dollars. As a great deal of gold dust is gathered and washed throughout the country, there is no doubt that the whole amount of the precious metals collected in it considerably exceeds the sum officially reported. M. de Humboldt is inclined to carry the whole amount of gold and silver, annually produced by the mines of Chili, making allowance for that which is surreptitiously obtained, to two million sixty thousand dollars. It is gratifying to learn, that even in the Spanish colonies, the relative value of the sources of wealth is so well understood, that it is regarded as a misfortune to the proprietors of fertile land to have a vein of ore discovered in their precincts.

'Those,' says Molina, who wish to undertake the working of a vein, demand permission for this purpose of the government, which is never withheld. A deputy is immediately sent to the spot, under whose direction and authority the mine is divided into three portions, called stache, each of which is two hundred and forty six feet in length, and one hundred and twenty three feet in breadth. The first is the portion of the king, in whose name it is sold; the second belongs to the proprietor of the soil, the third to the discoverer of the mine. Landholders are in the habit of concealing, with the greatest care, the mines discovered in their possession, in consideration of the damage done to their farms, by the crowds which resort to a mine. As soon as the discovery of a rich vein in any spot is known, the peasants flock thither from every quarter, partly to engage in the excavation, and partly with provisions and supplies of every description, for which they are sure to find a good market. Hence a perpetual fair is gradually constituted, houses are built, and a permanent city is formed.'*

The vexation and the loss of property, hence resulting to the proprietor of a fertile farm or an abundant vineyard, can easily be imagined. He is obliged to give up the certain produce of his harvest, for the precarious gains of a third part of a mine, to be worked at great risk and cost. Even the sight of a beautiful farm, in the romantic vallies of the Andes, converted into a black and smoking desert, loaded with heaps of scoriæ, and swarming with the thriftless and vicious population collected about a mine, must of itself be painful. Less so, indeed, but of the same kind, is that which may be seen

Molina Saggio sulla Storia Naturale, &c. 117.

nearer home than Chili. A man retires, when life begins to wane, to some secluded spot, near enough to the city for convenient access on 'melting days,' but beyond the reach of its din. Here he rebuilds perhaps the decaying walls of the habitation, where his fathers had dwelled, and thinks to descend, into the vale of years, aloof from the bustle of the world. An earthly paradise begins to form itself around him. A liberal cultivation clothes with new beauties the fields and the woods. Nature aided, not constrained, discloses all the soul soothing charms of grove, and gentle lawn, and shady walk, and stealing brook, and ever varying landscape; and the happy man fancies himself forever restored to that pious sympathy with the inanimate world, for which he was created. Vain dream! The ruthless speculator has found him out. The merciless surveyor has measured the approaches to this elysium. It is quite clear that a turnpike road through his lawn will lessen the distance to the next town a half a score of yards. All the travel of the neighboring village clamors for a short cut through his front entry; the public good requires it; the town, the county is up in arms; the court of sessions is convened; the viewers,' a name of terror, make their appearance in the devoted precinct; and by the next June, the axe is laid at the root of the elms which his father planted, and a' store,' is built in sight of his windows, to accommodate the 'passing' with West India Goods and Groceries.

But to return to Chili. It would exceed our limits to attempt to enumerate the vegetable and the animal productions of this region, and the circulation, in English, of so complete a view of them as that, which is contained in the Abbé Molina's work, abundantly supersedes the necessity of any such imperfect essay as we could make. to abridge it. It ought not, however, to be omitted, that Chili is probably the native region of the potato, that vegetable which,' says Humboldt, among the great number of useful productions made known to us by the distant migrations and voyages of man, since the discovery of the cereal grains, has had the greatest influence on human happiness. The potato, according to the same author, which is found wild in no part

6

* Essai sur la Nouvelle Espagne. III. 124.

of the tropical Cordilleras, abounds in all the districts of Chili. In making this assertion, M. de Humboldt follows the authority of the Abbé Molina, who says, that two species and more than thirty varieties of it are known to the inhabitants of Chili. It is justly mentioned by Humboldt, as a singular fact, hard to be explained, that while the potato was known in the temperate region, both of South and North America, before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mexicans were wholly unacquainted with it, and subsequently indebted to the Spaniards for its introduction.

The waters of the Chilian coast abound in fish. The Abbé Molina states, that the cod is as abundant upon the coasts of Juan Fernandez, as upon the banks of Newfoundland.

After making an apology for calling the whale a fish, the same respectable author asserts the well known fact of the abundance of this animal in the waters of Chili, and justly expresses his admiration at the strange ignorance of Buffon, in asserting, that no whales were found in the South Sea. What would that eloquent naturalist have said, could he have read the journal of one of our Nantucket spermaceti whalemen?

The direction and developement, which the Chilian commerce will assume, should free institutions meet with full success in the country, and its population increase in proportion to their natural effect, can be but in a slight degree estimated from its condition under the Spanish government. By a refinement on the villanous policy of their colonial system, all direct communication between Chili and the mother country itself was prohibited, till the year 1778. The viceroyalty of Peru was made an intermediate mother country between the Chilians and the Spaniards; and nothing could be imported or exported between them, but by the way of Callao. It will hardly be believed, even of Spanish navigators, that the voyage from Callao to Concepcion, was for a century considered as a year's work; till a pilot, who had observed the succession of the winds, performed it in a month. The Inquisition, that venerable institution of the Spanish monarchy, as the official Russian gazette pronounced it last summer, caused this bold wight to be arrested, and it was only by exhibiting his log book, that he could convince them he had made the voyage by no worse art than that of navigaNew Series, No. 18.

39

tion.* In 1778, all the ports of Spain were opened to a direct trade with Chili, and an activity before unknown, was introduced into commerce. At the period of this improvement, the Chilians exported to Peru, hides, dried fruit, copper, salt meat, horses, hemp, and wheat; and received in exchange, tobacco, sugar, cocoa, earthen ware, some manufactures of Quito, and articles of European luxury. To Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, Chili exported landwise, wines, (a very valuable article of Chilian produce,) brandy, oil, and gold; and received in return, mules, wax, cotton, the herb of Paraguay, (matte,) and negroes, of whom a few only are held in slavery in Chili. A considerable part of the European trade with Chili also came overland from the River la Plata, till the merchants of Lima bribed the Spanish government, and procured an order that it should take the route of the Isthmus of Darien and Peru.† The Abbé Molina thus sums up the account of the Chilian commerce.

'The external commerce of Chili is carried on with Peru and Spain. In the first, twenty three or twenty four ships, of five or six hundred tons each, are employed, which are partly Chilian, partly Peruvian. These usually make three voyages in a year. They carry from Chili, wheat, wine, pulse, almonds, nuts, cocoanuts, conserves, dried meat, tallow, lard, cheese, sole-leather, timber for building, copper, and sundry other articles; and bring back in return, silver, sugar, rice, and cotton. The Spanish ships receive in exchange for European merchandise, gold, silver, copper, vicuna wool, and hides.'t

It would really be doing the greatest injustice to the subject, to appeal to the reports of the present state of the trade to this, or the other regions of South America, as affording any indication of what that trade might become, under a new order of things. How great injustice would thus be committed may be partly seen, by looking into lord Sheffield's work on the commerce of the United States of North America; and beholding the stupendous errors of calculation, which were founded even on a diligent comparison of the best documents then in existence. It does not sufficiently fix the attention of those, who discourse on countries, in the condition

* Raynal's History, &c. IV. 211.

Molina, Vol. II. of the American translation, p. 282.

+ Ibid.

in which North America was, when lord Sheffield wrote, and South America, and, we will add Greece, are now, that the ante-revolutionary situation of such countries coincides with their post-revolutionary situation, in scarce anything but in geographical features. All that makes the nation,-population, laws, habits, spirit, are in a state of change, of which the extent can only be learned from experience.

Very few means, we presume, exist for ascertaining the actual amount of the Chilian trade. We have copied the following sums from a British newspaper, but we do not know on what authority they rest.

British exports to the port of Valparaiso in Chili.

As some trade takes the route from the River Plate across the Andes, westward, the imports into Valparaiso, of course, give but a partial view of that branch of Chilian commerce. So much has the revolution disordered the trade of this country, that though Chili produces wheat for exportation, both to Peru and the region east of the Andes, flour has been sent from the United States to Chili itself. The principal amount of our exports thither, in addition to this article, which is of course only occasionally in demand, are tobacco, fish, furniture, cotton manufactures, and ship chandlery. In return, we receive copper, silver, a few chinchilla skins, and scarce anything else. The numerous and rapid changes of government, which have taken place, and the disastrous vicissitudes of the war, by which the seaports have so often changed masters, having exposed our vessels to constant capture and made it impossible to form any rational calculations as to the position in which the market would be found, have almost caused the destruction of our trade to this country. Several vessels engaged in freighting business, between the Chilian ports and others of the South Sea, have been vexatiously detained, and still more vexatiously captured, and our merchants will be obliged to wait for settled times.