1. SOUTH AMERICAN STATES-Historical Progress of South America- Spanish Colonial Policy-Declaration of Independence-Reports of U. S. Commissioners upon South America-Mr. Poinsett's Views-South and North American Character contrasted-Araucania-Argentine Republic-Bolivia- Brazil-Chili-Colombia-Ecuador-Granada-Venezuela-Paraguay-Pe- II. THE SUGAR CANE.-McCulloh's Report on the Sugar Cane to the United By Mr. AVEQUIN, of New-Orleans, 24 III. Printing and Printers, By EDWIN HERIOTT, Esq., of Charleston, S. C., 45 IV. Production of Rice in Louisiana. Old and New States, Revolutionary Statistics, &c.-1. Revolutionary States- 2. Battles of the Revolution-3. Continental Money-4. States admitted since 1789-5. Area and Militia of States-6. Deposite with the States-7. Indian Treaties with North West-8. Indians West of Mississippi-9. Area and Po- pulation of the Globe-10. Productions of U. States 1840-11. American Leather and Tanning Business-12. Sole Leather inspected in New-York- WESTERN STATISTICS. 1. Distances and Rates of Fare on Western Rivers-2. Distances from New- Orleans and Prices of Passage--3. Distances to highest points of Steam Navi- gation-4. Fare to U. States Ports from New Orleans-5. Fare to Foreign Ports from New-Orleans-6. Prices Freights and Insurances East and West- 7. Prices of Produce at several points-8. Steamboat Freights-9. Passage and Freight from Buffalo, New-York-10. Rates of Insurance from New- Orleans-11. Pork Trade of the West-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky-12. Hogs slaughtered in 1847-8-13. Number of Hogs packed at St. Louis-14. Hogs packed in Ohio-15. Prices Pickled Pork in New-York- UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA THE COMMERCIAL REVIEW. Volume VI. JULY, 1848. No. 1. Art. I.-THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. HISTORICAL PROGRESS OF SOUTH AMERICA-REVOLUTIONS-SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-REPORTS OF U. S. COMMISSIONERS UPON SOUTH AMERICA-MR. POINSETT'S VIEWS-SOUTH AND NORTH AMERICAN CHARACTER CONTRASTEDARAUCANIA-ARGENTINE REPUBLIC-BOLIVIA BRAZIL CHILI — COLOMBIA-ECUADOR-GRANADA-VENEZUELA--PARAGUAY-PERU URUGUAY-PATAGONIA, ETC. We have had occasion before, to pass under review the historical and statistical progress of the United States, and of those contiguous islands which remain still in the possession of foreign powers, but which it is not too great a stretch of probability to suppose, may ultimately be attached to the government of these states." Our intention is to prosecute these investigations in regard to every other division of America, and furnish the reader as late, as reliable, and as thorough information upon them, as can be had from any or from all sources together. It is important that we, who occupy so large a portion of it, and are so intimately and closely connected with the rest, should know well and minutely everything that concerns or is likely to affect the interests of this western world. It is a theatre, far removed from all the old limits of civilization, upon which a new and somewhat different people are called upon to perform their parts, amid circumstances and influences widely different from those of nations with whom they are most nearly allied. The history of this population, in all its different manifestations, is as unique as it is interesting, and furnishes materials for additional chapters in the history of man, of society, and of human progress. The cold and inhospitable regions of the north, which are known as BRITISH AMERICA; and those which, amid mountains of ice, slope away to the Pacific and to the ASIATIC POSSESSIONS OF RUSSIA; the intermediate and but lately well explored divisions of CENTRAL AmeRICA and MEXICO, and the vast SEMI-CONTINENT, stretching from the * Vide COMMERCIAL REVIEW, vol. ii.: Art. Progress of American Commerce; vol. iv. Progress of the Great West; vol. v.: The West India Islands. These are all elaborate papers. Equator to the South Seas, will furnish abundant fields for investigation in this and succeeding numbers of the Review. However important the subjects here announced, it must be said, with great regret, that they have hitherto commanded a degree of interest with our countrymen altogether disproportioned to that importance. We have been pleased to know the states of our own confederation, and even that imperfectly, whilst, as to all the remaining portions of America, they have constituted a far more perfect terra incognita than those of a fabulous antiquity. The ancient resources of Greece and Rome, and the modern European states, are far more familiarly known and assiduously studied. To be sure, the difficulties of obtaining reliable information in the one case, have been far greater than in the other. From vain jealousies, indifference or indolence, it happens that little has been given to the world calculated to show, in any adequate manner, the true condition and statistical progress or decadence of these divisions of the Western World. Of their discovery, and of the adventurous spirits who found an arena for the highest romance, there has been no dearth of knowledge. Every one can speak of Cortez and Pizarro. Even travellers, who, in general, do so much in extending information of the countries visited, aid us little here. Books have not multiplied upon these points. In fact, we know of scarcely any sufficiently elaborate and reliable for all the purposes desired. However, a thirst for knowledge has been excited by the contests about Oregon and the wars in Mexico, which will eventually result, we doubt not, in the most complete and perfect developments. On this occasion, we shall confine our attention entirely to SOUTH AMERICA, a text sufficiently comprehensive for much greater space than that to which we find ourselves necessarily restricted. The discovery and early settlement of this vast region, whilst it presents little in common with the discovery and settlement of the country to the northward by other European powers, excepting Florida and Mexico, furnishes one of the most romantic and thrilling chapters in the history of mankind :-Valor, endurance, intrepidity in the most trying and terrible exigencies, induced by the basest considerations of rapacity and plunder !—the loftiest spirit, and the most criminal and groveling desires. Not all the attractions of poetry or of chivalry can veil the deformities of a picture in which avarice, blood and slaughter, command so prominent a place. No cruelty could be more refined; no tyranny more systematic and heartless. The Spaniards profited by the feuds existing among the natives at the period of discovery, and made them the instruments of conquest. They sold the Indians into slavery, and destroyed thousands by the harshest abuse. On the suggestion of Las Casas, commissioners were sent from Madrid to inquire into these abuses, and several regulations were made for their protection, and for the distribution of their labors. These established a less odious but yet perfect system of slavery. Thousands of these unfortunate people, says the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, in a paper prepared by him, in 1818, at the request of the government of Mr. Monroe, were marched every year to Potosi; and although the period of service was only eighteen months, they were attended by a numerous train of friends and relations, who, on the eve of their entering the mines, sang melancholy dirges, and sounding a horn in solemn strains, mourned over them with all the ceremonies with which they used to evince their sorrow on the death of a relative. Their wives and children remained with the conscripts, who, harrassed by a long march, seldom resisted more than a year the excessive labor and noxious air of the mines. But with this period we will not long delay, since the reader has been for some time in possession of the valuable works of Mr. Prescott, which entirely exhaust the subject. Our observations upon South America begin at a period much more modern, and will be brought down as nearly as possible to the present day. They include all the states and provinces, except those of French, English and Dutch Guiana, already considered in our last number. The contrast furnished by the picture, when viewed in connection with that we have previously submitted, of the United States of North America, is the most striking and instructive. In the year 1818, the question of South American affairs was brought before Congress by Mr. Monroe, who submitted the correspondence between Mr. Adams and Mr. Aguirre, the agent of the Government of La Plata, in regard to acknowledging the independence of that republic, then in actual revolution against the Spanish authorities. The papers which were submitted on that interesting occasion, embrace the diplomatic correspondence, the able letter of Mr. Poinsett, and the elaborate returns of a commission, consisting of Messrs. Rodney, Graham and Bland, who were sent on a special embassy to South America, in order to learn the true state of affairs and condition of the country. These, with the able speeches of that liberal and enlightened statesman, Henry Clay, upon the same subject, are upon the table before us. For later information, we are indebted to the Digest of American Statistics, which, with little system, but great labor, the Hon. John McGregor, of London, has lately made and published. Up to the period of the Revolution of 1790, in France, South America submitted quietly to its European governors in every particular, however arbitrary the exactions or revoltive the principles of government. A hope of liberty would have seemed visionary and absurd in so grinding a despotism. Force and fear, and a sense of weakness and dependence, suppressed every other feeling than that of passive endurance. Two viceroys were set up by the Spaniards over their American possessions; the Viceroy of Mexico and the Viceroy of Peru, under whose jurisdiction all things were placed. To these were added, in 1718, the Viceroyalty of Santa Fé de Bogota; in 1731, the Captain Generalship of Caraccas; in 1768, the Captain Generalship of Chili; in 1778, the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres. In 1797, disturbances began to occur in Venezuela, induced by the spread of French revolutionary principles. They were succeeded, in the early part of the next century, by the attack of the British army, |