Our extracts from the first volume having been rather copious, we must restrain ourselves in the two which succeed, but the description of the effect of the embargo at New York, as detailed in the second, is too interesting to be omitted.

"When I arrived at New York, in November, the port was filled with shipping, and the wharfs were crowded with commodities of every description. Bales of cotton, wools, and merchandise; barrels of potash, rice, flower, and salt provisions; hogsheads of sugar, chess of tea, puncheons of rum, and pipes of wine; boxes, cases, packs and packages of all sizes and denominations, were strowed upon the wharfs and landing places, or upon the decks of the shipping. All was noise and bustle. The carters were driving in every direction; and the sailors and labourers upon the wharfs, and on board the vessels, were moving their ponderous burthens from place to place. The merchants and their clerks were busily engaged in their counting houses or upon the piers. The Tontine coffeehouse was filled with underwriters, brokers, merchants, traders and politicians; selling,purchasing, trafficking, or ensuring; some reading, others eagerly inquiring the news. The steps and balcony of the coffeehouse were crowded with people bidding, or listening to the several auctioneers, who had ele. vated themselves upon a hogshead of su gar, a puncheon of rum, or a bale of cotton; and with Stentorian voices were exclaiming: Once, twice,' Once, twice' " Another cent.' Thank ye, gentlemen,' or were knocking down the goods which took up one side of the street, to the best purchaser. The coffeehouse slip, and the corners of Wall and Pearl streets, were jammed up with carts, drays, and wheel. barrows: horses and men were huddled promiscuously together, leaving little or no room for passengers to pass. Such was the appearance of this part of the town when I arrived. Every thing was in motion; all was life, bustle, and activity. The people were scampering in all direc. tions to trade with each other, and to ship off their purchases for the European, Asian, African, and West-Indian markets. Every thought, word, look, and action of the multitude, seemed to be absorbed by commerce; the welkin rang with its busy hum, and all were eager in the pursuit of its riches..

"But on my return to New York the

following April, what a contrast was presented to my view, and how shall I describe the melancholy dejection that was painted upon the countenances of the people, who seemed to have taken leave of all their former gayety and cheerfulness. The coffeehouse slip, the wharfs, and quays along South street, presented no longer the bustle and activity that had prevailed there five months before The port, indeed, was full of shipping, but they were dismantled, and laid up. Their decks were cleared, their hatches fastened down, and scarcely a sailor was to be seen on board. Not a box, bale, cask, barrel, or package, was to be seen upon the wharfs. Many of the counting houses were shut up, or advertised to be let; and the few solitary merchants, clerks, porters and labourers, that were to be seen, were walking about with their hands in their pockets. Instead of sixty or one hundred carts that used to stand in the street for hire, scarcely a dozen appeared, and they were unemployed; a few coasting sloops and schooners, which were clearing out for some of the ports in the United States, were all that remained of that immense business which was carried on a few months before. The coffeehouse was almost empty; or if there happened to be a few people in it, it was merely to pass away the time which hung heavy on their hands, or to inquire anxiously after news from Europe, and from Washington; or perhaps to purchase a few bills, that were selling at ten or twelve per cent. above par. In fact, every thing presented a melancholy appearance. The streets near the water side were almost

deserted, the grass had begun to grow upon the wharfs, and the minds of the people were tortured by the vague and idle rumours that were set afloat upon the arrival of every letter from England, or from the seat of government. In short, the scene was so gloomy and forlorn, that had it been the month of September instead of April, I should verily have thought that a malignant fever was raging in the place. So desolating were the effects of the embargo, which in the short space of five months, had deprived the first commercial city in the states, of all its life, bustle, and activity. Caused above one hundred and twenty bankruptcies; and completely annihilated its foreign commerce.” p. 152.

The Essays from the Salmagundi, a periodical work in extensive circulation at New York, are well

enough, and amusing in themselves, but are out of place here, and seem introduced to eke out the volumes. The same object seems to have been had in view in the third volume also, and indeed if the work had been comprised in two, instead of three volumes, it would have been more entitled to respect, and better qualified to have asserted its claim to a distinguished place in geographical collections.

In this volume, however, it is but justice to allow that the description of Charleston is written with particular vivacity; and is altogether the best account of this place we remember to have seen. The colour

ed prints, introduced by way of embellishment, are very trifling and unsatisfactory, but the map which is prefixed to the first volume is of neat execution. We are altogether pleased with the performance, and lament the disappointment of the author in a commercial view. His description of the difficulties which he and his relative had to encounter on their arrival at Quebeck; his remarks on the causes which here prevented the successful culture of hemp in Canada, are related with much temper and great good sense, and appear to merit the consideration of government.

SPANISH America is an object which, of late, has come forward rapidly on the horizon of European politicks. Before the voyage of Anson, little known, even geographically, beyond the confines of its parent state, and almost every document relating to it, classed in the archives of old Spain, among the Arcana Imperii, the literary world equally with the political, was obliged to remain satisfied with shreds and patches of information; or with gleanings, obtained by accident or by stealth. Suspicion or conjecture, was the extent to which the beldest speculator ventured; and what were the capabilities of the country, was rather inferred than affirmed, by the best informed student in statisticks.

When France, in direct opposition to her own interest, interfered to give liberty to North America, there were some among us (we speak from personal knowledge)

who foresaw that the result would be destructive to that politick power; though none, we believe, anticipated the extent to which that destruction has proceeded. M. de Vergennes, who had perfected what the duc de Choiseul begun, was, on his death-bed, fully convinced of the distresses advancing with rapid strides, eventually to overwhelm his country. Neckar, who, equally with De Vergennes, had been deceived in his estimate of British power and spirit, lived to see, what he deemed a triumph, end in despair. When Spain was over-persuaded against her conviction, to become a party to the war in favour of the now United States, all who had obtained that information, limited as it was, which was then extant, inferred that the example of North America would soon be followed in the south; and that Spain might prepare herself to bid an everlasting farewell to her transatlantick possessions. The spi

rit of independence has been active, more or less openly, in South America from that day to this: and the propositions made to British officers from Buenos Ayres and other places, are so many vouchers for the truth of what we affirm. As the disposition toward independence was fomented in North America, by French agents under the direction of Choiseul; and so far had they proceeded, that Louis XVI. though anticipating evil from the machination, yet could not stop it; so, it may be, that French agents were also employed in enlightening the Spanish Americans, and that Buonaparte, like Louis, wishes the progress of these enlightenings to be stayed. That he really did desire to hold the Spanish colonies in dependence on Spain, and to render them tributary to France, admits of no doubt; that his scheme has failed, and that they will establish their independence, we consider as certain; and this new character under which they are about to appear, increases greatly that importance, which attaches to the knowledge of their actual state and condition. In proportion as South America rises in importance, North America declines. It was not for themselves only, that the Americans took off so great a quantity of British goods, as they did some time ago: it was to export them to their Southern neighbours of the same continent. During the American embargo, those goods went direct from Britain; and thus Britain obtained an immediate intercourse with her real customers, which she will do well to cultivate, and extend to the utmost of her power. Seeing then, that we are now opening an avowed and authorized commerce with the Spanish Americans, instead of a clandestine and almost furtive traffick, we cannot but desire to obtain all possible intelligence relative to the country; to the bounties of nature distributed therein; to the disposition and character of the in

habitants; and, generally, to whatever interests the geographer, the naturalist, the philosopher, the moralist, or the statesman.

Nothing could be better timed to answer the demands of the inquisitive, than this publication of the baron de Humboldt. Many a long year has he travelled in the Spanish colonies; many a hazardous journey has he taken; many a laborious operation has he performed. With specimens of his acquisitions, the world has already been favoured in various shapes; and the present work adds to our obligations received from this adventurous disciple of science.

New Spain is more commonly known among us as the government of Mexico; because the chief city, from various causes, has been more familiar in our general course of reading. All the world has heard of the conquest of Mexico by Cortez; and the wealth of the Mexican mines has become proverbial. Little care has been taken, generally speaking, to distinguish the provinces in which these mines are situated; they have been uniformly attributed to Mexico; and that has been sufficient. It will be our own fault if this, or any other incorrectness, be longer continued among us. M. de Humboldt, gives a particular account of the divisions of this extensive viceroyalty, and takes pains to obtain a precision, which, while it may possibly be superseded by recent events, nevertheless bears testimony to his industry, and researches.

The order adopted by the baron, after a geographical introduction, is, that of general considerations on the extent and physical aspect of New Spain. On the climate, agriculture, commerce, and military defence of the country. To these, succeed-the population, the distinctions among the inhabitants, their numbers, maladies, languages, &c. The provinces into which New Spain is divided, the state of culti

vation, and of the mines, form the concluding articles. The whole is divided into four books, and these into nine chapters. A small appendix of maps is annexed to this edition; in the original, they are much more dignified and instructive.

Those who read for entertainment, will find the baron not uniformly to their taste; he advances too far into detail to please them, and his style is not sufficiently lively to impart delight. He narrates what he saw; and his remarks convey information on a variety of subjects at once new and interesting. Our author enjoyed the invaluable advantage of liberal communication with the best informed officers of New Spain; and by their assistance, he has not only corrected a multiplicity of errours extant in maps, and descriptions, but has introduced to our acquaintance, various cities and towns, some of them containing not less than 70,000 inhabitants, of which we had no previous knowledge. By means also, of his barometrical observations, he has been enabled to convey an idea of the relative heights of different mountains and other elevations; and for the first time, we have it in our power, to form adequate conceptions of the nature and elevation of the table-land of Mexico and its lakes. Not less interesting to the geologist, is the sudden and stupendous descent towards Vera Cruz, which amply explains the obstacles to a postchaise intercourse between the capital and its eastern ports. The road to Acapulco, the principal western port, is less striking, but not less practically difficult.

The condition of man is the most interesting object in every country; and we confess ourselves gratified by finding that in New Spain the number of slaves [negroes] is comparatively few, and the state of the Indians is less unhappy than we had been accustomed to suppose. We extract with pleasure a passage,

from which it appears that the mines, though a considerable source of wealth, are not the only, or even the chief wealth of the province of Mexico.

"The Indian cultivator is poor, but he is free. His state is even greatly preferable the north of Europe. There are neither to that of the peasantry in a great part of corvées nor villanage in New Spain; and the number of slaves is next to nothing. Sugar is chiefly the produce of free hands. There the principal objects of agriculture are not the productions to which European luxury has assigned a variable and tive roots, and the agave, the vine of the arbitrary value, but cereal gramina, nutriIndians. The appearance of the country proclaims to the traveller, that the soil nourishes him who cultivates it, and that the true prosperity of the Mexican people neither depends on the accidents of foticks of Europe. reign commerce, nor on the unruly poli

"Those who only know the interiour of the Spanish colonies, from the vague and uncertain notions hitherto published, will have some difficulty in believing, that the principal sources of the Mexican riches are by no means the mines, but an agriculture which has been gradually ameliorating since the end of the last cen tury. Without reflecting on the immense extent of the country, and especially the great number of provinces which appear generally imagine that all the activity of totally destitute of precious metals, we the Mexican population is directed to the working of mines. Because agriculture has made a very considerable progress in the capitania general of Caraccas, in the kingdom of Guatimala, the island of Cuba, and

wherever the mountains are accounted poor in mineral productions, it has been inferred that it is to the working of the mines that we are to attribute the small care bestowed on the cultivation of the soil in other parts of the Spanish colonies. This reasoning is just, when applied to the provinces of Choco and Antioquia, small portions of territory. No doubt, in and the coast of Barbacoas, the inhabitant are fonder of seeking for the gold washed down in the brooks and ravines, than of cultivating a virgin and fertile soil; and in the beginning of the conquest, the SpaCanary islands, to settle in Peru and Mexniards who abandoned the peninsula or ico, had no other view but the discovery of the precious metals. Atri rabida sitis

a cultura Hispanos divertit, says a writer of those times, Pedro Martyr, in his work on the discovery of Yucatan, and the colonization of the Antilles.

"In Mexico, the best cultivated fields,

those which recall to the mind of the traveller the beautiful plains of France, are those which extend from Salamanca towards Siloe, Guanaxuato, and the Villa de Leon, and which surround the richest mines of the known world. Wherever metallick seams have been discovered in the most uncultivated parts of the Cordilleras, on the insulated and desert tablelands, the working of mines, far from impeding the cultivation of the soil, has been singularly favourable to it. Travelling along the ridge of the Andes, or the mountainous part of Mexico, we every where see the most striking examples of the beneficial influence of the mines on agriculture. Were it not for the establishments formed for the working of the mines, how many places would have remained desert? how many districts uncul tivated in the four intendancies of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and Durango, between the parallels of 21° and 25° where the most considerable metallick wealth of New Spain is to be found? If the town is placed on the arid side, or the crest of the Cordilleras, the new colonists can only draw from a distance the means of their subsistence, and the maintenance of the great number of cattle employed in drawing off the water, and rais ing and amalgamating the mineral produce. Want soon awakens industry. The soil begins to be cultivated in the ravines and declivities of the neighbouring mountains, wherever the rock is covered with earth. Farms are established in the neighbourhood of the mine. The high price of provision, from the competition of the purchasers, indemnifies the cultivator for the privations to which he is exposed, from the hard life of the mountains. Thus, from the hope of gain alone, and the motives of mutual interest, which are the most pow erful bonds of society, and without any interference on the part of the govern ment in colonization, a mine, which, at first, appeared insulated in the midst of wild and desert mountains, becomes, in a short time, connected with the lands which have long been under cultivation."

To this may be added, that when the seam of metal is exhausted, the fertility created on the spot, conti

nues; and much of the population remains to enjoy the advantages it offers. Our author adds, that, although some of the Mexican families possess immense wealth, obtained from the mines, yet there are derived from cultivation much supebut few; while a greater number riour revenues.

The difference of altitude, and consequently of temperature, has been more destructive to the Indians, when obliged to change of dwelling, than excessive labour in the mines. Indeed the elevation of the table-land, and situations among the mountains, generally chosen for residence by the original natives, and by the Spaniards, forms a strong contrast to the suffocating and destructive heats of the coast. The difference of level between Vera Cruz and Mexico, gives occasion to several striking particularities.

progress.