them. In North America, east of the Mississippi river, all known languages are traced by the latest authors to three or four great branches. 1st. The Karalit, or Esquimaux, is spoken by the Indians of this name on the northern and north-eastern coasts. It has been found to be the same with that of the Tschutkis, or eastern Siberians. 2d. The Delaware, sometimes called Mohegan and Algonkin, is the most widely diffused. It prevailed among all the ancient tribes of New England, and those north of the Ohio River, and the lakes, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains. Dialects of this language are still spoken by the Chippeways, Shawnees, Ottawas, Winnebagoes. 3d. The Iroquois is a distinct language, remarkable for wanting all labials, and therefore sonorous. 4th. The Floridian family, according to Heckewelder, is a distinct branch, embracing all the dialects on the Gulf of Mexico.

442. West of the Mississippi there are many languages not well known. Among these are the Sioux and the Pawnee in the north; and in the south a great variety.

443. Mexico is said to have more than twenty languages, many of which are as distinct from each other as the Greek, the German, and the French. Fourteen have grammars and dictionaries. The Aztec, or ancient Mexican, is the most prevalent. On the coast of California no less than seventeen languages are spoken.

444. The Carribee is the native language of the northern parts of South America, and was that of the West India Islands. The language of the Incas, which is called the Quichua, prevails in Peru and the neighbouring districts. It is described by a native of that country as abounding in vowels, and peculiarly soft in its sounds,

445. The Araucanian of Chili is also described as a distinct language, remarkably rich and harmonious.

446. The character of the American languages

barbarous nations. Some resemblance has been found to Asiatic dialects; but their origin and connections have not been fully investigated. Although they were never written by the Indians, they are remarkably artificial and complicated in their structure. Some of them are almost destitute of the irregularities found in the languages of the civilized world. Words are easily combined so as to express every shade of meaning with exactness, and the Chilese is said to be far more precise than European languages. There is such a variety of words to express a single idea that, without a full examination, they would be considered as belonging to a different language, and hence the variation of dialects is much less than at first appears. Some, like the Mexican and Chilese, are distinguished for their copiousness in abstract terms; so as to render them peculiarly suitable for discussions. They are remarkable for the length of their words, and are generally sonorous and agreeable in their pronunciation. A distinguished scholar, who has investigated these languages, declares himself 'lost in astonishment' at the copiousness and singular structure of these languages. Notwithstanding the regular form of their languages, no native people of this continent had devised an alphabet; and other methods were used for recording events. The Indians of South America at an early period used knotted cords, called quipo, as a record; and the North American Indians were accustomed to deliver a belt of wampum, as the memorandum of each portion of a speech or message.

447. The most perfect means of recording events among the natives of America, was the picture-writing of the Mexicans. It was a mixture of paintings and hieroglyphical emblems, and was the only means of communicating information to a distance. The Indians of the United States convey intelligence by drawings and symbols of the same nature, but executed in a very rude manner.

parts: the first, including a general physical description, or its great geographical divisions and features; and the second, the more circumscribed geography and extent of its civil divisions, together with its politics, and a sketch of its intellectual and moral state.

3. The New World is not more distinguishable from the other regions of the globe by its position and extraordinary magnitude, than by the majesty and sublimity of its geographical features all to be traced, in their full extent, in this southern portion. Its stupendous mountains which bulge above the clouds, and are piled one above another like the fabled pillars of heaven-its wide-stretching plateaux-its almost immeasurable savannas-and its mighty rivers, rolling their majestic waters over the plains to the ocean, impress the mind with sensations of awe and astonishment. Placed amid the summits of its Andes, the European traveller seems as if lifted into a new horizon, and surrounded by the ruined fragments of a superior world. The impressive scenery of America, in this respect, is nevertheless deficient in some of those features which augment the beauty and sublimity of other mountainous regions. The magnificent glaciers, which in the Alpine districts of Europe add majesty to horror, and the terrible avalanches, so awfully grand and destructive, are unknown in the torrid zone. But the tremendous chasms and cataracts have excited the astonishment of every beholder.

4. The Andes are the most magnificent mountains in South America; and, indeed, all the other mountains of any considerable importance are considered by some writers as different branches and ramifications of these. We suppose the range which runs along the eastern coast to be an exception to this statement. The main chain of the Andes, running along the western coast, extends on both sides of the equator to near the thirtieth degree of latitude, it is of unequal height, sinking in some parts to 600 feet from the level of the sea, and, at certain points, towering to an elevation of almost four miles. The colossal Chimborazo lifts its snowy head to an altitude which would equal that of the Peak of Teneriffe placed on the top of Mount Ætna. The medium height of the chain under the equator may be reckoned at 14,000 feet, while that of the Alps and Pyrenees hardly exceeds 8000. Its breadth is proportionably great, being sixty miles at Quito, and 150 or 200 at Mexico and some districts of the Peruvian territory. This stupendous ridge, intersected in Peru and New Granada by frequent clefts, or ravines, of amazing depth, softens down by degrees to the north of the Isthmus of Panama, and spreads out into the vast and elevated plain of Mexico. In the former provinces the inhabitants are obliged to travel on horseback or on foot, and in some cases to be carried on the backs of Indians; whereas carriages drive with ease through the whole extent of New Spain, from Mexico to Santa Fé, along a road of more than 15,00 miles. The equatorial regions of America exhibit the same composition of rock that we meet with in other parts of the globe. The only formations which Humboldt could not discover in his travels were those of chalk, roe-stone, gray wakke, the topaz-rock of Werner, and the compound of serpentine with granular limestone which occurs in Asia Minor. Granite, in South America, constitutes the great basis which supports the other formations; above it lies gneiss; next comes micaceous schist, and then primitive schist. Granular limestone, chlorite schist, and primitive trap, often form subordinate beds in the gneiss and micaceous schist, which is very abundant, and sometimes alternates with serpentine and sienite. The high ridge of the Andes is everywhere covered with formations of por

phyry, basait, phonolite, and green-stone; and these, being often divided into columns, that appear from a distance like ruined castles, produce a very striking and picturesque effect. At the bottom of these huge mountains occur two different kinds of limestone; the one with a silicious base, enclosing primitive masses, and sometimes cinnabar and coal; the other with a calcareous base, and cementing secondary rocks together.

5. Plains of more than 600,000 square miles are covered with an ancient deposit of limestone, containing fossil wood and brown iron ore; on this rests the limestone of the Higher Alps, presenting marine petrifactions at a vast elevation. Next appears a lamellar gypsum, impregnated with sulphur and salt; and, still higher, another calcareous formation, whitish and homogeneous, but sometimes cavernous. Again occurs calcareous sand-stone, then lamellar gypsum mixed with clay; and the series terminates with calcareous masses, involving flints and hornstone. But what may perplex some geologists, is the singular fact noticed by Humboldt, that the secondary formations in the New World have a most enormous thickness and elevation. Beds of coal are found in the neighbourhood of Santa Fé, 8650 feet above the level of the sea; and even at the height of 14,700, near Huanuco in Peru. The plains of Bogota are covered with sand-stone, gypsum, shell-limestone, and, in some parts, with rock-salt. Fossil shells, which, in the old continent, have not been discovered higher than the summits of the Pyrenees, or 11,700 feet above the sea, were observed in Peru, near Micuipampa, at the height of 12,800; and again at that of 14,120; besides at Huancavelica, where sand-stone also appears. The basalt of Pichincha, near the city of Quito, has an elevation of 15,500 feet; while the top of the Schneekoppe, in Silesia, is only 4225 feet above the sea, the highest point in Germany where that species of rock occurs. On the other hand, granite, which in Europe crowns the loftiest mountains, is not found in the American continent above the height of 11,500 feet. It is scarcely known at all in the provinces of Quito and Peru. The frozen summits of Chimborazo, Cayambe, and Antisana, consist entirely of porphyry; which, on the flanks of the Andes, forms a mass of ten or twelve thousand feet in depth. The sand-stone near Cuença has a thickness of 5000 feet; and the stupendous mass of pure quartz, on the west of Caxamarca, measures, perpendicularly, 9600 feet. It is likewise a remarkable fact, that the porphyry of those mountains very frequently contains hornblende, but never quartz, and seldom mica.

6. The Andes of Chili have a distinct nature from those three chains called the Maritime mountains, which have been successively formed by the waters of the ocean. This great interior structure appears to be coeval with the creation of the world. It rises abruptly, and forms but a small angle with its base; its general shape being that of a pyramid, crowned at intervals with conical, and, as it were, crystallized elevations. It is composed of primitive rocks of quartz, of an enormous size and almost uniform configuration, containing no marine substances,

8,874

7,483

3,585

10. But America is, perhaps, not more remarkable for the stupendous magnitude of its mountains than for the vast elevation of its plains. The highest cultivated land in Europe is seldom more than 2000 feet above the level of the sea; whilst a great portion of the table-land in America lies at the enormous height of from 6000 to 10,000. Many of the extensive plains of Peru are near 10,000 feet in elevation. Other wide plains, almost interminable, stretch through the regions of this amazing continent, at a slight elevation above the level of the sea, as exemplified in those of Orinoco, Amazonia, and Buenos Ayres. These consist, for the most part, of extensive savannas, occasionally diversified with clumps and palms. Of these lofty regions the province of Quito is the most remarkable, which enjoys a delightful climate, and supports an immense population. tion. Extensive towns have been erected on this celebrated spot. That of Quito is 9,639 feet in altitude, and the people, who reside secluded from the rest of the world, gradually forget that, the towns crowded with inhabitants-the pastures covered with flocksthe fields waving with luxuriant harvests, and every other surrounding object, hang suspended in the upper regions of the atmosphere, at the elevation of 9,600 feet above the level of the

sea.

11. As the mountains of America are so much superior to those of the other divisions of the globe, so are the rivers of much greater magnitude and importance. The Magdalena rushes into the ocean with such a volume of waters, that it holds itself independent of the Atlantic to a distance of at least twenty leagues from its disemboguement, and as far as this the water is perfectly pure and sweet to drink. The mouth of this river is about sixty-three miles to the north-east of Carthagena, 11° 2' north latitude, and was discovered in 1525 by Rodrigo Bastidas, on the day of St. Mary Magdalen, and first navigated in 1531. It rises in the province of Popayan, from two fountains found in the mountains to the west of Timana, through which it passes; it then traverses and irrigates the province and government of Neiba; and following its course from south to north runs upwards of 300 leagues before it enters the sea, receiving the waters of many other rivers; some of which, as the Cauca, Cesar or Pompatao, Carari, Macates, De la Miel, Zarate, and others, are of considerable magnitude. It is navigable from its mouth as far as the town and port of Honda, a distance of 160 leagues. Its shores are covered with thick woods, in which dwell some barbarian Indians, who are ferocious and treacherous. Immense tigers are found here; and the river swarms with an incredible number of alligators, as well as with every kind of fish. By this river you pass to the kingdom of New Granada, and on it a great traffic is carried on by means of large flat-bottomed boats, here called champanes; but

the navigation is rendered unpleasant on account of the great number of musquitoes with which it is infested.

12. The Maragnon is the largest known river, not only in America, but in the whole world. It is said to rise from the lake Lauricocha, in the province of Tarma, in Peru, 10°29′ south latitude; but its most remote source is the river Beni, which rises in the Cordillera De Acama, about thirty-five miles from La Paz, in the province of Sicasica. It runs from north to south as far as the province of Yaguarsongo, in the kingdom of Quito, whence it forms the strait of Guaracayo, and follows its course from west to east, running a distance of 1800 leagues. The mouth or entrance of this river is about 180 miles wide; the tide-water ends at Obidos, about 400 miles from its mouth, where the river is 905 fathoms wide. The violence with which this river flows is so great that it repels the waters of the ocean, and retains its own stream pure and unimpregnated for a distance of eighty leagues in the sea; a circumstance the more wonderful, inasmuch as from the above distance of Obidos to its mouth, 400 miles, it has a fall of only four feet. Innumerable are the rivers which it receives in its long-extended course. The first who discovered the mouth of this immense river, was Vincente Yanez Pinzon, in 1498. It was afterwards reconnoitred in 1541 by Francisco de Orellano, lieutenant of Gonzalo Pizarro; in 1560 by Pedro de Ursua, by order of Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, marquis of Canete, viceroy of Peru; in 1602 by the father Rafael Ferrer, of the abolished order of Jesuits of the province of Quito, and missionary amongst the Cofanes Indians; and in 1616 by order of Don Francisco de Borja, prince of Esquilache, viceroy of Peru; also in 1725 by Juan de Palacois, in company with fathers Domingo Breda and Andres de Toledo, of the order of San Francisco. Besides these, Pedro Texeria, a Portuguese, undertook, in the name of Santiago Raimundo de Norona, governor of San Luis de Maranham, the further navigation of this river, arriving by the Napo as far as the port of Payamino, in the province of Moxos. În 1639 Don Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera, count of Chinchon, and viceroy of Peru, sent as far as Paru, the fathers Christoval de Acuna and Andres de Artieda, Jesuits of the province of Quito, and also the father Samuel Fritz, a German, and of the same extinguished company, a great missionary and profound mathematician. He it was that took the most exact observations as far as Paru, in his voyage made in the years 1689 and 1691, and who gave to the world the first geographical chart of the Maragnon, made and published in Quito in 1707. Another map was afterwards published by Don Carlos de la Condamine, of the royal academy of sciences at Paris, he being one of the persons commissioned to make astronomical observations under the equinoctial line. This last map is the most correct, and was made in the voyages he took in the Maragnon in the years 1743 and 1744, although it was much amended and enlarged by another map which had been formed by the father Juan Magnin, of the aforesaid company, and then missionary of the city

of Borja, of the province of Mainas, and an honorary academician of the sciences at Paris. See AMAZONS RIVER.

13. The Orinoco rises in latitude 5o north, and longitude 65° west; its course is very crooked, somewhat resembling the figure 6. For the first 300 miles it runs from north to south. It then turns and proceeds for several hundred miles in a westerly direction. At St. Fernando it receives the Guaviari, a considerable river from the south-west. Turning northward it receives the Vichade from the west, and precipitates its waters down the cataracts of Atures 740 miles from the mouth of this river, and 760 from its source. About 90 miles below the cataracts the river is enlarged by the junction of the Meta, which is 500 miles long, and navigable 370 miles; and about 90 miles from the mouth of this river, the Orinoco receives from the west the river Apure, a large river 520 miles long, having numerous branches and more rapids than the Orinoco itself, into which by many mouths it disembogues its waters. After receiving the Apure it turns, and, running about 400 miles in an easterly direction, divides itself into many branches, and empties its waters into the ocean opposite the island of Trinidad by fifty mouths, the two most distant of which are 180 miles apart: seven of them are navigable; and the southern one, called the Ship's Mouth, for vessels of more than 200 tons. The various islands formed by the mouths of the Orinoco, called the Orotoinecas or Palomas, are inhabited by a barbarous race of Indians of the same name.

14. The Orinoco bears the name of Iscarite until it passes through the country of the Tames Indians and acquires the name of that district, which it changes at passing through the settlement of San Juan de Yeima into that of Guayare, and then to that of Barragan just below where it is entered by the Meta, The Orinoco is navigable for more than 200 leagues for large vessels, and for canoes as far as Tunja, or San Juan de los Llanos. Its shores are covered with black forests, abounding with an infinite variety of animals and rare birds. All the rivers which rise on the southern declivity of the chain of Venezuela, and on the eastern declivity of the Andes, between the parallels of 2° 9' north latitude, are tributaries to the Orinoco, which conveys to the ocean the waters of an immense basin extending from east to west about 1000 miles, and from north to south from 500 to 600. This river was discovered by Columbus in 1498; and Diego de Ordez was the first who entered it, he having sailed up it in 1531. The soundings between Fort San Francisco de la Guiana and the channel of Limon are sixty-five fathoms, measured in 1734 by the engineer Don Pablo Dias Faxardo, and at the narrowest part more than eighty fathoms deep. In the months of August and September the river is accustomed to rise twenty fathoms at the time of its swelling or overflow, which lasts for tive months; and the natives have observed that it rises a yard higher every twenty-five years. The flux and reflux of the sea is clearly distinguishable in this river for 160 leagues. In the part where it is narrowest stands a formidable VOL. II.

rock in the middle of the water of forty yards high, and upon its top is a great tree, the head of which alone is never covered by the waters, and is very useful to mariners as a mark to guard against the rock. Such is the rapidity and force with which the waters of this river rush into the sea, that they remain pure and unconnected with the waters of the ocean for more than twenty leagues' distance.

15. There is a peculiar phenomenon in this river, namely, that it rises and falls once a year only; for it gradually rises during the space of five months, and then remains one month sta-tionary; after which it falls for five months, and in that state continues for one month also. These alternate changes are regular, and even invariable, and may depend on the rains which fall in the mountains of the Andes every year about the month of April.

16. The river La Plata ranks in size next to the Maragnon, and gives its name to some very extensive provinces to the south of Brazil. It was discovered by the pilot Juan Diaz de Solis in 1515, who navigated it as far as a small island in south latitude 34° 23′ 30′′; and who, having seen on the shores some Indian cabins, had the boldness to disembark with ten men; when they were all put to death by the native inhabitants. Five years afterwards there arrived here Sebastian Gaboto, who passed from the service of the English to that of the Spaniards, by the former of whom he was sent to the discovery of the strait of Magellan; but, finding himself impeded in his views by an insurrection of his people, he was under the necessity of entering the river La Plata, and sailed as far as the island discovered by Solis, to which he gave the name of San Gabriel. Seven leagues above this island he discovered a river called San Salvador, and another at thirty leagues' distance, which the natives called Sarcana, where he built a fort, which he called the tower of Gaboto. He then pursued his voyage as far as the conflux of the rivers Paraná and Paraguay, and, leaving the former to the west, entered by the second, and had a battle with the Indians in which he lost twenty-five men; but succeeded in routing the infidels, taking from them many valuables of silver; and, supposing that there was an abundance of this metal in the territories washed by this river, he conferred upon it the name of Rio la Plata, (river of silver,) whereby it lost the original name of Solis, given it by the discoverer.

17. This river is accustomed to have such excessive high floods as to inundate the country for many leagues, fertilizing it as the Nile does Egypt. It abounds with an incredible multitude of fish, and on its shores are numerous most beautiful birds. The distance from the conflux of the Paraguay and Paraná to its mouth, is about 200 leagues by the course of the river, the whole space being filled with the most delightful islands, and being navigable for the largest vessels. By some writers this broad river has been called an estuary formed by the Uruguay and the Paraná, which unite near latitude 34° south, since it is nowhere less than thirty miles broad, and at its entrance into the ocean, between the parallels of 35° and 36°, expands to the

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