perch on the hand like a bird, and is often brought to the plantations for sale. The coatimondi or Brazilian weasel, the ant-bear and several species of opossum, the sloth, the porcupine, armadillo, and hedge-hog, complete the list of animals of prey found in this district. Of these the ant-bear deserves some particular notice. From the snout to the end of the tail this creature will sometimes measure seven or eight feet; its head, which is small compared to its entire size, is covered with a soft hair; while its tail, immensely large, is set with strong bristles which constitute a complete armour for the animal when attacked, and under which during a storm it will sometimes cover its body. With its tongue, which is often two feet in length, and from which it discharges a sweet saliva, it perforates the abode of the ants, who will immediately settle on it in vast numbers, and thus become the prey of their enemy. Herds of deer of all sizes range along the savannas; the paccarara, or Indian coney, resembling our hare, is also common; and abundance of wild hogs. There is one species of the latter indigenous to Guiana, having neither tail nor tusks, but remarkable for a receptacle on its back about an inch deep, in which is a white fetid liquid that must be carefully discharged from the flesh immediately the animal is killed, or it renders the whole carcase unfit to be eaten. The domestic animals have been principally exported from the Old World, and the whole, except the hog, have degenerated here. The sheep, in particular, are very diminutive, and the wool, as at the Cape of Good Hope, changed to a sort of coarse hair. Beautiful goats abound, and the finest poultry. Forest and fruit trees of the most curious description line this coast. The mountain cabbage, as it is strangely called, stands unequalled among the vegetable tribes. A perpendicular tapering stem, from seven to eight feet in circumference, rises to the height of about 100 feet; and is surmounted by the cabbage consisting of thin white strata, and tasting like an almond. Branches twenty feet long diverge from the stem, having narrow leaves of about two feet in length, and full of nuts which are the seeds of the plant. The iron-wood, bullet, launa, and mahogany trees, grow to the height of fifty feet; the two first are remarkably hard and close grained; the launa yields a fruit resembling our apple, with the juice of which the natives paint their bodies. The red mangrove, the cocoa, the pipetra, and the tonquin-bean trees rise from sixty to eighty feet in height; the first being remarkable for its ligneous shoots which descend to the ground without leaves or branches, and take spontaneous root, as if for the support of the parent stem. It is an exceedingly fine tree for building purposes. Beautiful woods for furniture diversify the forests; the hiarree, which is said rarely to be found growing amongst other trees, is so strongly imbued with poison that when it has been accidentally burnt the smoke has often proved fatal to human life.

213. Bananas, pine-apples, and plantains, are among the fruits of this shore; but the tamarind, the guava, and the aviato pear, are its choicest productions. The guava is a round

lemon-coloured fruit, containing a red pulp, generally made into jellies, the solid coating of which is of the substance of an apple, and similarly used by the settlers. The aviato or avagato pear bears a fruit in shape like our English pear, but of a pale green colour, having the taste of a peach. The useful shrubs comprise the cotton bush, which bears two crops annually; the coffee bush, which also bears two crops, each tree yielding about a pound and a half at a crop; the palma christi, or castor bush, which bears nuts of a triangular form covered with a thin brown fur, the kernels yielding, by expression, the well-known castor oil; the cassava shrub, of which the roots are ground into meal and form an excellent bread, but the bitter cassava, though it becomes a wholesome food when boiled or baked, is a fatal poison in its raw state. The curetta, or silk-grass plant is a curious species of aloe, abounding here, containing in its leaves a saponaceous pulp, interspersed with strong white silky filaments, which are used for making nets, and fine cordage. Other species of the aloe, the caruna shrub, whose kernel is a slow poison; the troolies shrub and the nibbees, are also common. The troolies bears a leaf of from twenty to thirty feet in length, and two or three feet broad, which grows from its short roots close to the ground, and is so tough and useful as to form the principal thatch of many of the houses of the colony; from which it will turn for years the heaviest rains of the wet season. The nibbees is a sort of natural rope growing to immense lengths, and running from six to eighteen inches in circumference, sometimes twisted together like the wrought ropes of Europe, and at other times crossed in its texture like net-work. It is used for many of the ordinary purposes of rope. The Indian yarn also abounds here; and the ipecacuanha and ginger roots.

214. The coast is rich in amphibious animals. The sea-cow is perhaps the most curious of them, being sixteen feet or upwards in length, and having a head like that of a hog, the nostrils of an ox, the breast of the human female, and the tail of a whale. It seldom quits the water, but when taken is considered very palatable food. The tapira is an inferior hippopotamus, not bigger than an ass; it is not often seen, but considered very fine eating. The head is that of a horse, with a long upper lip, bristly mane, and very thick skin. Alligators are sometimes found here measuring twenty feet in length, but they are generally very harmless animals. The laubba, or aquatic hare, sometimes called the paca, or spotted cavey, is peculiar to this coast. It has the head, and is about the size, of a white French dog; its flesh, when killed, eats like the finest pork, and is generally very fat. Another amphibious animal of these regions is remarkable for its mode of propagation: it is called the pipa, and is an ugly creature of about the size of a duck, covered with a brown shrivelled skin, and having a remarkably loud shriek. The young are said to be hatched in watery cells on the back of the female, or placed there, according to some accounts, as tadpoles, by the assistance of the male; certain it is they are

found nestling in this situation until they assume the shape and appearance of their species.

215. Of the reptiles that are found here we need only mention the rattle-snake, whip-snake, dipsas, and oroocookoo, all of which are highly venomous; the bite of the last has been known to be fatal in a few minutes. Here is also a large amphibious serpent, called the aboma, measuring from thirty to forty feet long when full grown, and three to four feet in circumference. It is not venomous, but very voracious, and will attack animals of all sizes, not even excepting lions, by surprise, and crush them in its slimy folds.

216. The eagle, vulture, falcon, owl, and butcher-bird, are the principal species of the feathered tribes that haunt this shore. Beautiful parrots, mackaws, and the flamingo in immense flocks and very tame, are found everywhere; together with the agame or trumpeter, a native turkey of this climate; the sun-bird, a kind of patridge, sometimes kept in the houses to destroy ants; the peacock-pheasant, resembling our turkey in size and taste; the hummingbird; mocking-bird; and bat. The varieties of the humming-bird are nowhere exceeded in beauty. The most common is not bigger than a full-sized cherry, and the smallest of a black and green plumage, tufted with gold, is one-third less than this, and weighs not more than fifty grains. The mocking-bird is remarkable for contriving to place its nest out of the reach of its enemy, the monkey, at the extremity of the remotest twigs of the forest. These nests are sometimes fifteen or sixteen inches long, by eight or nine in circumference. The bat has been known to open the veins of the human feet when persons were asleep, and satiate itself with their blood.

217. Among the fish of this coast the galvanic eel is very common, and generally measures about two feet in length by one foot or fourteen inches in circumference. Its flesh is much esteemed by the natives. The frog-fish is, however, the most remarkable of the finny tribes. It is said to pass successively through the forms of a frog, a frog-fish, and lastly a fish; in which size it is about eight or ten inches long without scales and very delicate food. Stedman thinks the progress is reversed, and that it proceeds from the form of a fish to that of a frog.

218. The insects of Guiana are its greatest pest. They consist of musquitoes, scorpions, centipedes, cock-roaches, ants, a peculiar kind of bee, (which is said regularly to attack strangers, but never to molest the inhabitants,) grasshoppers, and enormous spiders. The ant-hills are a natural curiosity of the coast, and are often so high as to resemble, at a distance, the appearance of a black or brown bear. They have even been found of the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and 100 feet in circumference. Some of their inhabitants grow to the size of an inch in length, and give a most painful bite.

219. The native tribes of Indians, on this coast, exhibit very striking peculiarities. Nothwithstanding all the efforts of the Dutch during their long possession of these colonies, and the

devotion of a considerable annual sum to the purchase of hatchets, blue cloth, beads, and trinkets, as presents to them, (a system which has been scrupulously followed and improved since the district has come into the hands of the British) these ancient possessors of the soil remain shy of the colonists. Sometimes they will engage in their service as wood-cutters, but will often suddenly depart into the interior, and have little application to any steady employ. To the negroes, however, they have a still greater antipathy than to their masters, and having imbibed the liberal notions of those who consider them an inferior species, will frequently assist the colonists in getting them back from the woods. As independent traders they appear at the settlements with ebony, canoes, cotton hammocks, wax, baskets, coarse earthen-pots, balsam of capivi, arnetto, wild nutmeg, cinnamon, parrots, monkeys, the beautiful birds, and curious woods of these forests, and their prisoners of war as slaves; for which they take back rum, fire-arms, hatchets, gunpowder, knives, scissars, lookingglasses, fish-hooks, combs, needles, pins, beads, chequered cloth, &c. They are divided into six principal tribes, of which the Accawaws, who live near the sources of the Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, are the most sagacious; they are tall in stature, of a light dun complexion, and have intelligent and rather agreeable features, straight black hair, without beards, high cheekbones, and broad shoulders. The Caribs, of similar appearance, who dwell between the Essequibo and Orinoco, are the largest and most warlike of these tribes. They have an inveterate animosity against the Spaniards, but the Dutch generally conciliated their favour. The use of poison in their weapons is common to all these tribes, and the Caribs have been said to indulge the horrid practices of cannibalism. At home their dwellings are surrounded with wellcultivated fields of cassava and plantains, and they are fond of hunting and fishing. The Worrows are found on the coast between Surinam and Demerara. They are the most barbarous and disagreeable in appearance, as well as the most filthy in their habits, of any of its inhabitants; and so lazy that their slight clothing is generally nothing better than the bark of trees, while they are said to live principally on raw shell-fish and water. Behind their habitations toward the interior, reside the Arrowaws, a docile and very friendly race; comparatively handsome in their persons, and fond of intercourse with the European settlers. Other tribes more remote are the Taiiras and Piannocataws, the former as peaceable and indolent as the latter are warlike and determined in their hatred against all the colonists of the coast. On the whole, it is hardly to be doubted that the liberal British policy of diffusing the blessings of our empire wherever we maintain its sway, will ultimately render our connexion with this coast an epoch of abiding comfort and conciliation to its native tribes, possessing as they do some of the most promising dispositions towards civilization; while in the present situation of the world, and particularly of the neighbouring Spanish colonies, these settlements, duly cultivated, may

become important emporiums of British com

merce.

220. The agricultural system of the whole district is much alike. The colonial establishments and plantations are generally on the banks of the rivers and creeks, and contain from 500 to 2000 acres each, divided into sugar, coffee, cocoa, and cotton grounds. The low situation of the plantations has induced the colonists to adopt a similar mode of drainage to that which is pursued in the fenny counties of England. Straight deep ditches, defended by sluices, carry off the redundant water to the rivers, while similar ones intersect every part of the farms, and are navigated by flat-bottomed boats which carry the produce to and fro. The beds between these and smaller trenches are sometimes not more than from thirty to thirty-two feet in breadth; and being raised by the excavated earth, they are found to contain the best spots in the colony for the cotton tree, which is planted in rows six feet asunder. The coffee plant is cultivated under the shades of the plantain or some loftier tree, in rows at from nine to twelve feet distance from each other. The soil is universally clayey, and whenever it becomes impoverished is left under water for a time, perhaps a year or two, while another piece of woodland is cleared, manure being wholly unknown here. Agricultural labour is chiefly performed by the negro slaves. Expedients, however, are more frequently necessary to diminish the richness of the soil. This is done by cropping it two or three years with plantains, and then with sugar-canes; the latter of which, for two or three crops, will sometimes be so luxuriant as to be unfit for any thing but the manufacture of rum. Abundance of fresh-water fish are found in the rivers, and at some seasons of the year there is a plentiful supply of turtle.

221. In consideration of the nabits and interests of the Dutch parts of the population, peculiar privileges in favour of intercourse between these settlements and the kingdom of the Netherlands are secured to them by 56 Geo. III. c. 91. The entire number of acres in cultivation throughout the whole district has been recently estimated at 1,500,000. For CAYENNE, the French island and settlement, see that article.

We have thus devoted that considerable space to the consideration of America, geography, and politics, which we conceive their importance on the scale of nations, an importance every day increasing, to demand. Some of the most interesting occurrences, and noblest lessons of history, have been supplied by the progress of these regions to civilization and liberty, within the last fifty years. Half a century ago the northern continent was just emerging from obscurity, and buckling on her armour for the struggle of independence of Great Britain. France, in yielding her aid on that occasion, imbibed involuntarily a portion of her spirit; the French followed the North American revolution; and if the licentiousness of her new liberty ended in the temporary establishment of a despot in France, her measures in the Peninsula, and the conflicts of Europe arising out of these important changes, gave, in return, to South America, opportunity and encouragement to break her chains. It must be obvious that the complete emancipation of so large a portion of the globe from its original barbarism, and more recent colonial tyranny, is full of bright hopes for posterity; that the infant nations of the southern continent in particular have a noble destiny to fulfil, and that the western world is assuming a magnificence in her political character and prospects fully commensurate with her geographical features.

TO

ACADIA, first named and settled by the French in 1603, 10.

ACAPULCO harbour, 13.

AGRICULTURE of the United States, 214. 234. Of
Upper Canada, 369.

ALABAMA state, its fertility, 57. River, 84.
ALEUTIAN island, 389.

ALLEGANY mountains, their extent, local names, &c.
33. River, 82.
ALTAMAHA river, 85.
AMAZONS river, 15.
AMERICA, its extent and general divisions, 1. Its
northern limits not known, ib. Stretches through
every zone, ib. Grandeur of its natural features, ib.
Its modern political character, ib. History of its
discovery, 2. Doubtful whether known to the an-
cients or not, ib. Discouragements of Columbus, ib.
Columbus first lands in the western world, 3, 4.
Plan of this article on, 12. General physical de-
scription of, ib. American bottom, its geology, 61.
British, 345-388. Russian, 389-391. Spanish,
392-430.

AMERICA, North, first discovered by the Cabots, 5. Stephen Gomez arrives there in 1525, 8. The French first arrive in 1534, ib. Frobisher and Sir Francis Drake coast along California, 9. Sir Walter Raleigh plants Virginia, ib. Ill success of these attempts, ib. The whole northern continent unsettled at the beginning of the seventeenth century, ib. Virginia finally settled, ib. Its dimensions and boundaries, 12. Seas, bays, and gulfs, 13-27. Mountains, 28-46. Physical divisions, 47-75. Rivers and lakes, 76-101. Its inland navigation, 102-131. Climate, 132–153. Productions, vegetable, 154-157. Animal, 158-166. Minerals, 167-172. Objects of curiosity, 113-187. Its great political divisions, 188-192. United States of, 193-344. British possessions in, 345 -388. Russian possessions, 389-391. Spanish. 392-430. Indian possessions, 431-436. Cha. racter of the Indians, 437-440. Languages of, 441-446. Arctic declivity of, 71. Western deExplored by Captains Lewis and Lakes of, 88.

clivity of, 72. Clarke, ib.