1742. A similar attempt by Don Antonia Gonzago, in respect of the Araucanians, relighted the torch of war, which blazed three years, when harmony was restored. Nor does anything of particular ríoment occur in the history of Chili, till 1809: then a successful revolutionary movement took place, and for four or five years fortune favoured the cause of independence; but in 1814, a royalist party from Peru nearly extinguished the flame of liberty. Success (in 1817) returned with General San Martin, who brought them freedom. D. Bernado O'Higgins was made director of the junta; and a fatal blow was struck at the power of the royalists on the 5th of April, 1818, when a large tract of coast was declared in a state of blockade by the Chilian navy under Lord Cochrane. In 1820, as stated in the history of Peru, the Chilian army under San Martin, liberated Peru from the Spanish thraldom, and San Martin retired into the ranks of private life in Chili. His example was followed by O'Higgins, who resigned the dictatorship, January 28, 1823, and was succeeded by General Freire, the commander-in-chief. The royalist flag, which was hoisted in September, near the city of Concepcion, was pulled down after a short period, and a free constitution appointed, with a popular govern

ment.

BRAZIL.

THE honour of discovering this country is contested between Martin Behem, and Pedro Alvarez Cabral, at the close of the fifteenth century. It was originally called Santa Cruz by Cabral, but afterward Brazil, from the name of a wood produced there. It was first colonized by some refugee Jews, in 1548, banished from Portugal, and was fostered by the able guidance of Governor de Sonza, and the blandishments of the Jesuits. In 1624, San Salvador was taken possession of by the Dutch, who were in turn defeated by an armament of Spaniards under Frederic de Toledo. The Dutch, in 1630, succeeded in making themselves masters of Demerara, Paraiba, and Rio Grande. Maurice of Nassau added Scara, Seregipee, and the greater part of Bahia; and the whole of Brazil was on the point of yielding to their arms, when the revolution which drove Philip IV. from the Portuguese throne, afforded an opportunity for both the Dutch and Portuguese to expel the Spaniards from Brazil. By an agreement between them, the country received a plural title, being called Brazils from the circumstance that both the Dutch and Portuguese possessed almost equal parts of it. By conquest and treaty the whole at length fell to Portugal.

In 1806, the royal family of Portugal, driven from Europe by the invasion of the French, migrated to Brazil, which from that period has risen rapidly in importance, independence, and strength. In 1817, a revolution broke out in Pernambuco, which failed. A free constitution was passed, and the king returned to Lisbon. Subsequently the prince-regent, on his birth-day, October 12, 1822, was proclaimed constitutional emperor of Brazil, independent of the Portuguese throne-a measure which has since been formally recognised by the government of the parent country.

· THE REPUBLIC OF LA PLATA, OR UNITED PROVINCES. THE title of the United Provinces is of modern date, as the following brief outline of the history of this part of the New World will exhibit. Juan Diaz de Solis, a Spaniard, is said to have been the first adventurer who explored the country, and took possession of it, A. D. 1513. Seba

tian Cahot, in 1526, in the La Plata, discovered the island of St. Gabriel, the river St. Salvador, and the Paraguay.

Buenos Ayres was founded in 1535, by Don Pedro de Mendoza. This did not flourish much, on account of the restricted state of commerce, which was, however, gradually relaxed, and in 1748 the annual flota made its last voyage. A free trade with several American ports began in 1774, and an extension to the Spanish ports was granted in 1778. Under a viceroy, trade augmented, and commercial prosperity ensued. Buenos Ayres was captured in 1806 by General Beresford, with a British army, which was in turn compelled to surrender a few weeks afterward to General Liniers, a French officer, at the head of a body of militia. Sir Home Popham, with five thousand men, having captured Fort Maldonado, attacked Monte Video, without success; but, reinforced by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, at length carried the town by storm. The operations were extended under General Whitelocke and General Crawford, who with twelve thousand men renewed the attack upon Buenos Ayres, but were defeated and captured by the native militia. Liniers, who had contributed so largely to this defeat, was raised by the people to the viceroyalty, upon the expulsion of Sobremonte for cowardice.

The United Provinces escaped not the swell of that storm which the French invasion stirred up in Spain. After various intrigues and plots, Ferdinand VII, was at length proclaimed in Buenos Ayres by the address of Don Josef de Goyeneche. A rising of the people (August 1809) was suppressed by Liniers, who was shortly after deposed and sent into exile. Rapid were the convulsions which now shook this unhappy country; till, on May 26, 1810, the people rose, expelled the viceroy, and appointed a provisional junta of nine persons. In vain the provinces of Cordova, Paraguay, and Monte Video refused their co-operation; they were compelled to go along with the tide. In vain Liniers and General Nieto assembled armies; they were defeated, and beheaded. Shortly after the district of Potosi fell into the hands of the patriots, who deputed, in 1814, a special mission to Ferdinand, on his restoration to the Spanish throne, with conditions of submission. These, happily for them, were rejected. In the same year a small cloud passed over the hopes of the patriots by General Artigas, which was dispelled by the capture of Monte Video, the last stronghold of the Spaniards. After two years of carnage and confusion, in 1816, a sovereign congress met at Tucuman, and on October 6, the same year, the act of independence was ratified, D. Juan Martin Pueyrsedon being dictator. Monte Video was taken by the Portuguese under the Baron de Leguna, who had seized on the most valuable part of anda Oriental.

Petty dissensions and intrigues, incident to the effects of rising independence, interrupted the progress of success necessary for the consolidation of a new state. D. Jose de San Martin cut a distinguished figure in this part of the history, having twice defeated the independents at Entre Rios, in 1811; but his efforts failed, and the independence of the Provinces of Rio de la Plata was shortly after sealed. Artigas, driven by the Portuguese across the Paraguay, was apprehended by the dictator Francia, and in 1819, Pueyrsedon, the dictator, fled to Monte Video, and thus dissolved the confused mass of the union of conflicting and discordant provinces. After a variety of events and political changes, D. Martin Rodriguez was established governor, October 6, 1820; and in the following year the independence of Buenos Ayres was recognised by the Portuguese government. A general congress was convened at Cordova the same year, and on the 15th of December they decided the number of deputies to be sent by each province.

In 1827 a war broke out between the republic and Brazil, respecting the possession of Uruguay (Banda Oriental) established as an independent

state in 1828; and more recently La Plata has been involved in disputes with both Bolivia, and France. These wars have contributed to retard the march of her prosperity; but with all her accumulated difficulties, La Plata has every appearance of soon becoming a prosperous country.

!

COLOMBIA.

THIS is a new state, formed at the close of the year 1819, from the states of Grenada, and Venezuela or Caraccas. It will therefore be necessary to detail the distinct history of these two original states.

GRENADA, or as it is called, New Grenada, was discovered by Columbus in his fourth voyage, and taken possession of for the Spanish government. He was followed by others, and especially by Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first who made Europe acquainted with a published account of this part of the New World. The first regular colonists were Ojeda, and Nica Essa, in 1508; the former founded the district called New Andalusia, but with no great success; the latter, Golden Castile, and he also perished. These two districts were united (1514) in one, called Terra Firma, under Avila, who successfully extended the discoveries, and founded the town of Panama. Other additions were subsequently made, and the kingdom of New Grenada was established under a captain-general, in 1547. As it had been established, so did it continue for more than, one hundred and fifty years, when in 1718 it became a vice-royalty, which form of government lasted but for six years, when it was supplanted by the original one, which was again superseded in 1740, by the incubus of the vice-royalty. Thus did it continue, till the weakness of the mother country, from the invasion of the French, afforded an opportunity to raise the standard of independence. Many and various have been the events attendant upon the struggle for mastery; but a severe blow was inflicted by their old masters in 1810, who, under Morillo, defeated the colonists with tremendous loss. Three years of renewed subjection followed when the success of the illustrious Bolivar caused the union of Grenada with Venezuela.

VENEZUELA. This district was discovered somewhat earlier than Grenada, by Columbus, in 1498. After several fruitless attempts to colonize it, the Spanish government disposed of the partially subdued natives to the Weltsers, a German company of merchants. Their management led to a change in 1550, when Venezuela, like Greneda three years before, became a supreme government under a captain-general. From that period to 1806, Venezuela was a torpid vassal under the Spanish crown, when a futile attempt for independence was made under General Mirando, a native. Simultaneous with Grenada, Venezuela rallied for liberty, when the mother country was prostrate before the ascendancy of France, in 1810. In the following year a formal proclamation of independence was made, July 6, and success seemed to attend the cause. Then came the dreadful earthquake. Superstition re-nerved the arm of freedom, and the royalist general, Monteverde, discomfited Mirando, and again overran the province. In 1813 Bolivar called independence again into action, and success attended him for three years, when another defeat was sustained, which was followed by another victory. Reverses again recurring, compelled the congress to appoint Bolivar dictator; and in 1819 the union of Venezuela with Grenada was effected under the name of Colombia.

Colombia may therefore date its history as a nation from this union, which was agreed upon December 17, 1819; and the installation of the united congress took place May 6, 1821; which was followed in June 24, by a victory obtained by the president Bolivar over the Spaniards, at the

i

Celebrated battle of Carabobo, in which the royalist army lost above six thousand men, besides their artillery and baggage.

BOLIVIA.

THE history of this recently formed state, known before as UPPER PERU, partakes of the nature of an episode in the life of the great Bolivar, in whose honour its present name was given, and to whose wise councils it is so much indebted. Previously to the battle of Ayachuco, in 1824, it formed a part of the Spanish viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres; but General Sucre, at the head of the republicans, having then defeated the royalist troops, the independence of the country was effected; and in the following year, at the request of the people, Bolivar drew up a constitution for its governance.

The reader will find in the life of Bolivar the following passage, which is so applicable that we cannot, perhaps, do better than transcribe it. "His renown was now at its height, and every act of his government showed how zealously alive he was to the improvement of the national institutious and the moral elevation of the people over whom he ruled. In 1823 he went to the assistance of the Peruvians, and having succeeded in settling their internal divisions, and establishing their independence, he was proclaimed liberator of Peru, and invested with supreme anthority. In 1825 he visited Upper Peru, which detached itself from the goverment of Buenos Ayres, and was formed into a new republic, named Bolivia, in honour of the liberator; but domestic factions sprung up, the purity of his motives were called in question, and he was charged with aiming at a perpetual dictatorship; he accordingly declared his intention to resign his power so soon as his numerous enemies were overcome, and to repel the imputations of ambition cast upon him, by retiring to seclusion upon his patrimonial estates. The vice-president, Santander, urged him, in reply, to resume his station as constitutional president; and though he was beset by the jealousy and distrust of rival factions, he continued to exercise the chief authority in Colombia till May, 1830, when, dissatisfied with the aspect of internal affairs, he resigned the presidency, and expressed his determination to leave the country. The people ere long became sensible of their injustice to his merit, and were soliciting him to resume the government, when his death, which happened in December, 1830, prevented the accomplishment of their wishes." The government of Bolivia is in the hands of a president, to which office General Santa Cruz was elected in 1829.

GUIANA.

THIS is a Britsh possession, comprising the several districts of Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and Surinam. It is asserted by some that Columbus saw this coast in 1458, and by others that it was discovered by Vasco Nunez, in 1504. It became, however, known to Europe in 1595, when Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco in his chimerical search of El Dorado, a city supposed to be paved with gold. The coast of Guiana then became the resort of buccaneers; and in 1634, a mixed company of these freebooters, English and French, formed the settlements of Surinam for the cultivation of tobacco. They were, after twenty years of great hardship and difficulty, taken under the protection of the British, who appointed Lord Willoughby, of Parham, governor, 1662. The Dutch captured the

settlement in 1667, and the possession of it was confirmed by the treaty of Westminster, England receiving the colony of New-York in exchange In 1773, the Dutch settlements on the Essequibo, which had been captured by the British in the American war, were restored to the states general. In 1796, both Berbice and Demerara fell to the English, as also Surinam. in 1799; but again reverted to Holland, at the peace of Amiens, in 1802 fell to the English arms in 1813, and were confirmed by the treaty ol Paris, 1814, to Great Britain.

AMAZONIA.

A COUNTRY of South America, so called from a martial and powerfu state, in which a body of women, it is said, with arms in their hands, op posed Francisco Orellana in his passage down the river Maragnon. I was first discovered by him, A. D. 1541; when, with fifty soldiers, he was wafted in a vessel down the stream of a smaller river into the channel of the Maragnon, which he also called Amazon.

.

The origin of the name Amazon is folded in some mystery. It is applied exclusively to females of strong and martial habits, and was first used in reference to a race of them who, whether actually or fabulously is a mat ter of dispute, founded an empire in Asia Minor, upon the river Thermodoon, along the coast of the Black Sea, as far as the Caspian. They are mentioned by the most ancient Greek writers, as well as by others of a late date; and various are accounts given both of their origin and history

THE WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

THE West Indies consist of a number of islands in the central part of America, extending from the tropic of Cancer southward, to the coast of Terra Firma and Mexico; the principal of which are Cuba, Hayti or St. Domingo, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Trinidad, St. Christopher, (commonly called St. Kitt's,) Antigua, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Barbadoes, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago; for the most part discovered by Co lumbus, near the close of the fifteenth century. The islands are in possession of various powers.

CUBA.

CUBA, the largest and most westerly island in the West In es, was discovered by Columbus, 1492; and was first called Juana, in honour of prince John, son of Ferdinand and Isabella; afterward Fernandina; then Santiago and Ave Maria, in deference to the patron saint of Spain and the Virgin. The name of Cuba is that which it was called by the natives at the time of its discovery. It is about eight hundred miles in length, and about one hundred and twenty-five in breadth. The Spaniards made no settlement upon it till 1151, when Diego de Velasquez arrived with four ships, and landed on the eastern point. This district was under the government of a cacique, named Hatney, a native of St. Domingo, who had retired hither to avoid the slavery to which his countrymen were con