruvians and the Mexicans, and much of their history is involved in fable. There exist, however, innumerable tribes, which wander over the plains of Brazil, Paraguay, and Guiana, or which inhabit the banks of the Amazon and Oronoko. These are utterly unacquainted with every thing beyond the preservation of their lives, or the mere indulgence of their appetites. Their mental powers are, in general, unexercised and dormant. Many of them are destitute even of houses or huts, and roam from place to place in naked wildness. They are divided into numerous small tribes or communities, among most of whom the bonds of political association are very slight. The individuals that inhabit certain districts appear to combine: this, however, does not arise from a notion of any advan

tages which would result from subordination, but rather from a view to watch the motion of their enemies, and to act against them with united vigour. As soon as the attack is finished, or the invasion is repelled, the authority of the leader is disregarded, every man recovers his independence, and he submits only to be directed and governed when a new attack is meditated, or a new invasion is to be repelled by the combined force of his tribe. Laws, and the regular administration of justice, are totally unknown among them. They chiefly subsist on the spontaneous productions of the soil, by fishing, and hunting: and a very small portion only of their whole number have made any progress in cultivation of the land. Most of them are ignorant of the nature of the harder metals; and the most valuable cutting instruments that many of the tribes possess, are formed of stone.

With the exception of some provinces of North America, and of a few individuals in the central regions, the native inhabitants of this country are of a light brown, or copper colour. In Africa, the torrid zone is inhabited by negroes, and the blackness of their colour is ascribed to the intensity of the heat in the tropical climates. Whence then does it arise that, within the region of the torrid zone, there are no negroes in America? And how is it that the coppercolour is there so prevalent? To the first of these questions it may be answered, that America is destitute of negroes, because there the heat of the torrid zone is more equally distributed than it is in Africa; and therefore the same effect could not be produced in both regions in the same degree. To the latter it may be replied, that the copper-colour is preserved in the higher latitudes of the New World by the state of society, which, among the American Indians, is uniform; by most of them using certain red pigments, or by some modifying circumstances which we know to exist, but which cannot easily be explained. The whole race of American Indians is distinguished by a peculiar