made. In the mean time he proceeded along the coast as far as the river Panuco. Several of his officers were desirous of planting a colony in some proper station, in order that they might extend the dominion of their sovereign. This scheme, however, appeared to Grijalva too perilous to be attempted. He judged it more prudent to return to Cuba, having fulfilled the purpose of his voyage; which he did after an absence of six months.

This was the longest as well as the most successful voyage which the Spaniards had made in the New World. As soon as Alvarado reached Cuba, Velasquez, transported with success so much beyond his expectations, immediately dispatched a person in his confidence to carry this important intelligence to Spain, and to solicit such an increase of authority as might enable him to attempt projects on a much larger scale. Without waiting for the return of his messenger, or for the arrival of Grijalva, of whom he became so jealous as to resolve to employ him no longer, he began to prepare such a powerful armament as might prove equal to an enterprise of danger and importance. But before we enter upon a detailed account of the expedition on which Velasquez was intent, it may be proper to pause, and take a brief view of the state of the New World when first discovered, and to contemplate the policy and manners of the rude tribes that occupied the parts of it with which the Spaniards were at this time acquainted.

CHAP.

CHAP. III.

View of America when first discovered. Its vast Extent. Grandeur of its Objects. Its Mountains, Rivers. Lakes. Climate. Its uncultivated State.

Its Soil.

How America was peopled. Condition and Character of the Americans. All Savages, except the Mericans and Peruvians. The bodily Constitution. The Qualities of their Minds. ·Their domestic State. Their political Institutions. Their System of War. The Arts with which they were acquainted. Their religious Institutions. Detached Customs. General Review of their Virtues and Vices.

TWEN TWENTY-SIX years had elapsed since Columbus conducted Europeans to the New World. During that period the Spaniards had made great progress in exploring its various regions. They had sailed along the eastern coast of the continent, from the river De la Plata to the bottom of the Mexican Gulf, and had found that it stretched, without interruption, through this vast portion of the globe. They had discovered the great Southern Ocean, and acquired some knowledge of the coast of Florida; and though they pushed their discoveries no farther north, other nations had visited those parts which they had neglected The English had sailed from Labrador to the confines of Florida, and the Portuguese had viewed the same regions. Thus, at this period, the extent of the New World was known almost from its northem extremity to 35 degres south of the equator. The countries which stretch from thence to the southern

southern boundary of An erica, the great empire of Peru, and the interior state of the extensive dominions subject to the sovereigns of Mexico, were still undiscovered.

When we contemplate the New World, we are struck with its immense extent. Columbus made known a new hemisphere, larger than either Europe, Asia, or Africa, and not much inferior in dimensions to a third part of the habitable globe. America is remarkable also for its position; it stretches from the northern polar circle to a high southern latitude, more than 1500 miles beyond the farthest extremity of the old continent on that side of the line. A country of such extent passes through all the climates capable of becoming the habitation of man, and fit for yielding the various productions peculiar either to the temperate or to the torrid regions of the earth.

Next to the extent of the New World, the grandeur of the objects which it presents to view, is most apt to strike the eye of an observer. Nature seems to have carried on her operations upon a larger scale, and with a bolder hand, and to have distinguished the features of this country by a pecullar magnificence. The mountains in America are much superior in height to those in the other divisions of the globe. Even the plain of Quito, which may be considered as the base of the Andes, is elevated farther above the sea than the top of the Pyrenees. This stupendous ridge of the Andes, no less remarkable for extent than elevation, rises in different places more than one third above the Peak of Teneriffe, the highest land in the antient hemisphere. The Andes may literally be said to hide their heads in the clouds; the storms often roll and the thunder bursts below their summits,

which, though exposed to the rays of the sun in the centre of the torrid zone, are covered with everlasting snows.

From these lofty mountains descend rivers proportionally large, with which the streams in the antient continent are not to be compared. The Maragnon, the Orinoco, the Plata, in South America; the Mississippi and St. Laurence, in North America, flow in such spacious channels, that long before they feel the influence of the tide they resemble arms of the sea rather than rivers of fresh water. The lakes of the New World may properly be termed inland seas of fresh water, and there is nothing in the other parts of the globe which resembles the prodigious chain of lakes in North America.

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The New World is of a form extremely favourable to commercial intercourse, on account of the numerous inlets of the ocean, the deep bays and gulfs, the surrounding islands, and being itself watered with a variety of navigable rivers. But what distinguishes America from other parts of the earth, is the peculiar temperature of its cinate, and the different laws to which it is subject, with respect to the distribution of heat and cold. maxims which are founded upon the observation of our hemisphere will not apply to the other. In the New World cold predominates. The rigour of the frigid zone extends over half of those regions which should be temperate by their position. Countries where the grape and the fig should ripen, are buried under snow one half of the year; and land situated under the same parallel with the most fertile and best cultivated provinces of Europe, are chilled with perpetual frosts, which almost destroy the power of vegetation. As we

advance

advance to those parts of America which lie in the same parallel with provinces of Asia and Africa blessed with an uniform enjoyment of such genial warmth as is most friendly to life and to vegetation, the dominion of cold continues to be felt, and winter reigns, though during a short period, with extreme severity. If we proceed along the Ame rican continent into the torrid zone, we shall find the cold prevalent in the New World extending itself also to this region of the globe, and mitigating the excess of its fervour. While the negro on the coast of Africa is scorched with unremitting heat, the inhabitant of Peru breathes an air equally mild and temperate, and is perfectly shaded under a canopy of grey clouds, which intercepts the fierce beams of the sun, without obstructing his friendly influence.

Various causes combine in rendering the climate of America so extremely different from that of the antient continent. America advances nearer to the pole than either Europe or Asia. Both these have large seas to the north, which are open during part of the year, and even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over them is less intensely cold than that which blows over land in the same high latitudes. But in America the land stretches from the river St. Laurence towards the pole, and spreads out immensely to the west. A chain of enormous mountains, covered with snow and ice, runs through all this dreary region. The wind, in passing over such an extent of high and frozen land, becomes so impregnated with cold, that it acquires a piercing keenness, which it retains in its progress through warmer climates, and is not entirely mitigated until it reach the Gulf of Mexico. Over all the continent of North America a north

westerly