by Edmund Burke
America in general is not a mountainous country, yet it has the greatest mountains in the world. The Andes, or Cordilleras, run from North to South along the coast of the Pacific ocean. Though for the most part within the torrid zone, they are perpetually covered with snow, and in their bowels contain inexhaustible treasures. In the province of St. Martha in South America are likewise very great mountains, which communicate with the former. In North America we know of none considerable, but that long ridge which lies to the back of our settlements, which we call the Apalachian, or Allegeney mountains; if that may be at all considered as a mountain, which upon one side indeed has a very great declivity, but upon the other is nearly on a level with the rest of the country for the greater part.
Without comparison, America is that part of the world which is the best watered; and that not only for the support of life, but for the convenience of trade, and the intercourse of each part with the others. In North America the great river Missisippi rising from unknown sources, runs an immense course from North to South, and receives the vast tribute of the Ohio, the Ouabache, and other immense rivers, not to be postponed to the Rhine or the Danube, navigable almost to their very sources, and laying open the inmost recesses of this continent. Near the heads of these are five great lakes, or rather seas of fresh water communicating with each other, and all communicating with the ocean by the river St. Laurence, which passes through them. These afford such an inlet for commerce as must produce the greatest advantages, whenever the country adjacent shall come to be fully inhabited, and by an industrious and civilized people. The Eastern side of North America, which is our portion, besides the noble rivers Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Patowmack, supplies several others of great depth, length, and commodious navigation. Many parts of our settlements are so intersected with navigable rivers and creeks, that the planters may be said, without exaggeration, to have each a harbour at his own door.
South America is, if possible, in this respect, even more fortunate. It supplies much the two largest rivers in the world, the river of Amazons, and the Rio de la Plata. The first rising in Peru, not far from the South-Sea, passes from West to East, almost quite thro’ the continent of South America, navigable for some sort or other of vessels all the way, and receiving into it’s bosom a prodigious number of rivers, all navigable in the same manner, and so great, that Monsieur Condamine found it often almost impossible to determine which was the main channel. The Rio de la Plata rising in the heart of the country, shapes it’s course to the South-East, and pours such an immense flood into the sea, that it makes it taste fresh a great many leagues from the shore; to say nothing of the Oronoquo, which might rank the foremost amongst any but the American rivers. The soil and products in such a variety of climates, cannot satisfactorily be treated of in a general description; we shall in their places consider them particularly.
All America is in the hands of four nations. The Spaniards, who, as they first discovered it, have the largest and richest share. All that part of North America, which composes the isthmus of Mexico, and what lies beyond that towards the river Missisippi on the East, the Pacific ocean to the West and North-West, and they possess all South America, excepting Brasil, which lies between the mouth of the river of Amazons and that of Plata along the Atlantic ocean; this belongs to Portugal. That part of North America which the Spaniards have not, is divided between the English and French. The English have all the countries which incircle Hudson’s Bay, and thence in a line all along the Eastern shore to the thirtieth degree of North latitude. France claims the country which lies between this and the Spanish settlements to the West, and secures an intercourse with them by the mouths of the Missisippi, the Mobile, and of the river St. Laurence, which are the only avenues of navigation to this very extensive country. The multitude of islands which lie between the two continents, are divided amongst the Spaniards, French, and English. The Dutch possess three or four small islands, which, in any other hands, would be of no consequence. The Danes have one or two, but they hardly deserve to be named amongst the proprietors of America.
CHAP. II.
THE order which I intend to observe in treating of the Spanish colonies is, after having set forth their situation, their climate, and the nature of their soil, to describe those commodities in which they trade; to give a clear and concise account of their method of manufacturing them; and then to lay open the manner of their dealing in them as well as that by which they carry on their foreign commerce. Last of all I shall say something of the genius and temper of the inhabitants; of such customs of theirs as are remarkable, and of their civil policy, and of their military, so far as they are come to my knowledge, or as they are worthy the attention of the reader. The exact division of the provinces, the courses of the rivers, the distances of places, the exact dimensions of harbours and their soundings; all these, as they are infinitely better known from maps and charts, so it would be impertinent and tedious to fill up this short work with them, which proposes to give, even short as it is, a description of every thing that may tend to a just notion of America; and therefore cannot sacrifice matters of more moment to the description of things, of which a far better idea may be acquired by other means to those whom they concern; and to those whom they do not interest, who are by far the majority, must be tedious and uninstructive.
The first country which the Spaniards settled upon the continent of America was Mexico; and it still continues their principal settlement, whether we consider it’s number of inhabitants, it’s natural wealth, or it’s extended traffick. As it lies for the most part within the torrid zone, it is excessively hot; and on the Eastern coast, where the land is low, marshy, and constantly flooded in the rainy seasons, it is likewise extremely unwholsome; neither is that coast pleasant in any respect; incumber’d for the most part with almost impenetrable woods of mangrove trees, of a bare and disagreeable aspect, and which extend into the water for a considerable way. The inland country assumes a more agreeable aspect, and the air is of a better temperament; here the tropical fruits grow in great abundance; the land is of a good variety, and would not refuse any sort of grain, if the number or industry of the inhabitants were any way proportioned to the goodness of the soil. But on the Western side the land is not so low as on the Eastern, much better in quality, and full of plantations.
It is probable the Spaniards chuse to leave the Eastern coast in it’s present state of rudeness and desolation, judging that a rugged and unwholsome frontier is a better defence against an European enemy, than fortifications and armies, to be maintained at a vast expence; or than the strength of the inhabitants, made by the climate effeminate and pusillanimous, and kept so by policy: and indeed it would be next to impossible to make any considerable establishment on that coast, that could effectually answer the purposes of any power in Europe, without struggling with the greatest difficulties; and as for a sudden invasion, the nature of the country itself is a good fortification. In general, few countries under the same aspect of the heavens, enjoy more of the benefits of nature, and the necessaries of life; but, like all the tropical countries, it rather is more abundant in fruits than in grain. Pine apples, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, and cocoa nuts, are here in the greatest plenty and perfection. Vines and apples require temperate climates.
The number of their horned cattle is in a manner infinite; some private persons are said to have possessed forty thousand head; many are wild, and a very considerable trade is driven in their hides and tallow, but the extreme heat prevents their turning the flesh to any account in commerce. Swine are equally numerous, and their lard is much in request all over this country, where it is used instead of butter. Sheep are numerous in Mexico, but I do not find that wool is an article of any great consideration in their trade; nor is it probable that it is of a good kind, as it is scarce ever found useful between the tropicks, where it is hairy and short, except only in Peru; and that is the produce of sheep of a species very different from that in the rest of America; a
s Peru is itself remarkably different in climate from all other countries under the torrid zone. But cotton is here very good, and in great plenty. It is manufactured largely, for as it is a light wear, suitable to the climate, and all other cloathing being extravagantly dear, it is the general wear of the inhabitants; the woollens and linens of Europe being rather luxuries, and worn only by persons of some condition. Some provinces produce silk, but not in that abundance or perfection to make a remarkable part of their export; not but that the country is very fit for that, and many other things valuable, which are but little cultivated; for the gold and silver, which makes the glory of this country, and in the abundant treasures of which it exceeds all the world, engages almost the whole attention of the inhabitants, as it is almost the only thing for which the Spaniards value their colonies, and what alone receives the encouragement of the court; therefore I shall insist most largely upon these articles. After that I shall speak of those commodities, which are produced here of most importance in foreign commerce, and rest upon them in proportion to their importance. These are cochineal, indigo, and cacao, of which chocolate is made. As for sugar and tobacco, and indigo, though no part of the world produces better than Mexico; and as for logwood, though it be in a manner peculiar to this country, yet as the first is largely raised and manufactured elsewhere, and as our own commerce in the two last is what chiefly interests an English reader, I shall reserve them to be treated of in the division I allot to the English colonies.
CHAP. III.
IT is not known with certainty, whether all, or some provinces only of New Spain, produce mines of gold and silver. It is, however, allowed that the chief mines of gold are in Veragua and New Granada, confining upon Darien and Terra Firma. Those of silver, which are much more rich as well as numerous, are found in several parts, but in none so much as in the province of Mexico. But all the mines, whether of gold or silver, are always found in the mountainous and barren parts; nature often making amends one way for her failures in another.
Gold is found either in the sand of rivers, native, and in small grains, or it is dug out of the earth in the same condition in small bits, almost wholly metallic, and of a tolerable purity; or it is found like the ore of other metals in an aggregate opaque mass, in a mixture of earth, stone sulphur, and other metals. In this state it is of all colours, red, white, blackish, and making little or no ostentation of the riches it contains. Sometimes it forms part of the ornament of some beautiful stones, which are of various lively colours, intersected with filaments of this metal, quite native. Lapis lazuli is one of these, which has always some small portions of gold; but this golden streaking is often extremely fallacious, and has betrayed many into ruinous expences, for in several stones these fine veins have been nothing more than marcasite, but such marcasites or fire-stones are found in mines, which contain real gold. But gold, howsoever found, whether native, or in what is called the ore, is seldom or never without a mixture of other metals, generally silver or copper.
The gold mines, though they contain the richest of all metals, it is remarkable most frequently disappoint the hopes, and ruin the fortunes of those who engage in them; tho’ neither the labouring of the mine, nor the purifying the metal, is attended with such an expence as what those are obliged to, who work mines of the inferior metals. For the vein is, of all others, the most unequal; sometimes very large, full, and rich; then it often decays by a quick gradation, and is sometimes suddenly lost. But the ends of the veins are, on the other hand, often extremely rich; they are called the purse of the vein; and when the miner is so happy as to light on one of these purses, his fortune is made immediately.
When the ore is dug out, the most usual method is to break it to pieces in a mill, exactly resembling those large ones we use for grinding apples, wherein a mill-stone set on end is made to turn in a circular channel of stone. When the ore is thus broke, and the gold somewhat separated from the impure mass, they add to the whole a quantity of quicksilver. Quicksilver has, of all other bodies, the greatest attraction with gold, which therefore immediately breaks the links which held it to the former earth, and clings close to this congenial substance. Then a rapid stream of water is let into the channel, which scouring away (through a hole made for the purpose) the lighter earth, by the briskness of it’s current, leaves the gold and mercury precipitated by it’s weight at the bottom. This amalgama, or paste, is put into a linen cloth, and squeezed so as to make the quicksilver separate and run out. To compleat this separation, it is necessary to fuse the metal, and then all the mercury flies off in fumes.
But in many parts of Spanish America, another way of getting and purifying gold is practised. When by sure tokens they know that gold lies in the bed of a rivulet, they turn the current into the inward angles, which time and the stream have formed; whilst this runs, they dig and turn up the earth to make it the more easily dissolved and carried off. When the surface is thus compleatly washed away, and they are come to a sort of stiff earth, which is the receptacle of gold, they return the stream into it’s former channel, and dig up the earth as they find it, which they carry to a little bason somewhat in the form of a smith’s bellows. Into this they turn a small but lively stream to carry off the foreign matter, whilst they facilitate the operation by stirring the mass with an iron hook, which dissolves the earth, and gathers up the stones, which are carefully thrown out that they may not interrupt the passages that carry off the earth. By this means the gold loosened from the gross matter, which adhered to it, falls to the bottom, but mixed so intimately with a black heavy sand, that none of the gold can be perceived, unless it happens to be a pretty large grain. To separate it from this sand, it is put into a sort of wooden platter, with a little hollow of about the depth of half an inch at bottom. This platter they fill with water, and turning the mass about briskly with their hands for some time, the sand passes over the edges, and leaves the gold in small grains, pure, and of it’s genuine colour, in the hollow at the bottom. Thus is gold refined without fire or mercury, merely by washing. The places where this is performed are called therefore Lavaderos by the Spaniards. There are many more methods of extracting and purifying this precious metal, but these are the most common ways used by Spaniards in their Indies.
Silver is the metal next in rank, but first in consequence in the Spanish traffick, as their mines yield a much greater quantity of the latter than of the former. It is found in the earth under different forms, as indeed the ore of all metals is. Such is the diversity of ores in this respect, that nothing but a long experience in this particular branch can exactly ascertain the species of the metal, which almost any ore contains at first view. I have seen specimens wherein the silver, almost pure, twined itself about a white stone, penetrating into the interstices in the same manner that the roots of trees enter into the rocks, and twist themselves about them. Some are of an ash-coloured appearance, others spotted of a red and blue, some of changeable colours, and many almost black, affecting somewhat of a pointed regular form like crystals. I cannot find that it is ever found in grains or sand, native, as gold is.
The manner of refining silver does not differ essentially from the process which is employed for gold. They are both purified upon the same principle; by clearing away as much of the earth as can be, with water; by uniting, or amalgamating it with mercury; and afterwards by clearing off the mercury itself, by straining and evaporation. But the management of silver in this respect is much more difficult than that of gold; because this metal is much more intimately united with the foreign matters with which it is found in the mine; and it’s attraction with mercury is much weaker; therefore there is great care taken in the amalgamation, and it is a long time before they are perfectly mixed. A quantity of sea-salt is likewise added. No silver is had by mere washing.
The chymists have talked very freely of the production of these and other metals in the earth; of the salt, sulphur, and mercury that compose them, and the manner in which these substances are united and changed so as to form
metals and minerals of every species. Some have recourse to the sun as the great agent in this process, especially in gold and silver, as the most worthy such an operator. Others call in the aid of subterraneous fires and central heat, but in reality they have advanced very little that is satisfactory upon this subject. They have never by any method of joining the matters, which they have assigned as the constituent parts of metals, in any proportions whatsoever, nor by any degrees of their great agent fire, been able to make metal of that which was not metal before. Neither have they found what they allot as the component parts of all metals in such a manner in all, as to enable them to fix any common principle for their generation. Some they cannot analyse by any art, as gold; they indeed define it a composition of a very subtile mercury, and a sulphur as subtile.
But how this comes to be known, when no process hitherto discovered, has been able to extract either of these from gold, they who have advanced such things ought to tell. It is reasonable to believe, that there is some plastic principle in nature, perhaps something analagous to the seminal principle in plants and animals, whatever that is, which does not, as we know, resemble any known body, nor is composed of any combination of known bodies; but powerful of itself to combine and vary such a part of the common stock of matter as it is fitted to operate upon, which it draws to itself, and causes to form an animal, or a plant, or a mineral, or metal, of this or that nature, according to the original nature of the seed. Suppose a plant subjected to all the torture of the chymical question: you find it contains various matters; an earth, water, oil, salt, spirit, and in the three last perhaps something specific, and differing from other plants. But neither the same quantities of similar matter, nor these very matters themselves, can ever come to form a plant like the original, or any thing like a plant at all, because the seminal virtue is wanting, nor is it perhaps discoverable. And as for the other matters, they are the inert parts of the plant; without power themselves, they are the materials with which, and on which the seminal virtue acts, to organize the mass, to spread the branches, to shoot out the gems, to mature the fruit, and in short to perform all the functions of a complete plant. The same may be said of animals. And why not of minerals, though of a less nice organization? Why should they not have the seminal principle too, which operating by it’s own power, and in a way of it’s own, upon the elements of air, earth, water, oil, and salt, is capable of producing iron, copper, gold, silver, and other metals The want of this will always hinder us from being able to produce any metal from other than metalline ingredients, though we should take such things as resemble the ingredients they yield upon an analysis, and in the same quantities in which we find them. This I do not say as favouring the notion that stones and metals vegetate exactly like plants. That these are often found where they had formerly been exhausted, and that they are known to extend their dimensions, is pretty certain; but that they assimilate the heterogeneous matter which increases their bulk, in a manner analagous to plants, I cannot venture to propose. It must be allowed that silver has been found, and I have so seen it, extending itself among the interstices of stones, not unlike ivy and other parasite plants; yet as a metal no way differing from it, or at all inferior, is extracted from ores, which have an appearance altogether different, and which too is the usual way, it is probable the manner in which they grow is not the same.