common, previously to the arrival of the Spaniards, by the BOOK invasion of an Aztec colony. These new comers alone LXXXV. were possessed of books, composed of paper and parchment, in which they painted, in hieroglyphical figures, their sacred rites, and the political events of their country. It would appear that the Chorotecs did not understand writing. They reckoned eighteen months, and an equal number of great festivals. Their idols, different from those of the Aztecs, were, nevertheless, honoured by an equally sanguinary worship with that of Mexico; and they even ate a part of the flesh of the women, children, and slaves who had been immolated by their priests. Although liable to be offered in sacrifice, their women exercised great power.* The Spaniards, on their arrival, discovered palaces and spacious temples, surrounded by commodious mansions for the nobility; but the common people lived in a state of great misery, and, in many places, had actually no other shelter than a kind of nest, fixed upon trees. Laws, or unwritten customs, regulated the punishment for theft and adultery, as well as the sale of lands. The warriors shaved their head, with the exception of one single tuft that was left growing upon the top. Their goldsmiths worked with dexterity in painter's gold. The art of medicine was exercised by old women; who took into their mouth the decoction of certain herbs, and blew it through a piece of sugar cane into the patient's mouth. Young married women were often yielded up to the noblemen or Caciques before the consummation of the marriage; and the husband considered himself honoured by this grovelling sacrifice.+ Costa Rica. The province of Costa Rica contains no mines, and Province of hence it has been said that this name has been ironically applied to it; but its extensive forests of building timber, its rich pastures, and picturesque scenery, afford abundant reasons for this appellation. Cattle, and especially hogs, swarm here to an extraordinary degree. In the Gulf of * Gomare, Hist. de les Indias, chap. CCVI. VOL. V. 45 + Idem. BOOK LXXXV. eragua. Salinas the muscle yielding purple is caught. Carthago, a flourishing town, situated in the interior, is the capital of this province. In a gulf of the Pacific Ocean we meet with the town of Nicoya, inhabited by carpenters, where vessels are built and refitted. There likewise they manufacture what are called cloths of Segovia. The province of Veragua is still less known than the preceding. This little country, which appears at one time to have formed part of the general government of Guatimala, and, at another, that of Terra Firma, is covered with mountains, forests, and pasture ground. It is also said that silver mines exist there; but they are either not worked at all, or with very little exertion. San Lago is the capital. The descendants of Columbus, in the female line, bear the title of Dukes of Veragua. BOOK LXXXVI. THE DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA CONTINUED. 355 General Physical Description of Spanish South America. Extent of South America. We now enter upon the richest and most fertile, the heal- BOOK thiest, the most picturesque, and excepting Africa, the most LXXXVI. extensive peninsula of the world. While gratitude would assign to the northern division of the western continent the name of Columbia, the division now under consideration, which has received the name of South America, would with more propriety and justice be called briefly America. According to geographical writers, this vast peninsula contains a surface of 95,000 square leagues, of twenty-five to an equatorial degree. Nearly three-fourths of this expanse of country is contained in the Torrid Zone. Its greatest breadth is between Cape St. Augustin, or Cape St. Roque, in the Brazils, and Cape Blanc, in Peru, a distance of 1600 leagues. The length of this peninsula ought to be calcu lated from point Gallianas, near Cape Vela, in Terra Firma, in 12° of north latitude, to Cape Froward, in Patagonia, in 54° south latitude; which, in that case, would give it an extent of 1650 leagues; but it ought to be considered as reaching fifty leagues farther south, to Cape Horn, in Terra del Fuego, in 56° of latitude; for the islands which compose Terra del Fuego are closely at BOOK tached to America, and in looking at the terrestrial globe LXXXVI. the eye can scarcely perceive the distinction. General physical aspect. Rivers. The physical geography of this great peninsula presents so much simplicity in its general character, that it is perfectly easy to comprehend its individual features. A plateau, in general, elevated 12,000 feet, and crowned by chains and peaks of insulated mountains, forms the whole western region of South America. To the cast of this tract of high land, there is an expanse of country two or three times broader, composed of marshy or sandy plains, furrowed by three immense rivers, and by numerous streams; and still farther to the east rises another high land, less elevated, and of less extent than the western plateau; and these three constitute the whole of the South American peninsula. The Spaniards occupy, or claim the western table land, and the greater part of the plains; the Portuguese possess the table land on the eastern side. With the exception of the great rivers which traverse extensive territories, the general physical description of South America may be arranged under its two great political divisions. The majestic rivers of South America leave far behind The Ama- them those of the old world, both by the length of their zon, or, The river course and the great breadth of their beds. The superb Amazons. Amazon claims the first rank. This river is formed in the of the The Andes by the union of several branches, which themselves are considerable rivers. According to la Condamine,* the Ucayal is the principal one; and indeed it is the Ucayal, or one of its branches, which all the ancient historians of Peru have considered as the principal river of this region.† But this stream is itself formed of two rivers; the one is the ancient Maranon or Pari, which takes its rise in the lake Chincay, to the north-east of the city of Lima, and makes a long circuit in the Andes before it joins the Apurimac, which, according to the maps of Cruz d'Olme Abridged account of a Voyage, etc. p. 69. Acosta, Hist. Nat. Ind. p. 164. Montolvo, Sol del Nuevo Mundo. p. 7. Garcilaso de la Vega, I. p. 294. Calancha, Hist. of Feru. p. 50. dilla, appears to be the principal branch of the Ucayal; the BOOK other comes from the environs of the lake Titicaca. Its LXXXVI. source is in the Andes, to the north-east of the town of Arequipa. The Ucayal, both under the latter name and that of the Apurimac, traverses mountain ranges almost inaccessible, deserted forests, and vast solitudes, where, no doubt, it winds its course amidst picturesque beauties, which await another La Condamine to describe them. Nevertheless, according to the assertions of the Fathers Girbal and Rodriguez-Tena, the Apurimac receives the river Beni, which rises to the south of the town of La Paz, sixty leagues farther than the sources of the Apurimac.* It is probable that this large river will at last be discovered to be the principal branch of a system of streams, as vast as it is complicated. It is still possible, however, that the Beni only communicates with the Apurimac by means of a branch similar to the Cassiquiari. Maranon. The other principal branch of the Amazon is the stream The higher which flows from the lake Lauricocha, a lake situated very near the source of the ancient Maranon, or of the lake Chincay. The river Lauricocha is called the new or the High Maranon. It is commonly looked upon as the principal branch of the Amazon, although, in reality, this rank belongs to the Ucayal. The higher Maranon becomes navigable near the town of Jaen, where it flows through one of those majestic narrows, called by the Spaniards Quebrada. Two very lofty precipices of rock, which exactly correspond with one another, leave between them a narrow ravine, where, from a breadth of 250 fathoms, the river is reduced to twenty-five, without, however, its current becoming more rapid. From San Joaquin d'Omaguas, the Ucayal and the higher Maranon roll their united waves across an immense plain, to which, from every side, other streams bring down their tributary waters. The Napo, Yupura, Parana, tributary Cuchivara, Yutay, and Puruz, would, in any other part streams. * Travels of the Father Girbal, in the Mercurio Peruano. Different |