Table of the Exports of the United States from 1800 to 1821.

BOOK

LXXXII.

Table of Post-Office Establishment of the United States from

1790 to 1821.

264

BOOK LXXXII.

UNITED STATES.

Table of Post-Office Establishment-continued.

Years. Post Offices. Post Roads. Receipts. Expenses.

Table of the Public Debt, Revenue, and Expenditure of the

United States from 1791 to 1822.

BOOK LXXXIII.

265

THE DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA CONTINUED.

Mexico comprises New Mexico and the Captain-Generalship of Guatimala.-General Physical Description.

WE are now about to survey, in succession, the vast pos- BOOK sessions of the Spanish nation, or their revolted descend- LXXXIII. ants, in the two Americas ;-possessions comprehended General

America,

between lat. 43° 34' south, and 37° 48' north, which sketch of equal in length the whole of Africa, and surpass in extent Spanish the immense countries in Asia that acknowledge the dominion of Great Britain and Russia. The missionary establishment of San Francisco, on the coast of New California, forms the most northerly point; and the most southern extremity inhabited by the Spaniards is Fort Maullin, on the coast of Chili, opposite to Chiloe: for the establishment of the port of Soledad, situated eight degrees more to the south, in the group of the Malouine or Falkland islands, whither the criminals, condemned at Monte-Video, are annually transported, cannot be looked upon as a permanent settlement, because it is not permitted to send women thither. Some families of Spanish descent, nevertheless, are still to be met with in the Island of Caylin, or Quilan, in 43° 34' of south latitude. The Spanish language, then, is diffused in America over an extent of coun

BOOK try more than a thousand leagues in length; and the whole LXXXIII. of these regions, peopled by more than thirteen millions of

Great poli

tical divi

sions,

inhabitants,* communicated with each other, previously to the late troubles, by a regular establishment of posts, extending from Paraguay to the north-west coast of America.

This transatlantic Spain, far more interesting in many points of view than its European metropolis, will supply us with abundant materials for an historical and physical description, which, however, ought first of all to be preceded by a physical and topographical account of the great divisions of which it is composed.

But, amongst these very complicated, and very confused divisions, which ought we to adopt? In a military and executive point of view, the dominions of the king of Spain in America were formerly divided into nine great governments, which may be considered as independent of each other, and which, within the last twelve years, have actually resolved themselves into separate states, of different forms of government, and totally independent of each other, or of the mother country. Their topography, however, can only be comprehended by employing the subdivisions and limits anciently prescribed. Of these divisions, five, namely, the vice-royalties of Peru and of New Grenada, and the captain-generalships of Guatimala, Porto Rico, and the Caraccas, are completely situated within the torrid zone; the four others, namely, the vice-royalties of Mexico and Buenos-Ayres, as well as the captainships of Chili and the Havannah, which comprehends the Floridas, are partly situated without the two tropics. As the geographical latitude, however, exerts infinitely less influence over the fertility and productions of these beautiful countries than the elevation of the soil, a division, founded on the degrees of latitude, would afford no advantage to physical geography. If we merely distinguish the great masses of land, circumscribed by seas, shut in by the

* At present, 1824, they are computed to exceed seventeen millions.

valleys of rivers, or marked by some other striking feature, BOOK we shall classify the continental regions of Spanish Ameri- LXXXIII. ca into three divisions; that of the north, comprising Mexico with Guatimala; the middle division, including Peru, New Grenada, and Caraccas; and, finally, that of the south, containing Paraguay, or Buenos Ayres, Chili, and the Magellanic regions. The islands of Porto Rico and Cuba will be described with the rest of the Columbian Archipelago. Florida has already been considered along with the United States.

tions of

Mexican

Custom has extended to all the Spanish provinces to the Denomina north of the Isthmus, Florida excepted, the general appel- Mexico. lation of Mexico, although, strictly speaking, these countries have no common name applicable to them all. The term New Spain was applied at first, in 1518, only to the province of Yucatan, where the high cultivation of the fields, and the beauty of the edifices, excited the admiration of the military followers of Grijalva. Already, in 1520, Cortez extended the denomination of New Spain to the kingdom of Montezuma, at the same time, advising Charles V. to assume the title of Emperor. According to Aztec or the researches of the Abbé Clavigero, this kingdom, which, kingdom, on the authority of Solis, stretches from Panama to New California, was bounded on the eastern coasts by the rivers Guasacualco and Tulpan, and on the western, by the plains of Soconusco, and by the port of Zacatula. It thus embraced the present intendencies of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico, and Valladolid, with a surface of eighteen or twenty thousand square leagues. Even the name of Mexico is of Indian origin. It signifies, in the Aztec language, the habitation of the god of war, called Mexitli, or Huitzlipochtli. It appears, nevertheless, that before the year 1530, the city was more commonly denominated Tenochtitlan. The appellation Anahuac, which Anahuac. must not be confounded with the preceding names, designated, before the conquest, all that tract of country contained between the fourteenth and twenty-first degrees of latitude. Independently of the Aztec empire of Mon