propose to devote a few pages to some notices of the extent and importance of the Spanish possessions in South America; which, though they are to be found abundantly scattered in several works, particularly the invaluable one of Humboldt, and in a more condensed form in the work of Capt. Bonnycastle,* are less familiar perhaps than they ought to be to the American public.

According to the statement of Don Josef de Moraleda, examined in manuscript by M. de Humboldt, in the archives of the viceroy of Lima,t the southernmost point of the Spanish possessions in South America is the fort Maullin, near the small village of Carelmapu, upon the coast of Chili, opposite the northern extremity of the island of Chiloe. This point is in 41° 43′ south latitude. The northernmost point of the Spanish possessions is the mission of San Francisco on the coast of New California, seven leagues north-west of Santa Cruz, in the latitude of 37° 48′ north. The Spanish dominions, therefore, extended a distance of seventy-nine degrees of latitude; exceeding the dimensions of the British possessions in India, or even of the Russian empire, and giving to the Spanish language a use more extensive, than that which is possessed by any other national tongue. Throughout this whole extent, says Humboldt, under the wise administration of the count Florida Blanca, a regular post was established, for communication from the borders of Paraguay to the northwest coast of North America; so that a monk at the mission of the Guarani Indians might carry on a correspondence with a missionary of New Mexico, by a rout almost without interruption, through the continental possessions of Spain in America.' We shall better understand this vast extent of territory, by considering that, from the southern point of Florida to the northern boundary of the United States, are but about twentyfive degrees of latitude; not the third of the extent on the meridian of the Spanish dominions.

These vast dominions, under the Spanish administration, were divided into nine great governments, which might be considered as independent of each other. These governments

* Spanish America, or a descriptive, historical, and geographical account of the dominions of Spain, in the western hemisphere, continental and insular; by R. H. Bonnycastle, captain in the corps of royal engineers. Two vols. 8vo. London, 1818.

+ See note A, at the close of the second volume of the Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, constituting the third part of the great work of M. de Humboldt.

were four of them styled vice royalties, and five of them general captaincies (capitanias generales.) The vice royalties were those of Buenos Ayres, Peru, New Grenada, and Mexico, and the captaincies those of Chili, Guatimala, Porto Rico, Caraccas, and Havana. To the latter was attached the region of Florida, before it was ceded to the United States.

Of these several governments, that of Mexico is unquestionably the most important. When we consider, indeed, the wonderful natural features of the whole of Spanish America, the unequalled magnitude of the rivers, and the stupendous heights of the mountains, the variety of climates in this vast range of latitudes, and the richness of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, we shall perhaps think it but justice to assert the first rank among the countries of the earth for this region. Several circumstances, however, unite to render New Spain the most important of these governments; and it is therefore to this portion of them that the remainder of our remarks will be principally limited, not only on account of its superior importance, but because, from various local causes, this quarter is the least known to the North American public. The superior population, the number of great cities, and their proximity to each other, the vast amount of the precious metals, and their influence on the commerce of the world, together with the favorable position of its ports both for European and Asiatic trade, seem to confer on Mexico or New Spain the right to this preeminence.

The appellation of New Spain, in its full extent, is applied to the region subject to the viceroy of Mexico, and extending from the 38th of north latitude to the 10th of south. In these limits, it would include the captaincy of Guatimala, which, however, in point of actual administration, is independent of the viceroy of Mexico, and for its fertility and population may be advantageously compared with the most valuable portions of Spanish America. The greatest dimensions of New Spain, exclusive of Guatimala, are in length about 1800 miles, and in breadth about 1100. The isthmus, which unites the two great portions of the American continent, is so extremely narrow, that the project of an artificial junction of the Atlantic and Pacific has often been seriously agitated. It is unfortunate that the narrowest portion of the isthmus is not in that region, which, on account of the ports of Acapulco and Vera Cruz, and the city of Mexico, is of most importance, in a

political and commercial view. In the geographical introduction to his work on New Spain, M. de Humboldt has enumerated nine different places where the waters which flow into the Atlantic, might possibly be connected with those which flow into the Pacific. For the northernmost of these, M. de Humboldt goes as far as the Ungijah, or Peace river, in 54° 37' north latitude, and for the southernmost to a supposed communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Patagonia, seven degrees north of the straits of Magellan, which was the object of a Spanish expedition of discovery in 1790. The sixth of these points, viz. the small port and bay Cupica to the south-east of Panama, appears to be the spot most favorable, in the opinion of M. de Humboldt, to the project of a canal from ocean to ocean. From the bay of Cupica there is a passage of only fifteen or eighteen miles over a country quite level and suited to a canal, to the head of navigation of the river Naipi, which flows into the river Atrato, which in its turn empties into the Atlantic. M. de Humboldt gives to Gogueneche, a Biscayan pilot, the credit of having first turned the attention of the Spanish government to this point, which the same intelligent traveller says should be regarded as the Suez of America;-as being almost the only spot, where the chain of the Andes is completely interrupted, and a canal thus made practicable. When we cast our eyes on the gigantic communication between the Atlantic and the western lakes, so near being opened, by the unaided enterprize of one of our sister states, we may rejoice that this favorable point falls within the territorial limits of the republic of Colombia, which perhaps of all the revolutionary states of Spanish America, is that which has started in the career of independence, with the best auspices. Before passing from the subject of a communication between the oceans, we would observe, as a curious circumstance, that such a communication, to a very limited degree indeed, has already been opened by the art of man. It is the seventh of the points indicated by M. de Humboldt. In the interior of the province of Choco,' says he, the little ravine de la Raspadura unites the neighboring sources of the Rio de Noanama, called also Rio San Juan, and of the little river of Quito. This last united to the Rio Andageda and the Rio Zitara forms the Rio d'Atrato, which flows into the Atlantic, while the San Juan descends to the Southern ocean. An enterprising monk, curate of the

village of Novita, caused a canal to be dug by his parishioners, in the ravine de la Raspadura. By means of this canal, which becomes navigable by heavy rains, boats loaded with cocoa have passed from sea to sea. This then is a communication from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in existence since 1788, and unknown in Europe. The little canal of the Raspadura unites two points on the opposite coast at the distance of seventy-five leagues from each other.**

One of the most singular, and at the same time most probable consequences of the opening of an effectual communication between the two seas, would be the arrest of the gulf stream. M. de Humboldt is disposed to attach but little moment to the assumed difference of level between the two oceans; and concludes his interesting chapter on this subject, with the remark, that 'when a communication shall be established between the two oceans, the productions of Nootka Sound and of China will be brought nearer, by two thousand leagues, to the United States and to Europe. It is not till this shall be effected, that great changes will be wrought in the political condition of oriental Asia; for this narrow tongue of land, beaten by the waves of the Atlantic ocean, has been for ages the bulwark of China and Japan.' It should be considered, moreover, what this celebrated author has himself hinted, that the effect of such a canal on the world's commerce, would be much influenced by the circumstance, that it would be controlled by the states through which it passes; and in the present condition of navigation, the passage about Cape Horn would not be relinquished, if that of the supposed canal should be much burdened with restrictions. It has been, we believe, an objection to the line of canals through the interior of Scotland, that the cost of insurance about its northern extremity does not equal the toll, which would necessarily be levied on the canal. In estimating the importance of a canal to unite the two oceans, M. de Humboldt has attached a value to the trade of the north west coast of America, beyond perhaps what it ever possessed, or from which, if it ever possessed it, it has certainly been regularly on the decline, since the date of his publication. It is well known, that a single vessel is chartered in this town, to transport all the furs collected at the establishment of the mouth of the Columbia.

The subject of the geological and other natural features of Essai Politique liv. i. Ch. ii. p. 25. 4to ed. 54

New Series, No. 10.

New Spain, its climate and meteorological phenomena, would furnish interesting matter of remark, but the limits of this sketch oblige us to pass them over. The singular circumstance of the elevation of the table land in Mexico, to which the greater part of the population is confined, deserves, however, to be noticed. One half of the whole surface of Mexico is in the torrid zone. But, as is well known, the degree of beat and cold depends not on the distance from the pole, but on the elevation above the level of the sea, proximity to the sea, and other local circumstances. Under the operation of these circumstances, more than three fifths of those parts of Mexico, which lie in the torrid zone, have a temperate or a cold climate; and a considerable part of the interior of the Mexican viceroyalty constitutes an immense plain, at an elevation above the sea of six or eight thousand feet, and in consequence, is a stranger to the afflictive temperature of the torrid zone. These immense plains, which stretch for hundreds of miles in an unbroken expanse, and at a height equal or superior to that of the Peak of Teneriffe, of mount Cenis, and mount St Gothard are one of the most singular natural features of the country. The neighborhood of the capital is distinguished for a still greater peculiarity, in the rise above each other of four successive plains, each with its peculiar climate and productions. The highest is at an elevation of 8,529 feet above the level of the sea; the second at that of 7,459 feet; the third at that of 6,447; the fourth at that of 3,247. The lower plain is the region of sugar, the second of cotton, the third of European grains, and the fourth of the Agave plantations, the vineyards of the native Mexicans. The climate of the capital of Mexico is mild, and the temperature in winter is that of Naples. In the coldest season, the mean heat is from 55° to 70° of Fahrenheit. M. de Humboldt justly notices the remarkable advantage for the progress of national industry, arising from the height, at which nature, in New Spain, has deposited the precious metals. In Peru, the most considerable silver mines, those of Potosi, Pasco, and Chota are elevated near to the region of perpetual snow. In working them, men, provisions, and cattle must all be brought from a distance. Cities situated in plains, where water freezes the whole year round, and where trees never vegetate, can hardly be an attractive abode. Nothing can determine a free man to abandon the delicious climate of the valleys, to insulate himself on