the islands into two distinct classes, designated by the terms Barlo-vento and Sota-vento, which ideas, under English appellations, we still retain. It is from these terms that we derive our notions of Windward and Leeward Islands; for such, when translated into English, is the express meaning of the above words. These islands are distinguished and arranged in the following manner.

The Charaibean Islands, which are so denominated from their original inhabitants, as will hereafter be noticed, constitute from their situation the former class; while the four larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Porto-Rico, constitute the latter. The winds blowing from the eastern quarter without much variation through nearly nine months in the year, have given occasion to these distinctions; and the islands are denominated Windward according to their easterly, and Leeward according to their westerly situation. Thus Barbadoes is the most windward of all the islands, because it holds the most easterly situation; while the Havannah is the most leeward, because it holds among these islands the most westerly position on the globe. And the intermediate islands, which engross the various longitudes between these extremities which have been mentioned, are named according to that rank which they sustain.

In this general division of the islands into these two distinct classes, only four of them are denominated Leeward, while the appellation Windward engrosses all the rest. But no real reason in nature seems assignable for this particular division. They might have been apportioned differently, without injuring the general name, or affecting the common application. The division is however already made; and since it conveys to us distinct and perspicuous ideas, it leaves no room for the novelties of innovation or the murmurs of discontent.

But this general division, insufficient for all the local purposes of commerce and navigation, has been succeeded by another subordinate distinction, most generally known in the vocabulary of the seas. The Windward Islands, of which we have already spoken, have in themselves undergone another change. For as these Charaibean Islands, divided from the others, constituted a separate class, which was called Windward, so in themselves they are divided into two classes, and are denominated the Windward or Leeward Islands of the Charaibeans, without having any respect to those large islands of which we have already spoken.

But this subordinate division seems to be of an arbitrary and uncertain nature. They are subdivided, it is true, according to their relative situations and primary exposure to the trade winds; but that line of demarkation which separates the Wind

ward from the Leeward Islands in this Charaibean division, is of a nature too adventitious to engage our further pursuit. The line by which they are in general divided by mariners who have been accustomed to navigate those seas, seems to be drawn between Martinico and Dominica, leaving the former in the Windward and including the latter in the Leeward class. It may however be proper to observe, that whether this subdivision oríginated in caprice or novelty, in necessity or conveniency, as it has been established by nautical practice and observation, it is now acknowledged and followed by our modern geographers, and engraven on the plates of our best and correctest maps. These citcumstances will serve to confirm this sub-arrangement of the Charaibean Islands, whatever cause might have first called it into existence.

It is thus divisions take place! We localize and distinguish parts for our own accommodation; and descend from immense magnitudes to minute spots, as necessity or conveniency requires. In the western world we behold an immense continent, stretching from above the Arctic Circle, down to 55 degrees of southern latitude. This vast continent is divided into two parts at the Isthmus of Darien; in the bosom of which lies that chain of islands which are denominated the West Indies. These islands are again divided into two classes, denominated the Windward and the Leeward; the Windward are again subdivided into other classes which retain the same names, and are distinguishable by the station which they sustain. From classes we descend to islands; from islands to counties; from counties through all the gradations of subdivision, till we enter local plantations, and lose ourselves in the minuteness of our researches.

To a spectator, who extends his view from North to South America, these islands appear like so many scattered fragments of a broken continent, now insulated by water; but originally torn by some violent concussion of nature from those portions of the globe, which are now inundated by the gulfs and seas which fill the excavation in which they stand. In this view they appear like monuments of some signal vengeance, which Heaven had inflicted on some dreadful occasion; and they seem preserved to convey the tremendous tidings, through the progress of time, to the latest generations of mankind. The fertility which they exhibit, will tend to add some mournful ingredients to these conjectural sentiments; and the mind is left to rove in a melancholy region; to contemplate departed glory; and to drop the tear of sorrow, over an immense tract of the most fertile territory that perhaps ever opened its bosom to the sun; now overwhelmed with surrounding seas, and sunk for ever to the bottom of the remorseless deep.

As natural productions they seem to have immerged from the bottom of the ocean; and to have elevated their mountainous heads, to a height which in many instances has been almost inaccessible to man. That marine productions have been found on the most elevated parts to which man has had access, is a point which will admit of no dispute; and serves as one collateral proof of an universal deluge.

But on the origin of islands we have no more reason to expect that our curiosity will be gratified, than we have, when we urge our inquiries about the origin of continents. They both claim one common Parent; we behold in each the footsteps of an Almighty Creator; and they declare in both cases, that, in ways and manners which are beyond the scrutiny of mortals, they owe their existence to the power and wisdom of God.

These islands are bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean with which they are laved. On the north their limits are fixed by the northern continent of America; on the west by New Spain and the Isthmus of Darien; and on the south by the northern shores of the southern continent of America. Thus providentially situated, in a region adapted to their uses; surrounded by seas and gulfs, which are amazingly extensive, and navigable for ships of the largest burdens; they present their bosoms to the Atlantic Ocean; and are so adapted for commerce, that they seem, while reposing in the lap of nature, to hold out a general invitation to Europe and the world.

Protected on the west by the mountainous Isthmus of Darien, which rises in majestic grandeur, and forms a rampart to that world of waters which lies behind it, these islands are shielded from otherwise inevitable destruction. Preserved from the encroachments of the Pacific Ocean by this barrier which the Isthmus of Darien forms, they are secured from that unavoidable ruin, into which they must in all probability have fallen, had that barrier been broken down through any sudden convulsion of nature. For in such a situation are these islands apparently placed, that should this isthmus which now divides both continents and oceans, be demolished by any unexpected commotion of the world, the agitation which would arise from the awful confluence of these immense oceans, would in all probability nearly blot them from the visible works of God.

The inundation which a junction of these seas would occasion, would, it is more than probable, either root them from their foundation, or so agitate and vex these contiguous waters, as to render these seas unnavigable; so that should these islands survive the catastrophe, they would be no longer beneficial to the world in general.

But that God who sitteth above the water-floods, hath laid

the foundation of the earth, and hath shut up the sea within doors. He hath established its boundaries beyond which it cannot pass he hath chained it with his word, and said, "Hitherto shalt thou come but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

Through this power the Isthmus of Darien has baffled the rage of all the elements, and repelled the storms of all preceding ages. And what changes soever the earth may have undergone in these parts of the globe, through earthquakes, volcanoes, or other causes which have acted on her surface, or insidiously consumed her through subterranean fires, these ramparts have been preserved uninjured to the present time; and are striking monuments of the creating power and preserving care of God.

It is through the word of divine power that the different elements have preserved, and still preserve, their respective abodes; that an equilibrium is maintained between land and water; and that no encroachments since the universal deluge have been suffered in either case, which could unhinge the laws of nature, or, in a general view, either parch, or finally inundate the globe.

The calamities which have befallen it since that total inundation, have been either transient in their continuance, or partial in their application; like momentary eclipses which cast a shadow over the scene, that its beauties might afterwards appear in brighter perfection, and to greater advantage.

In the great volume of nature which we now contemplate, irregularities will appear before us; and they will appear like inflictions or casualties which proceed from the justice of God. But many of these irregularities are branches of a system, the whole of which we cannot fully comprehend; they are secret portions, which unite the more visible parts; and serve as connective links in the vast chain of being and of providence, which both begin and finally terminate in God.

The geographical position of this vast Archipelago which is bounded and protected as we have described, engrosses on the globe a considerable space. Extending from Trinidad southward to the northern Bahama, it includes from 10 to 27 degrees of northern latitude; and stretching from Barbadoes on the east, to the extremity of Cuba on the west, it fills from 60 to 85 degrees of longitude west of London.

The territorial dominion belongs to different European powers, of which considered in every point of view the British is the chief; the other settlements appertain to Spain, to France, to Holland, and to Denmark; but occasionally change their mas ters as the fate of war decides. In the course of those hostilities which from time to time have disturbed the tranquillity of Eu

rope, and desolated so many fertile countries, these islands have been sometimes the theatre of devastation, and scenes of rapine and plunder have been occasionally exhibited, as they happened to fall a prey to one or other of the opposing powers. The calamities of war in all the varied forms in which they af flict mankind, have been severely felt in these colonies, and scem to have counteracted that profusion of blessings, which the providence of God, in the productions of nature, has scattered with such a liberal hand.

The cruelties which the unhappy natives have undergone; the unheard-of tortures to which they have been exposed; the depredations which have been committed upon the inhabitants by Europeans, even when they had extirpated the natives, and then thirsted for each other's blood, would half induce us to believe that these islands were marked out for the vengeance of Heaven; and that the inhabitants had been doomed to suffer those evils which so awfully overtook them, as a punishment for some most heinous crimes.

But how strongly soever the contention for empire may have been on other occasions, yet in the course of those wars which too frequently happen between Great Britain and France, after desolating with fire and sword the territories which they respectively acquired by conquest in times of hostilities, they have almost uniformly restored them to the first proprietors by treaties of peace.

The first discovery of these islands was made by Christopher Columbus. This celebrated navigator was born in some obscure village, within the territory of the republic of Genoa, A. D. 1442. Tradition reports that he was honourably descended, but time and misfortunes concurred to reduce his parents to humi liating circumstances; so that, at an early period of his life, ne cessity prompted him to action, and, in the end, patient and laborious merit conducted him through the rugged and uneven paths of enterprize to fame and honour.

Brought up to the sea, he became an early adept in the theory and practice of navigation, and acquired a greater share of nau tical information than any of his contemporaries, either in his own, or any other country. From a combination of circum stances which fell under his observation in the course of trading voyages from his own country towards the Atlantic ocean, he concluded that undiscovered regions lay to the westward, beyond that immense body of waters,* After submitting the evidences

* That Columbus was fully persuaded in his own mind of the existence of an immense tract of land lying in some undiscovered part of the globe, appears most evident to the attentive inquirer. It was this persuasion which gave energy to his pursuits, and prompted him to exertions apparently beyond the reach of man.