kingdoms of Asia, and overrunning all the empire of the Saracens; when the houses of England, France, and Germany were thatched with straw; and when scarcely a poet had appeared in Britain a ! The climate of the BRAZILS, at certain seasons, is delightful to a proverb; and the entrance into the harbour of Rio Janeiro is said to be even more magnificent than that of Constantinople. The landscapes of the Brazils derive additional charms from the quivering of the humming-bird. The size of this little animal is between a large bee and a small wren. Its wings, tail, and bill, are black; its body of a greenish brown, with a beautiful red gloss; its crest green, gilded at the top. The large kinds have no crest, and their colours are crimson; which appear to vary in different lights; whence the Indians call them "sun-beams." Their nests hang at the end of the twigs of orange, citron, pomegranate, and other odoriferous trees. Such is the bird that gives life to every shrub and flower in many parts of South America; while, in Africa, the creeper bird, of brilliant plumage, flutters from blossom to blossom; and, sitting on the edges of the corollas, sips the honey from the mellifera, and warbles in a most delightful manner. The climate of Brazil is, indeed, at certain seasons, delightful; but at others it causes so much listlessness, that— In sooth to say, No living wight can work; nor cares he e'en for play b. MOUNT ETNA,—proudly overlooking a country, which, though profusely fertile in all natural advantages, and enriched with many of the noblest monuments of classical antiquity, has, in every period, proved an hereditary nurse of tyranny,—is divided into three regions: the fertile, the shady, and the barren. These have been called the torrid, temperate, and • Dr. Holland informs us, that many of the Iceland guides speak Latin; that many of the natives have formed their tastes upon the models of Greece and Rome; and that many would not disgrace the most refined circles of civilised society. b Thomson, Castle of Indolence. frigid regions. But the greatest variety of climate on one range may be found among the CORDILLERAS; for in the space of a few hours may be experienced the greatest intensity of heat, and the greatest intensity of cold: while, in the ascent, every intermediate variety is quickly observed, and sensibly felt. These varieties, however, produce scarcely a wrinkle in the cheek of an Indian. Age in this country creates few wrinkles; and it is difficult, says M. Humboldt, to observe any difference between twenty and fifty years of age: the father appears as young as the son: the hair is of the same colour; and even an age of sixty years produces little or no decrepitude. The latitude of the Cordilleras is not different from that of Abyssinia; yet in the latter country women are frequently more deformed by age and wrinkles at twenty-two, than European ones are at sixty. PERU is a country, says Vanier, on which Providence has bestowed summers, which emulate the coolness of spring; a winter free from cold; and a sky unincumbered with clouds. Felices nimium populi, queis prodiga tellus In the neighbourhood of Lima, thunder and rain are unknown". Signor Atychio says, that he knew an Indian in Chota, one hundred and twenty years old, who had lost only one tooth; had not one grey hair; and appeared not above sixty or seventy years of age. Another named Agif, one hundred and forty-one, whose sight was clear; hair of a fine black colour; pulse firm; and of a frame so strong, that he took the exercise of shooting every day". a Hube, sur l'Evaporation, 296. 328. b" They who have been accustomed to the woods, in the parts of the temperate climates," says Captain Andrews, "that border upon the tropics, will know the fact, that, what with being awoke by the rich piping of birds, of every note and tune, and the inhaling the serene cool air of the most delightful atmosphere VOL. II. Y CHILI derived its name from a peculiar species of thrush. It is the garden of South America. In some parts the soil is so inexhaustible, that the lands have been cultivated every year, since the Spaniards arrived; and yet have lost none of their original fertility: and artificial manures are said to be not only superfluous, but injurious. Of the ninety-seven species of trees, which are indigenous, thirteen only shed their leaves and so refreshing are the breezes, that, though on the frontiers of the torrid zone, Chili has no extremity of heat. In some parts it enjoys the balsamic air of Valencia, Murcia, and Estremadura; and the atmosphere is impregnated with the most delicious perfumes. The ancient inhabitants of this country and Peru divided the year into four parts; marking the arrival of summer and winter, and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. In the Bay of CAMPEACHY, besides customary animals, are seen squashes feeding on nothing but fruit; sloths baring every tree they mount; armadillos covered with shells, yet burrowing in the ground like rabbits; porcu pines and tiger-cats; and monkeys, sullen and untameable, dancing from tree to tree. There, too, are found cormorants and pelicans; parrots, parrokeets, turtle-doves, and humming-birds. Opposed to these are rambling ants; spiders as large as men's fists; yellow, green, and dun on earth, with Nature reposing around in stillness of beauty, there is an exhilarating sensation experienced, which language cannot describe. It is as though the soul and body had at the moment reached perfect happiness, and no wish of earth or heaven was left ungratified. Those who rouse from soft beds, in carpeted rooms, and in varying climes, know little of this most exquisite of earthly sensations." a Molina, vol. ii. p. 344. 66 b"What blessings," exclaims Montesquieu, might not the Spaniards have done for the natives of this country, and the Mexicans! They had a mild religion to impart to them; but they filled their heads with a frantic superstition. They might have set slaves at liberty; they made free men slaves. They might have undeceived them with regard to the abuse of human sacrifices; instead of which, they destroyed them. Never should I have finished, were I to recount the good, they might have done, and all the mischief they committed."-Spirit of Laws, b. x. ch. 4. snakes, with black and yellowish spots; crocodiles and alligators. BARBADOES rises into hills from the coast by a regular ascent to the interior. It has few trees; but the houses are partially shaded by straggling cocoas. It furnishes landscapes, however, curiously contrasted; and, having no marshes or forests, has a serene atmosphere. TOBAGO is a continued plain, studded with various trees, peopled with birds of resplendent plumage. ST. VINCENT is a rich and beautiful island; and the vale of Buccament is the most delightful in all the Windward Islands. ANTIGUA has not a river; and Nature seems there to have dropt the usual benevolence of her character; for the soil is parched, and the whole picture wears 'an aspect of disappointment." 66 The Island of ST. DOMINGO is one of the finest in the world; whether it is considered in reference to the natural richness of the soil; the beauty of its internal landscapes; or the fineness of its shores. It contains every species of soil usual in tropical climates; and the plains of Los Llanos are intersected with natural groups of the noblest trees; much after the manner of an English park. The forests abound in palm, mahogany, machineals, and palmettoes, round the trunks of which wind the convolvolus and the wind-band in many a graceful fold: forming a complete school to the architect, for the study of domes and peristyles, arches, and colonnades". While surveying these beauties, Columbus, struck with wonder and delight, boasted that he had discovered the original seat of paradise. This island is probably destined, one day, to prove not only the errors of Montesquieu and Du Bos; but to solve the problem, whether ability and genius are indeed regulated by the colour of the skin for it is impossible to calculate what may be the destiny of a Vid. Walton's Hispaniola. Edwards' Hist. Survey of St. Domingo, c. ix. p. 152. the people of this island, when we see a black secretary writing to a black Emperor, in the following manner :"Like the Romans, we go from arms to the plough; from the plough to arms: and when we have taken advantage of the mechanical arts, and employed machines, animals, fire, air, and water, our country will be the most beautiful, populous, and flourishing; and its inhabitants, hitherto so unfortunate, the happiest people in the world."-When the French had managed to get the mild Maurepas (the black general of St. Domingo) into their power, they bound him to the mainmast; nailed his hat upon his head; and his epaulettes upon his shoulders; and then precipitated his wife, his children, and himself into the sea! NORTH AMERICA, adorned in the midst of boundless solitudes, celebrated for its mountains, lakes, rivers, and cataracts, has soils of every quality, and climates of every degree. In the UNITED STATES the transitions from heat to cold, and from cold to heat, are frequent and instantaneous. These states comprise a territory of more than 2,700,000 miles; in which are the dregs of almost all the European nations, blending, as it were, with men capable of every lofty enterprise. What a field for the man of science and the moralist does the northern continent of America present, in natural wealth and national manners! Gifted with every valuable material, it exhibits society in almost every shade of distinction: from the disgusting savage on its north-western shores, where Russians, in procuring skins, sleep with rifles under their arms, and cutlasses by their sides; to the savage of the interior, whose manners are compensated by the rudiments of many virtues; and thence to the commercial circles of New York and New Orleans. What a beautiful and unequalled extent of country stretches from the Alleghany to the rocky mountains on the west! com* Portlock and Dixon's Voy. round the World, 1785-1788, p. 49. |