of Caftile, on condition that within a limited time they should render themselves maiters of the country, and establish a colony there. Under the direction of fuch perfons, it might have been expected, that a fettlement would have been established on maxims very different from thofe of the Spaniards, and better calculated to encourage fueh ufeful industry, as mercantile proprietors might have known to be the most certain fource of profperity and opulence: but unfortunately they committed the execution of their plan to fome of thofe foldiers of fortune with which Germany abounded in the fixteenth century. These adventurers, impatient to amafs riches, that they might fpeedily abandon a ftation which they foon discovered to be very uncomfortable, instead of planting a colony in order to cultivate and improve the country, wandered from diftrict to district in search of mines, plundering the natives with unfeeling rapacity, or oppreffing them by the impofition of intolerable talks. In the course of a few years, their avarice and exactions, in comparifon with which thofe of the Spaniards were moderate, defolated the province fo completely, that it could hardly afford them fubfiftence; and the Velfers relinquished a property from which the inconfiderate conduct of their agents left them no hope of ever deriving any advantage.* When the wretched remainder of the Germans deserted Venezuela, the Spaniards again took poffeffion of it; but, notwithstanding many natural advantages, it is one of their moft languishing and unproductive fettlements.

Thefe provinces are bounded on the north by the North fea, on the east by Surinam, on the weft by New-Granada, and on the fouth by Guiana; its produce is various, but in relating the origin and operations of the mercantile company, in which an exclufive right of trade with them has been vefted, we fhall hereafter have occafion to confider their ftate and productions in a more ample

manner.

NEW-GRANADA AND POPAYAN.

The provinces fometimes known as the new kingdom of Granada, is entirely an inland country of great extent. This important addition was made to the dominions of Spain about the year 1536, by Sebaitian de Benalcazar and Gonzalo Ximenes de Quefada, two of the bravest and

Civedo y Bagnos Hift. de Venezuela, p. 11, &c.

moft

moft accomplished officers employed in the conquest of America. The former, who commanded at that time in Quito, attacked it from the fouth; the latter made his invafion from Santa Martha on the north. As the original inhabitants of this region were farther advanced in improvement than any people in America but the Mexicans and Peruvians, they defended themselves with great refolution and good conduct. The abilites and perfeverance of Benalcazar and Quefada furmounted all oppofition, though not without encountering many dangers, and reduced the country into the form of a Spanish province.

The provinces are fo far elevated above the level of the fea, that though they approach almost to the equator, the climate is remarkably temperate. The fertility of the vallies is not inferior to thofe of the richeft diftricts in America, and the higher grounds yield gold and precious ftones of various kinds. It is not by digging into the bowels of the earth that this gold is found, it is mingled with the foil near the furface, and feparated from it by repeated washing with water this operation is carried on wholly by negro flaves; for though the chill fubterranean air has been discovered, by experience, to be fo fatal to them, that they cannot be employed with advantage in the deep filver mines, they are more capable of performing the other fpecies of labour than Indians. As the natives are exempt from that fervice, which has wafted their race fo rapidly in other parts of America, the country is ftill remarkably populous. Some difriftsi yield gold with a profufion no lefs wonderful than in the vale of Cineguilla, and it is often found in large pepitas, or grains, which manifeft the abundance in which it is produced. On a rifing ground near Pamplona, fingle labourers have collected in a day what was equal in vaine to a thousand pefos. A late governor of Santa Fé brought with him to Spain a lump of pure gold, estimated to be worth feven hundred and forty pounds fterling. This, which is perhaps the largeli and finest specimen ever found in the new world, is now deposited in the royal cabinet of Madrid. But without founding any calculation on what is rare and extraordinary, the value of the gold ufually collected in this country, particularly in Popayan and Choco, is of confiderable amount. Its towns are populous and flourishing. The number of inhabitants in almost every part of the country daily increafes; cultivation and industry of various kinds. begin to be encouraged, and to profper; a confiderable trade is carried on with Carthagena, the produce of the mines and other

com

commodities being conveyed down the great river of St. Magdalen to that city. On another quarter there is a communication with the Atlantic by the river Orinoco; but the country which stretches along its banks towards the east is little known, and imperfectly oc cupied by the Spaniards.

HISTORY

HISTORY OF

PER U.

PERU is fituated between the equator and 25° fouth latitude, and

60° and 81' weft longitude; its length is eighteen hundred miles, and its breadth, according to fome authors, three hundred and ninety, and others fix hundred † miles; but the latest and most authentic accounts ftate it at about five hundred. It is bounded on the north by Terra Firma, on the weft by the Pacific ocean, on the fouth by Chili, and on the caft by the mountains called the Andes. The bounds of our work will not permit us to enter into the ancient hiftory of this country before its conqueft by the Spaniards; we can, therefore, only in brief obferve, that the empire of Peru, at the time it was fubdued, extended along the South fea, from the river of Emeralds to Chili, and on the land fide to Popayan, according to fome geographers. It contained within its extent that famous chain of mountains which rifes in the Terra Magellanica, and is gradually loft in Mexico, in order to unite, as it fhould feem, the fouthern parts of America with the northern.

It is now divided into three grand divifions or audiences: 1. QUITO; 2. LIMA, or Los REYES; and, 3. Los CHARCOS. As to its climate, mines, foil and produce, they differ greatly in dif ferent parts of the country.

QUITO.

The extenfive province of Quito is bounded on the north by Popayan, and includes a part of that government; alfo by Santa Fé de

* The compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica state the fituation of Peru between I deg. 40 min. north, and 26 deg. 10 min. fouth latitude, and 56 and 81 deg. west Jongitude, and make its length eighteen hundred and its breadth, as above, three hundred and ninety miles.

+ Guthrie.

VOL. IV.

T

Bogota ;

Bogota; on the fouth by the governments of Piura and Chachapoyas ; on the east it extends over the whole government of Maynas and the river of the Amazons to the meridian, which divides the Spanish from the Portuguese dominions; and on the weft it is bounded by the South fea; extending, according to Antonio de Ulloa, fix hundred leagues in length, and about two hundred in its greatest breadth; but this greatly exceeds the computation of all other geographers. He however obferves, that it must be owned a great part of thofe vaft dominions are either inhabited by nations of Indians, or have not hitherto been fufficiently peopled by the Spaniards, if indeed they had been thoroughly known; and that all the parts that can properly be faid to be peopled, and actually subject to the Spanish government, are thofe intercepted by the two Cordilleras of the Andes, which, in comparison to the extent of the country, may be termed a street or lane, fifteen leagues, or fometimes more, from eaft to weft; to this must be added feveral detached governments, feparated by the very extenfive tracts inhabited by free Indians.

The climate of Quito differs from all others in the fame parallel, ince even in the center of the torrid zone, or although under the equinoctial, the heat is not only very tolerable, but even in fome places the cold is painful; while others enjoy all the advantages of a perpetual spring, the fields being conftantly covered with verdure, and enamelled with flowers of the most lively colours. The mildnefs of the climate, free from the extremes of heat and cold, and the conftant equality of the day and night, render this country, which, from its fituation, might be thought to be parched by the conftant heat of the fun, and fcarcely inhabitable, both pleasant and fertile; for Nature has here difpenfed her bleffings with fo liberal a hand, that this country in feveral refpects furpafles thofe of the temperate zones, where the viciffitudes of winter and fummer, and the change from heat to cold, caufe the extremes of both to be more fenfibly felt. However, in different parts of the country, the air is very different; in one part are mountains of a ftupendous height. and magnitude, with their fummits covered with fnow. The plains are temperate, the valleys hot, and, according to the high or low fituation of the country, are found all the variety of gradations in temperature poffible to be conceived between the extremes of heat and cold.

Quito, the capital, in o° 13' fouth latitude, and 77° 50' west longitude from Greenwich, is so happily fituated, that neither heat nor

cold