77 whom he envied, and had attempted to ruin. He received Columbus with the moft ftudied refpect, lodged him in his own. house, and distinguished him with every mark of honor. But amidft thefe overacted demonftrations of regard, he could not conceal the hatred and malignity latent in his heart. He fet at liberty the captain of the mutineers, whom Columbus had brought over in chains, to be tried for his crimes, and threatened fuch as had adhered to the admiral with proceeding to a judicial enquiry into their conduct. Columbus fubmitted in filence to what he could not redrefs; but difcovered an extreme impatience to quit a country which was under the jurifdiction of a man who had treated him, on every occafion, with inhumanity and injuftice. His preparations were foon finished, and he fet fail for Spain with two ships, on September the twelfth 1504. Difafters fimilar to those which had accompanied him through life continued to purfue him to the end of his career. One of his veffels being difabled, was foon forced back to St. Domingo; the other, fhattered by violent ftorms, failed feven hundred leagues with jury mafts, and reached with difficulty the port of St. Lucar in the month of December. There he received the account of an event the most fatal that could have befallen him, and which completed his misfortunes. This was the death, on the ninth of November, 1504, of his patronels Queen Ifabella, in whofe juftice, humanity, and favour, he confided as his laft refource. None now remained to redrels his wrongs, or to reward him for his services and sufferings, but Ferdinand, who had fo long opposed and so often injured him. To folicit a prince thus prejudiced against him, was an occupation no lefs irksome than hopeless. In this, however, was Columbus doomed to employ the clofe of his days. As foon as his health was in fome degree re-established, he repaired to court; and though he was received there with civility barely decent, he plied Ferdinand with petition after petition, demanding the punishment of his oppreffors, and the reftitution of all the privileges beftowed. upon him by the capitulation of one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. Ferdinand amufed him with fair words and unmeaning promifes. Instead of granting his claims, he propofed expedients in order to clude them, and fpun out the affair with fuch apparent art, as plainly difcovered his intention that it should never be terminated. The declining health of Columbus flattered Terdinand with the hopes of being foon delivered from an importunate fuitor, and encouraged him to perfevere in this illiberal plan. Nor was he deceived in his expectations. Dilgufted with the ingratitude of a monarch whom he had ferved with fuch fidelity and fuccefs, exhaufted with the fatigues and hardships which he had endured, and broken with the infirmities which these brought upon him, Columbus ended his life at Valladolid on the twentieth of May, one thousand five hundred and fix, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He died with a compofure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which diftinguished his character, and with fentiments of piety becoming that fupreme refpect for religion. which he manifefted in every occurrence of his life. Having thus given an Account of the first Discovery of America, we shall now proceed to lay before the Reader, a GENERAL DESCRIPTION of that Country, its Soil, Climate, Productions, Original Inhabitants, &c. &c. GENERAL GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. THIS vaft country extends from the 80th degree of north, to the 55th degree of fouth latitude; and, where its breadth is known, from the 35th to the 136th degree weft longitude from London; ftretching between 8009 and 9000 miles in length, and in its greatest breadth 3690. It fecs both hemifpheres, has two fummers and a double winter, and enjoys all the variety of climates which the earth affords. It is wafhed by the two great oceans. To the caftward it has the Atlantic, which divides it from Europe and Africa; to the weft it has the Pacific or Great South Sea, by which it is feparated from Afia. By thefe feas it may, and does, carry on a dire commerce with the other three parts of the world. NORTH AND SOUTH CONTINENT. America is not of equal breadth throughout its whole extent; but is divided into two great continents, called North and South America, by an isthmus 1500 miles long, and which at Darien, about Lat. 9° N. is only co miles over. This ifthmus forms, with the northern and fouthern continents, a vaft gulph, in which lie a great number of inds, called the West Indies, in contradiftinction to the eastern parts of Afia which are called the Eaft Indies. CLIMATE. Between the New World and the Old, there are feveral very ftriking differences; but the most remarkable is the general predominance of cold throughout the whole extent of America. Though we cannot, in any country, determine the precile degree of heat merely by the distance of the equator, betule the clevation above the fea, the nature of the foil, &c. affe&t the climate; yet, in the ancient continent, the heat is much more m proportion to the vicinity to the equator than in any part of Amrica. Here the rigour of the frigid zone extends over half that which should be temperate by its pofition. Even in those latitudes where the winter is fcarcely felt on the Old continent, it reigns with great feverity in America, though during a fhort. period. Nor does this cold, prevalent in the New World, confine itself to the temperate zones; but extends its influence to the torrid zone, alfo, confiderably mitigating the excess of its heat. Along the eastern coaft, the climate, though more fimilar to that of the torrid zone in other parts of the earth, is nevertheless confiderably milder than in those countries of Afia and Africa which lie in the fame latitude. From the fouthern tropic to the extremity of the American continent, the cold is faid to be much greater than in parallel northern latitudes even of America itself. For this fo remarkable difference between the climate of the New continent and the Old, various causes have been affigned by different authors. The following is the opinion of the learned Dr. Robertson on this fubject. "Though the utmost extent of America towards the north be not yet difcovered, we know that it advances nearer to the pole than either Europe or Afia. The latter have large feas to the north, which are open during part of the year; and, even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over them is lefs intenfely cold than that which blows over land in the fame latitudes. But, in America, the land ftretches from the river St. Laurence towards the pole, and fpreads out immenfely to the weft. A chain of enormous mountains, covered with inow and ice, runs through all this dreary region. The wind paffing over fuch an extent of high and frozen land, becomes fo impregnated with cold, that it acquires a piercing keennefs, which it retains in its progrefs through warmer climates; and is not entirely mitigated until it reaches the gulph of Mexico. Over all the continent of North America, a north-westerly wind and excellive cold are fynonymous terms. Even in the most fultry weather, the moment that the wind veers to that quarter, its penetrating influence is felt in a tranfition from heat to cold no less violent than fudden. To this powerful caufe we may afcribe the extraordinary dominion of cold, and its violent in-roads into the fouthern provinces in that part of the globe, "Other caules, no lefs remarkable, diminifh the active power of heat in thofe parts of the American continent which lie between the tropics. In all that portion of the globe, the wind blows in an invariable direction from east to west. As this wind holds its courfe acrofs the ancient continent, it arrives at the countries which stretch along the western fhore of Africa, inflamed with all the fiery particles which it hath collected from the fultry plains of Alia, and the burning fands in the African defarts. The coaft of Africa is accordingly the region of the moft fervent heat, and is expofed to the unmitigated ardour of the torrid zone. But this fame wind, which brings fuch an acceffion of warmth to the countries lying between the river of Senes gal and Cafraria, traverses the Atlantic ocean before it reaches the American shore. It is cooled in its pailage over this vaft body of water; and is felt as a refreshing gale along the coafts of Brafil and Guiana, rendering those countries, though amongst the warmeft in America, temperate, when compared with those which he oppofite to them in Africa. As this wind advances in its course across America, it meets with immense plains covered with impenetrable forefts; or occupied by large rivers, marshes, and ftagnating waters, where it can recover no confiderable degree of heat. At length it arrives at the Andes, which run from north to fouth through the whole continent. In paffing over their elevated and frozen fummits, it is fo thoroughly cooled, that the greater part of the countries beyond them hardly feel the ardour to which they seem expofed by their fituation. In the other provinces of America, from Terra Firma weftward to the Mexican empire, the heat of the climate is tempered, in some places, by the elevation of the land above the fea; in others, by their extraordinary humidity; and in all, by the enormous mountains fcattered over this tract. The islands of America in the torrid zone are either small or mountainous, and are fanned alternately by refreshing fea and land breezes. "The causes of the extraordinary cold towards the fouthern limits of America, and in the seas beyond it, cannot be ascertained in a manner equally fatisfying. It was long fuppofed, that a vast continent, diftinguished by the name of Terra Auftralis Incognita, lay between the fouthern extremity of America and the antarctic pole. The fame principles which account for the extraordinary degree of cold in the northern regions of America, were employed in order to explain that which is felt at Cape Horn and the adjacent countries. The immenfe extent of the fouthern continent, and the rivers which it poured into the ocean, were mentioned and admitted by philofophers as caufes fufficient to occafion the unusual sensation of cold, and the still more uncommon appearances of frozen feas in that region of the globe. But the imaginary continent to which fuch influence was afcribed having been fearched for in vain, and the space which it was supposed to occupy having been found to be an open fea, new conjectures must be formed with respect to the causes of a temperature of clinate, fo extremely different from that which we experience in countries removed at the fame distance from the oppofite pole. L |