blackish clay-slate*, which might easily be confounded with the secondary thonschiefer; and these strata hinder the water from filtering into the crevices, of which the Alpine limestone is full. This last offers to the view here, as in the country of Saltzburg, and on the chain of the Apennines, broken and steep beds. The sandstone, on the contrary, wherever it is seated on the calcareous rock, renders the appearance of the scene less savage. The hills which it forms appear more rounded, and the gentler slopes are covered with a thicker mould.

In those humid places, where the sandstone envelopes the Alpine limestone, some trace of cultivation is constantly found. We met with huts inhabited by mestizoes in the ravine of Los Frailes, as well as between the Cuesta of Caneyes, and the Rio Guriental. Each of these huts is placed in the centre of an enclosure, that contains plantains, papaw trees, sugarcanes, and maize. We might be surprised at the small extent of these cultivated spots, if we did not recollect†, that an acre planted with plantains produces near twenty times as much food as the same space sown with corn. In Europe, our wheat, barley, and rye cover vast spaces of ground; and in general the ara

* Schieferthon.

+ Political Essay on New Spain, Vol. ii. p. 366.

Musa paradisiaca.

ble lands touch each other, wherever the inhabitants live upon corn. It is not the same under the torrid zone, where man has been able to appropriate to himself plants, that yield more abundant and earlier harvests. In these happy climates, the fertility of the soil is proportioned to the heat and humidity of the atmosphere. An immense population finds abundant nourishment on a narrow space, covered with plantains, cassava, yams, and maize. The isolated situation of the huts dispersed through the forest indicates to the traveller the fecundity of nature, where a small spot of cultivated land suffices for the wants of several families.

These considerations on the agriculture of the torrid zone involuntarily remind us of the intimate connexion, that exists between the extent of land cleared, and the progress of society. That richness of the soil, that vigour of organic life, which multiply the means of subsistence, retard the progress of nations toward civilization. Under so mild and uniform a climate, the only urgent want of man is that of food. It is the feeling of this want only, which excites him to labour; and we may easily conceive, why in the midst of abundance, beneath the shade of the plantain and breadfruit tree, the intellectual faculties unfold themselves less rapidly than under a rigorous sky, in the region of corn, where our race is in a perpetual struggle

with the elements. When we take a general survey of countries inhabited by agricultural nations, we observe, that cultivated lands are either separated by forests, or immediately touch each other; not only according to the growth of the population, but the choice of alimentary plants. In Europe we judge of the number of the inhabitants by the extent of the cultivation: under the tropics, on the contrary, in the warmest and most humid parts of South America, very populous provinces appear almost deserted; because man, in order to find nourishment, cultivates but a small number of acres. These circumstances, highly worthy of attention, modify at the same time the physical appearance of the country, and the character of it's inhabitants, giving a peculiar physiognomy to both; something wild and uncultivated, which belongs to nature, the primitive type of which has not yet been altered by art. Without neighbours, almost unconnected with the rest of mankind, each family of settlers forms a separate tribe. This insulated state arrests or retards the progress toward civilization, which advances only in proportion as society becomes more numerous, and it's connexions more intimate and multiplied but on the other hand, it is solitude that developes and strengthens in man the sentiment of liberty and independence; and gives birth to that noble pride of character, which

has at all times distinguished the Castilian

race.

From these causes, the powerful influence of which will often occupy us in the course of this work, the land in the most populous regions of equinoctial America still retains a savage aspect, which is destroyed in the temperate climates by the cultivation of corn. Between the tropics the agricultural nations occupy less ground man has there less extended his empire; he may be said to appear, not as an absolute master, who changes at his will the surface of the soil, but as a transient guest, who quietly enjoys the gifts of nature. There, in the neighbourhood of the most populous cities, the land remains studded with forests, or covered with a thick mould, never torn up by the plough. Spontaneous plants still predominate by their quantity over cultivated plants, and determine alone the appearance of the landscape. It is probable, that this state of things will change very slowly. If in our temperate climate the cultivation of corn contributes to throw a dull uniformity upon the land we have cleared, we cannot doubt, that, even with an increasing population, the torrid zone will preserve that majesty of vegetable forms, those marks of an unsubdued, virgin nature, which render it so attractive, and so picturesque. Thus it is, that, by a remarkable concatenation of

physical and moral causes, the choice and production of alimentary plants have an influence on three important objects at once; the association or the isolated state of families, the more or less rapid progress of civilization, and the individual character of the landscape.

In proportion as we penetrated into the forest, the barometer indicated the progressive elevation of the land. The trunks of the trees presented here an extraordinary phenomenon ; a gramineous plant, with verticillate branches*, climbs, like a liana, eight or ten feet, and forms festoons, which cross the path, and swing about with the wind. We halted, about three o'clock in the afternoon, on a small flat, which is known under the name of Quetepe, and is elevated about one hundred and ninety toises above the level of the sea. A few small houses have been erected near a spring, well known by the natives for its coolness and great salubrity. We found the water delicious. It's temperature was only 22:5° of the centigrade thermometer, while that of the air was 28.7°. The

* Carice, analogous to the chusque of Santa Fe, of the group of the nastuses. This gramineous plant is excellent pasture for mules. See the Nova Genera et Species Plantarum equin, which I am publishing in conjunction with Messrs. Bonpland and Kunth.

+ Habitacion de Don Juan Pelay.

18° of Reaumur's thermometer.