CHAP. III. Its vast View of America when first discovered. Extent. Grandeur of its Objects. Its Mountains. Rivers. Lakes. Climate. Its uncultivated State. Its Soil. How America was peopled. Condition and Character of the Americans. All Savages, except the Mexicans and Peruvians. Their bodily Constitution. The Qualities of their Minds. Their domestic State. Their political Institutions. Their System of War. The Arts with which they were acquainted. Their religious Institutions. Detached Customs. General Re view of their Virtues and Vices. TWENTY-SIX years had elapsed since Columbus conducted Europeans to the New World. During that period the Spaniards had made great progress in exploring its various regions. They had sailed along the eastern coast of the continent, from the river De la Plata to the bottom of the Mexican Gulf, and had found that it stretched, without interruption, through this vast portion of the globe. They had discovered the great Southern Ocean, and acquired some knowledge of the coast of Florida; and though they pushed their discoveries no farther north, other nations had visited those parts which they had neglected. The English had sailed from Labrador to the confines of Florida, and the Portuguese had viewed the same regions. Thus, at this period, the extent of the New World was known almost from its northern extremity to 35 degrees south of the equator. The countries which stretch from thence to the southern southern boundary of America, the great empire of Peru, and the interior state of the extensive dominions subject to the sovereigns of Mexico, were still undiscovered. When we contemplate the New World, we are struck with its immense extent. Columbus made known a new hemisphère, larger than either Europe, Asia, or Africa, and not much inferior in dimensions to a third part of the habitable globe. America is remarkable also for its position; it stretches from the northern polar circle to a high southern latitude, more than 1500 miles beyond the farthest extremity of the old continent on that side of the line. A country of such extent passes through all the climates capable of becoming the habitation of man, and fit for yielding the various productions peculiar either to the temperate or to the torrid regions of the earth. Next to the extent of the New World, the grandeur of the objects which it presents to view, is most apt to strike the eye of an observer. Nature seems to have carried on her operations upon a larger scale, and with a bolder hand, and to have distinguished the features of this country by a peculiar magnificence. The mountains in America are much superior in height to those in the other divisions of the globe. Even the plain of Quito, which may be considered as the base of the Andes, is elevated farther above the sea than the top of the Pyrenees. This stupendous ridge of the Andes, no less remarkable for extent than elevation, rises in different places more than one third-above the Peak of Teneriffe, the highest land in the antient hemisphere. The Andes may literally be said to hide their heads in the clouds; the storms often oll and the thunder bursts below their summits, which, though exposed to the rays of the sun in the centre of the torrid zone, are covered with everlasting snows. From these lofty mountains descend rivers proportionally large, with which the streams in the antient continent are not to be compared. The Maragnon, the Orinoco, the Plata, in South America; the Mississippi and St. Laurence, in North America, flow in such spacious channels, that long before they feel the influence of the tide they resemble arms of the sea rather than rivers of fresh water. The lakes of the New World may properly be termed inland seas of fresh water, and there is nothing in the other parts of the globe which resembles the prodigious chain of lakes in North America. The New World is of a form extremely favourable to commercial intercourse, on account of the numerous inlets of the ocean, the deep bays and gulfs, the surrounding islands, and being itself watered with a variety of navigable rivers. But what distinguishes America from other parts of the earth, is the peculiar temperature of its climate, and the different laws to which it is subject, with respect to the distribution of heat and cold. The maxims which are founded upon the observation of our hemisphere will not apply to the other. In the New World cold predominates. The rigour of the frigid zone extends over half those regions which should be temperate by their position. Countries where the grape and the fig should ripen, are buried under snow one half of the year; and lands situated under the same parallel with the most fertile and best cultivated provinces of Europe, are chilled with perpetual frosts, which, almost destroy the power of vegetation. As we advance advance to those parts of America which lie in the same parallel with the provinces of Asia and Africa, blessed with an uniform enjoyment of such genial warmth as it is most friendly to life and to vegetation, the dominion of cold continues to be felt, and winter reigns, though during a short period, with extreme severity. If we proceed along the American continent into the torrid zone, we shall find the cold prevalent in the New World extending itself also to this region of the globe, and mitigating the excess of its fervour. While the negro on the coast of Africa is scorched with unremitting heat, the inhabitant of Peru breathes an air equally mild and temperate, and is perfectly shaded under a canopy of grey clouds, which intercept the fierce beams of the sun, without obstructing his friendly influence. . Various causes combine in rendering the cli, mate of America so extremely different from that of the antient continent. America advances nearer to the pole than either Europe or Asia. Both these have large seas to the north, which are open during part of the year, and even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over them is less intensely cold than that which blows over land in the same high latitudes. But in America the land stretches from the river St. Laurence towards the pole, and spreads out immensely to the west. A chain of enormous mountains, covered with snow and ice, rans through all this dreary region. The wind, in passing over such an extent of high and frozen land, becomes so impregnated with cold, that it acquires a piercing keenness, which it retains in its progress through warmer climates, and is not entirely mitigated until it reach the Gulf of Mexico, Over all the continent of North America a northwesterly westerly wind and excessive cold are synonymous terms. Even in the most sultry weather, the moment that the wind veers to that quarter, its penetrating influence is felt in a transition from heat to cold, no less violent than sudden. To this powerful cause may be ascribed the extraordinary dominion of cold, and its violent inroads into the southern provinces in that part of the globe. After contemplating those permanent and characteristic qualities of the American continent, which arise from the peculiarity of its situation and the disposition of its parts, the next object that merits attention is its condition when first discovered, as far as that depended on the industry and operations of man. The effects of human ingenuity and labour are more extensive and considerable than even our own vanity is apt at first to imagine. When we survey the face of the habitable globe, no small part of that fertility and beauty which we ascribe to the hand of nature is the work of man. His efforts, when continued through a succession of ages, change the appearance, and improve the qualities of the earth. As a great part of the antient continent has long been occupied by nations far advanced in arts and industry, our eye is accustomed to view the earth in that form which it assumes when rendered fit to be the residence of a numerous race of men, and to supply them with nourishment. But in the New World the state of mankind was ruder, and the aspect of nature extremely different. Immense forests covered a great part of the uncul tivated earth; and as the hand of industry had not taught the rivers to run in a proper channel, or drained off the stagnating water, many of the most fertile plains were overflowed, or converted into marshes. |