they never penetrate even the lower forests. The silk cotton tree is often twelve feet in circumference, and hollowed into canoes of considerable burden. The Lauba is a peculiar amphibious animal, but of srall size, and what is called the tiger is of a greyish brown, variegated with black longitudinal stripes from head to tail: our author add9 that they are somewhat less than those of Africa; but the course of the stripes indicates a different species. One snake is described thirtythree feet in length, and three feet in circumference. The natives are of a reddish brown or copper colour, like the other American tribes. Those towards the coast are Caribbees, who being called in as auxiliaries to suppress a negro revolt, devoured the bodies of the slain.* Our benevolent philosophers, who argue against the existence of cannibals, might as well deny the existence of savages; but nothing is more absurd than a wise theory of human affairs* which are neither wise nor theoretical. The Worros are another maritime tribe; but the Arrowaks are the most distinguished by elegance of form, and mildness of disposition. They believe in a supreme deity, and in inferior malign spiritsf, called Yawahoos. The priests or magicians are styled Peiis, the distinction being hereditary."

BOTANY. There are more materials for the botany of Guiana collected by the French, Dutch, and English settlers, than for any other part of South America; and in consequence of the swampy soil and moist atmosphere of this region, it presents a vigiour and wild exuberance of vegetation, perhaps without parallel. All the usual tropical productions, except those that delight in dry and sandy tracts, are found here in full perfection; the names and qualities of these however we shall not again repeat, but proceed to the notice of those which are more properly characteristic.

Besides the common species of palms, there are two which are reckoned almost peculiar to this part of America, but which, together with many other of the native plants of Guiana, have not yet found their way into the Linnxan system. One of these, called the cokarito palm, is remarkable for its hard splintery wood, of which the small poison arrows are constructed. The other, the manicole palm, grows only in the deepest and most fertile soil, where it attains the height of fifty feet, while its stem in the thickest part is scarcely nine inches in diameter. The annotta (bixa orellana) seems to be here in its favourite climate, as appears from its magnitude of growth and brilliancy of colour. The quassia, whose intense bitterness is become of late but too familiar to English palates, and the quassia simarouba, a medicinal drug of great efficacy, are also natives of Terra Fvrma; nor among the materials which the healing art derives from this country ought we to omit the mention of the ricinus or castor oil nut, the cassia fistula, the palm oil, the cowhage (dolichos pruritus), the balsam of capivi, and ipecacuanha. An herbaceous plant called troolies grows here, whose leaves are the largest of any yet known; they lie on the ground, and have been known to attain the almost incredible length of thirty feet, by three feet iu width: so admirable a material for covering bus nut

* Bancroft, 260.

f As do the Indians in every part of tne two Americas. B.

been bestowed on this country in vain; most of the houses are thatched with it, and it will last some years without requiring repair. The singularly elastic gum called caoutchouc is produced from a large tree inhabiting French Guiana, and here it is used for vessels of various kinds Mid for torches. A small tree called caruna yields a farinaceous nut, from which the slow poison of the Accawau Indians is prepared, the certain though protracted instrument of jealousy or revenge. Still more certain, because more rapid, is the Ticuna poison, the dreadful equal of that from Macassar: it is prepared from the roots of certain climbers called nibbees, which inhabit the entangled forests of these immeasurable swamps, and are a worthy shelter to the panthers, the serpents, and all those monstrous and abominable reptiles that generate and batten in this pestilential atmosphere.

NATIVE TRIBES,

AND

UNCQNQUERED COUNTRIES.

SOME account of the Peruvians has already been given, and the names Of the savage tribes of South America are so numerous, that they might be Counted by hundreds. Nor has any classification yet taken place according to languages; when probably these numerous families might by reduced to five or six denominations, as has been recently ofA-ctcd in arranging the tribes of Siberia. It was believed that Guida contained a considerable nation, with cities and towns; but on the cuntrary, it is divided among numerous tribes, among which arc many of the Caribs or Caribbees, the most ferocious of savages. The na'ions so marked in the map of La Cruz, are distinguished from the et:ulli;g famiiies, but are merely tribes from two to five thousand

souls.* Of the indigenes of Darien a minute account has been given by Wafer, and of the Caribs by Edwards, of the Teheuls or Patagonians by Falkner. A German missionary, who resided twenty-two years in Paraguay has published curious details concerning the Abipous, whom he calls a warlike nation, but who only constitute a tribe of about five thousand, on the Rio Grande, which joins the Paraguay near its union with the Parana.

Abipons. The Abipons being less known to the English reader, some account of them may be selected. They are rather a warlike race, and by a novelty in American manners chiefly cavalry, securing and taming the wild horses introduced by the Spaniards; and in the same quarter the Mocobs, Tobus, and Aucas are also warlike and independent tribes. In this part of America greater fairness of complexion seems to prevail, than in the exterior provinces; and the women approach the tint of Europeans. The Abipons were anciently named Callegaes by the Spaniards, on account of their singular practice of eradicating the hair over their foreheads, so as to produce the appearance of baldness; but their features resemble the European, and the nose is commonly of an aquiline form.f They carefully eradicate the beard, originally small; and mark their foreheads and temples with particular scars, by way of ornament. The males are accustomed from childhood to the use of the bow. Hunger alone dictates the time to eat; and they consume vast quantities of animal food. Personal cleanliness is preserved by frequent bathing in the lakes and rivers. They have no idea of a supreme deity, but acknowledge an evil demon whom the commonly attempt to flatter by calling him their uncle. Their magicians are called Keevet, and they have great power as usual among savage tribes, a tribute of ferocity to knowledge. Polygamy is allowed but not frequently practised; and the babe being suckled to the age of three years, the mothers frequently destroy their offspring, that they may devote their attention to their husbands. Our author, an unprejudiced German, ridicules the idea of Spanish cruelty, and imputes the thinness of the population to this, among other causes. They have no idea of a monarch, but are ruled by many caziks, whom they call capilaa, from a Spanish term: and are not advanced to the Agricultural state; but they are not cannibals, like some of the surrounding nations. In discussing the language of the Abipons, our author has observed that the number of tongues in Paraguay exceed credibility, not merely dialects, but radically and totally distinct. The same ideas were entertained concerning those of Siberia and Tatary, till they were more completely studied. The

The nations are marked N. the families Y. for Tndios or Indians. Humboldt in a letter to Fourcroy, says that, the Otomacs on the Orinoco subsist, for months on a kind of fat earth! On the river Caskiara, under the equator, no human being is to be seen for the space of 130 leagues. He mentions a nation who live on ants, and a colony would be useful in Africa or the West Indies. His map would be valuable, if he have made astronomical observations, as he says, in fifty-four places. See Monthly Magizine; August, 1801. f Dobrizhoffcr, ii. 15, 21, &c.

The Teheuls style the chief demon Elel or Balichu, the inferior demons Quezubu; the Brazilians and Quaranians st)le the demon Ananga. Ib. 100, 101.

Quaranian language seems one of the widest; and that of the Abipons resembles that of the Mocobs and Tobas. The most peculiar sound is a guttural, composed of r and g, which seems to resemble the clapp of the Hottentots) and the words are often very long, as among the savages of North America. They use the masculine and feminine gender, and decline the nouns by prefixes. The additional information subjoined by our author, concerning some other American dialects might be useful in a general survey of that obscure subject. The Abipons seldom marry till the husband and the bride have exceeded their twentieth year; and the lady is purchased from her relations at the price of four horses, and woolen cloths of various colours, somewhat resembling Turkey carpets. They pretend to expedite the birth by a mixture of cabbage juice and wine; and on the birth of a cazik's eldest son many ceremonies ore observed. From the thickness of the skin, or some other cause, the small pox is pestilential to the indigenes of America. The Abipons chiefly bury their dead under the shade of trees; and the horses of a chief or warrior are always sacrificed on the occasion. The bones are afterwards disinterred, as among the Tehuels, and carried to a considerable distance*. They have rendered themselves formidable to the inland colonists by their warlike spirit; and are armed with spears five or six ells in length, and with arrows sometimes pointed with iron.

The extremities of South America, towards the strait of Magalhaens, may, as already mentioned, be regarded as independent. Towards the east are vast saline plains, called by the Spaniards Comarca Desierta, or the desert territory, whence the desert of Comarca in our maps. The natives of this region are described by lalkner, who says -that a cazik of the Puelches or Patagouians, with whom he was acquainted was seven feet and some inches in height.

Araucanos. The Moloches form another nation or tribe called by the Spaniards Araucanosf. The Puelches, by his account, are divided into three or four tribes, the most southern being the Tehuels, extending on the east to the strait; as the Huilliches, a tribe of the Moiuches, do on the west. The Tehuels are the proper Patagouians, and may be called the Tatars of South America; being wandering warriors; but courteous and humane. The dead among the Mqluches are buried in square pits, in a sitting posture, with their weapons and drinking utensils; and an old matron annually opens the grave to cleanse and clothe the skeletons. Around are those of the slain horses, supported with props. The Tehuels, after having dried the bones of their dead, transport them to the desert on the sea coast, where they are placed in huts or tents, surrounded by the skeletons of their horses; but the latter practice must be of comparatively modern date. These tribes have hereditary caziks called Elmens or Yas: and

• A similar custom prevails among some African tribes: and the worship, ́of the Pleiades, known in some parts of America, as also practised in Africa where they are understood to indicate the approach of the rainy season.

The Araucanoai that is insurgents, extend from the river Birbio, lat- 37. to the river Callacalla, lat. 40. See the map in Molina, Sturia Civile del Chili. Bologna, 17BY, 8vo.

they sometimes choose an Apo, or commander in chief, whence they are more formidable to the Spaniards than the northern tribes.

PATAGONIA. The wives are sometimes bought very young, at the price of beads, cascabels, (or little hawks' bells,) garments, or horses and polygamy is common. According to our author, the language of the Moluches is more copious and elegant than could have been expected, the verbs having three numbers, and as many tenses as the Greek The maps published by our author are certainly erroneous, and bear little resemblance to that of La Cruz, except in the position of the tribes; but it appears from Dobrizhoffer that the author, Thomas Falconer or Falkner, was a well known missionary in South America. The singular aspect of Patagonia, delineated with innumerable streams ending in little lakes, may well appear, (without the assistance of La Cruz, who has only represented four of that kind,) as foreign to the course of nature. Yet this country has many singularities. There is an immense tract of territory impregnated with nitre, about 600 miles in length and 150 wide, on the south and west of the river Parana, and even to the junction of the Paraguay, all the springs and rivulets being more or less saline. No productive mines have yet been discovered, except some of silver, near Mendoza, at the bottom of the Andes. "The rivers that wash this country all come from the high mountains of Yacanto, or Sacanto, Champachin, and Achala on the west of Cordova, which are little inferior in height to the Andes of Chili, and are kind of branches of those of Peru." That part of the Andes which lies west of Mendoza is of a vast height, and always covered with snow; and there are numerous volcanos in the southern part of the Andes, as that of St Clement, latitude forty-six degrees, and others in a continued progress to latitude thirty-one degrees. The Casuhati is a high chain of mountains, part of a triangle, one side extending to the Andes, another to the strait »f Magalhaens.