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1518.

Notwithstanding the disastrous conclusion of this expedition, it contributed rather to animate than to damp the spirit of enterprise among the Spaniards. Velasquez encouraged their ardour, and fitted out, at his own expense, four ships for a new enterprise. The command of it was given to Juan de Grijalva, who soon discovered that part of the continent which has ever since A. D. been known by the name of New Spain. They landed at a river which the natives called Tabasco; and the fame of their victory at Potonchan having reached this place, the cazique received them amicably, and bestowed upon them some valuable presents. They next touched at Guaxaca, where they were received with the respect paid to superior beings. The people perfumed them as they landed with incense of gumcopal, and presented to them as offerings the choicest delicacies of the country. They were extremely fond of trading with the new visitants; and in six days the Spaniards obtained ornaments of gold to the value of more than 3000l. in exchange for European toys. The two prisoners whom they brought from Yucatan had hitherto served as interpreters; but as they did not understand the language of this country, the Spaniards learned from the natives by signs, that they were subjects of a great monarch named Montezuma, whose dominion extended over that and many other provinces. Grijalva continued his course towards the west. He landed on a small isle which he called the isle of Sacrifices, because there the Spaniards beheld, for the first time, the horrid spectacle of human victims offered to the gods. He touched also at the island St. Juan de Ülua, from which place he dispatched Pedro de Alvarado,

one of his officers, to Velasquez with a full account of the important discoveries that he had 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 cónfidence 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 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. III.

Its vast

View of America when first discovered. 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 Mexicans and Peruvians. The bodily Constitution. The Qualities af 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.

WENTY-SIX years had elapsed since Co

Tlumbus 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 riod, the extent of the New World was known almost from its northern extremity to 35 degrees south of the equator. The countries which stretch

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from thence to the southern boundary of Ameri ca, 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 peculiar 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 ancient 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 ancient continent are not to be compared. The Maragnon, the Oronoco, the Plata, in South America; the Missisippi 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.

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 climate, and the different laws to which it is subject, with respect to the distribution of heat and cold. The 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 lands 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

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