Seventh. All commercial effects subject to the risk of navigation, whose value can be reduced to final amount.

849. The insurance can be made upon all or part of the objects above expressed, together or separately-in time of peace or war-before the commencement of the voyage or pending it-for the outward and the return voyage, or for one or both-and also for the whole time of the voyage, or for a limited period of time.

850. The expressing generally that the vessel is insured, all the appurtenances annexed to her are understood to be comprehended in the insurance; but not her cargo, although it may belong to the same NAVIERO or ship's husband, unless express mention of the cargo is made in the

contract.

851. In case of insurance of the liberties of the persons navigating in the vessel, there shall be expressed

First. The name, nativity, domicil, age, and profession, and signs of the person mentioned.

Second. The name and matriculation of the vessel in which he embarks.

Third. The name of the captain of the vessel.

Fourth. The port of departure.

Fifth. The port of destination.

Sixth. The amount agreed upon for a ransom, and the expenses of a return home to Spain.

Seventh. The name and domicil of the person to be exchanged, with the negotiations of the ransom.

Eighth. The time in which the negotiations are to be made, and the indemnification which is to be made in case of the negotiation not being verified.

852. The underwriter can reinsure by others the effects which he may have insured for a greater or less premium than he contracted for, and the insured can also insure the costs of the insurance and the risk which there may be for the recovery of the first insurance from the underwriters.

853. On the things which the captain or shipper may procure an insurance, which are embarked with the captain's or shipper's own effects, there shall be left ten per cent at the risk of the insured, and the insurance shall only have effect for nine-tenths of the just value of the things

insured.

854. There shall not be underwritten upon vessels more than four-fifths of their value, deducting the loans taken on bottomry upon them.

855. The value of the merchandise underwritten ought to be fixed, according to what it may have, in the place where it is shipped.

856. The subscription of the policy raises the legal presumption that the underwriters admit as just the valuation made in it.

But if there has been fraud on the part of the insured in the valuation of the effects of the insurance, the underwriters shall be allowed to prove the fraud by the survey and the just valuation of the effects, or by the invoices or other legal means of proof; and the fraud resulting being proved, the responsibility of the underwriters shall be reduced to the just value which the effects may have.

857. When by error, and not by the fraud of the insured, an exaggerated estimate may have been given to the effects of the insurance, this estimate shall be reduced to the amount of the legitimate value of such effects

by agreement of the parties; or, in default of it, by arbitration; and ac. cording to the result shall be the liabilities of the underwriters and the obligations of the insured, there being allowed to these one-half per cent upon the amount which may result as excess.

This reclamation shall not take effect either on the part of the underwriters nor on that of the insured, after notice has been received of the situation and loss of the vessel.

858. The valuations made in foreign money shall be converted into the exchange or equivalent of the kingdom, according to the course or rate which it had on the day in which the policy was signed.

859. The value of the things insured not being fixed at the time of the making of the contract, it shall be regulated by the invoices of consignation, or, in want them, by the appraisement of ship-brokers, (corredors.) who shall take as a basis for their valuation the prices which the effects insured were worth in the port where they were shipped, adding the duties and expenses caused until they were put on board.

860. The insurance falling upon RETURNS from a country where commerce is not carried on except by permutations or exchange of commodities, and the value of the things insured not being fixed in the policy, it shall be regulated by that which they had in the port of embarkation, adding all the subsequent expenses.

CONCERNING THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH EXIST BETWEEN THE INSURED AND THE UNDERWRITERS.

861. On account and at the risk of the underwriter, there shall run all the losses and damages that may happen to the things insured by stranding and the working of the vessel, by storms, by shipwreck, by collision, by a forced deviation of the ship or vessel, by jettison, by fire, by capture, by plunder, by declaration of war, by embargo, by detention of princes, by reprisals, and generally by all the accidents and perils of the seas.

The parties shall stipulate the exceptions which they may deem convenient, making, necessarily, mention of them, without which requisite they shall have no effect.

862. The damages which may happen on account of any of the following causes are not chargeable upon any of the underwriters :

First. A voluntary change of the route of the voyage or the vessel without the consent of the underwriters.

Second. A spontaneous separation from a convoy, there being a stipulation to go in company with it.

Third. A prolongation of a voyage to a port more remote than that designated in the insurance.

Also, arbitrary dispositions, and contrary to the policy of affreightment or to the knowledge of the naviero shippers and freighters.

Fourth. The barratry of the captain or crew, there being no express agreement to the contrary.

Fifth. Waste, deterioration, leakage, and losses upon the cargo which may proceed from the inherent defect of the things insured, when they may not have been comprehended in the policy by a special clause.

863. In whatever cases the preceding article forms an exception to the liability of the underwriters, they shall gain the premium whenever the objects insured have begun to run the risk.

864. The underwriters shall not respond to the damages which may

A

happen to a vessel for not carrying the regular documents which the maritime ordinances prescribe, but in such cases the underwriters are responsible for the damages which may occur to the cargo insured.

865. The underwriters are not bound to satisfy the expenses of pilotage and light-house dues, nor the duties imposed upon the vessel or her cargo. 866. The cargo outward and homeward being insured, and bringing in no return, or bringing in less than two-thirds of her cargo, the underwriters shall only receive two-thirds of her premium, corresponding to the return cargo, unless the contrary may have been stipulated.

867. The cargo of the vessel being insured by separate parcels and distinct underwriters, without expressing in detail the objects corresponding to each insurance, all the underwriters shall satisfy pro rata the losses as may occur in the cargo or in any portion of it.

868. Different embarkations being designated to take the goods insured on board, it shall be at the will of the insured to distribute them amongst such embarkations as the insured may think expedient, and as it may accommodate the insured; or he may reduce them to one embarkation, without there being any alteration in the responsibilities of the underwriters for this cause alone.

869. The insurance of a cargo being contracted, with the designation of the vessels, and a particular expression of the amount insured upon each, if the cargo shall be reduced for a less number of vessels than those pointed out, the responsibility of the underwriters shall be reduced to the amounts insured upon the vessels which may receive the cargo, and they shall not be chargeable with the losses which may occur upon the remainder; but the underwriters shall have a right, in this case, to the premiums for the amounts insured on such remainder whose contracts shall be held null, there being allowed to the underwriters one-half per cent upon their amount.

870. The cargo being transferred to another vessel after the voyage is commenced, the one designated in the policy having become useless or unseaworthy, the risks shall run on the account of the underwriters, even when the vessel to which the cargo is transferred shall be of a different tonnage and flag.

If the unseaworthiness of the vessel shall occur before sailing from the port of departure, the underwriters shall have the option to continue the insurance or not, allowing for the averages which may occur.

871. The time not being fixed in the policy in which the risks are to run, on the account of the underwriters, the dispositions mentioned in Article 835 of this code shall be observed, which are, that the risks shall commence, in respect to the vessel and its aggregates, from the moment in which she makes sail to that of her anchoring and mooring in the port of her destination; and, with respect to the cargo, the risks shall run from the time of loading the vessel in the port where the voyage commences until the vessel is discharged in the port of her consignation.

872. When a limited time is fixed in the policy of insurance, the responsibility of the underwriters shall end, the term having run out, even when the risks of the things insured may be pending, but upon whose results the insured can make new contracts.

873. The involuntary delay of a vessel in the port of departure does not fall to the prejudice of the insured, and it shall be understood that the term designated in the policy is prorogued on the effects of the insurance for the whole time that the delay may be prolonged.

874. A reduction of the premium of insurance cannot be exacted even when the vessel terminates her voyage, or the cargo is delivered at a port nearer than that designated in the contract.

875. A variation which may be made in a route or voyage of a vessel, by the accident of SUPERIOR FORCE, to save the vessel or her cargo, shall not discharge the underwriters from their responsibilities.

876. The delays or stoppages which may be made, by necessity, for the conservation of the vessel and cargo, are understood to be comprehended in the insurance, although they may not be expressed in the contract when they are not expressly excluded.

877. The insured is bound to communicate to the underwriters all the information which he may receive concerning the damages or losses which may happen to the things insured.

878. The captain who may make insurance on the effects loaded on his account or on commission shall prove, in case of misfortune, to the underwriters the purchase of the effects insured by the bills of sale or invoices of the sellers, and also their embarkation and transportation in the vessel by a certificate of the Spanish consul; or, when there is none, by the civil authority of the port where he loads them, and by documents of the voyage or of the expedition, and by the clearances at the customhouse.

This obligation shall extend to every person insured who may sail with his own merchandise.

879. If it should be stipulated that the premium of insurance shall be augmented in case of war happening, and the quota of this increase should not have been fixed, it shall be regulated by skillful persons named by the parties, consideration being had to the risks incurred, and to the stipulations in the policy of insurance.

880. A gratuitous restitution of the vessel or cargo made by the captors to her captain, it shall fall to the benefit of the respective owners, without any obligation on the part of the underwriters to pay the amounts which they have underwritten.

881. When a time is not fixed in a policy in which the underwriters ought to make payment on the things insured, or the damages which may be to their account, they shall be bound to verify it in ten days following the legitimate reclamation of the insured.

882. Every reclamation proceeding from the contract of insurance ought to be accompanied by documents which prove the voyage of the vessel, the embarkation of the effects insured, the contract of insurance, and the loss of the things insured.

These documents shall be communicated, in case of judicial controversy, to the underwriters, that, on view of them, they may resolve either to make payment of the insurance or oppose it.

883. The underwriters may contradict the facts on which the insured sustains his demand, and proof to the contrary shall be allowed them with. out prejudice to the payments of the amount underwritten, which ought to be verified or paid without delay, always when the policy of insurance is executive; and the demandant shall give sufficient surety to respond in case of the restitution of the amount received.

884. An underwriter paying the amount insured, he is substituted in the place of the insured for all the rights and actions which belong to him over and above those which, by fraud or defaults, caused the loss of the ef fects which the underwriter insured.

A. N.

Art. VII.-COMMERCIAL FACILITIES OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTS:

WITH REFERENCE TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, THEIR SOIL, CLIMATE, PRODUCTIONS, AND NATURAL EXCHANGES, OR COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE.

FIRST, we start on the parallel of 49° north latitude, south of which and east of the Rocky Mountain range, all the waters empty into the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic, and west of said range all the waters empty into the Pacific, forming a grand division or separation from said 49th parallel to Cape Horn.

Said division, on the 49th parallel, is on the 114th meridian of longitude, 10° east of the Pacific, and 54° west of the Atlantic; said range or division runs in a south-easterly direction to the parallel of 32° on the 106th meridian, 10° east of the Pacific, and 26° west of the Atlantic. Now all this immense country east of the division to the Atlantic, and north of the parallel of 38°, is expressly calculated and ordered by nature for the production of food for man-breadstuffs and meat; while all south is more particularly calculated for the production of cotton, rice, tobacco and hemp. West of the division to the Pacific, the climate being more mild all south of 40° latitude, where there are streams suitable to supply irrigation, it is calculated for the production of cotton, rice, tobacco and hemp; while all north of 40° is calculated for breadstuffs and meat, with the ocean fishery, more valuable than that of all the world beside. The division continues its southeasterly course, till it approaches very near the Pacific, on the parallel of about 16°, and so on to Panama, and thence to the parallel of 8° south latitude, on the meridian of 7810; one degree east from the Pacific, and 40° west from the Atlantic, continuing the same to the parallel of 38° south latitude, where it is 2° east from the Pacific, and 14° west from the Atlantic; then continuing the same, but narrowing down on the eastern side to Cape Horn, south latitude 56° about, and west longitude 67°.

Now it will be seen that the northern and eastern side of this division is capable of being made to produce food for all the world; and that the southern and eastern part, including the Columbian Archipelago, or West Indies, is also capable of being made to produce tropical and other products, such as sugar, molasses, coffee, indigo, cotton, hemp, tobacco, &c., for all the world. Now these two sections are dependent on each other for an exchange of products, and Europe dependent on both for an exchange for her manufactures; and the streams which drain all this vast country, emptying into the Atlantic, directing the courses and forming the means of transit for these exchanges. And it will be seen by the western or Pacific division, from the Cape to north latitude 16°, that owing to periodical droughts, the worst of climates, want of means to irrigate, &c., there is but a small amount of land suited to cultivation, and can sustain but a small amount of population; but from latitude 16° to 25° are more land suited to cultivation; thence to latitude 35° the lands are poor, and will not produce without irrigation; to 38° better, but requires irrigation; from 38° to 49° is a tract suited to sustaining a large population. Of this side of the division, the northern portion can only be supplied, for the deficit in tropical products of the southern half, directly from the islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, and from Japan and China, more conveni