John Lothrop Motley - "The Life of John of Barneveld, 1618"

F. Hopkinson Smith - "Peter: A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero"

E. Phillips Oppenheim - "Jeanne Of The Marshes"

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - "Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V3"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Equinoctial Regions of America V3

A >> Alexander von Humboldt >> Equinoctial Regions of America V3




The provinces of Caracas, Maracaybo, Cumana and Barcelona, that is,
the maritime provinces of the north, are the most populous of the old
Capitania-General of Caracas; but, in comparing this relative
population with that of New Spain, where the two intendencias of
Mexico and Puebla alone contain, on an extent scarcely equal to the
superficies of the province of Caracas, a greater population than that
of the whole republic of Columbia, we see that some Mexican
intendencias which, with respect to the concentration of their
culture, occupy but the seventh or eighth rank (Zacatecas and
Guadalajara), contain more inhabitants to the square league than the
province of Caracas. The average of the relative population of Cumana,
Barcelona, Caracas and Maracaybo, is fifty-six; and, as 6200 square
leagues, that is, one half of the extent of these four provinces are
almost desert Llanos, we find, in reckoning the superficies and the
scanty population of the plains, 102 inhabitants to the square league.
An analogous modification gives the province of Caracas alone a
relative population of 208, that is, only one-seventh less than that
of the Atlantic States of North America.

As in political economy numerical statements become instructive only
by a comparison with analogous facts I have carefully examined what,
in the present state of the two continents, might be considered as a
small relative population in Europe, and a very great relative
population in America. I have, however, chosen examples only from
among the provinces which have a continued surface of more than 600
square leagues in order to exclude the accidental accumulations of
population which occur around great cities; for instance, on the coast
of Brazil, in the valley of Mexico, on the table-lands of Santa Fe de
Bogota and Cuzco; or finally, in the smaller West India Islands
(Barbadoes, Martinique and St. Thomas) of which the relative
population is from 3000 to 4700 inhabitants to the square league, and
consequently equal to the most fertile parts of Holland, France and
Lombardy.

MINIMUM OF EUROPE:

INHABITANTS TO THE SQUARE LEAGUE.

The four least populous Governments of European Russia:
Archangel : 10.
Olonez : 42.
Wologda and Astracan : 52.
Finland : 106.

The least populous Province of Spain, that of Cuenca : 311.

The Duchy of Luneburg (on account of the heaths) : 550.

The least populous Department of Continental France : 758.
(Hautes Alps)

Departments of France thinly peopled (the Creuse, : 1300.
the Var and the Aude)

MAXIMUM OF AMERICA.

The central part of the Intendencias of : 1300.
Mexico and Puebla, above

In the United States, Massachusetts, but having
only 522 square leagues of surface : 900.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, together : 840.

The whole Intendencia of Puebla : 540.

The whole Intendencia of Mexico : 460.

These two Mexican Intendencias together are nearly a third of the
superficial extent of France, with a suitable population (in 1823
nearly 2,800,000 souls) to prevent the towns of Mexico and Puebla from
having a sensible influence on the relative population.

Northern part of the Province of Caracas : 208.
(without the Llanos)

This table shows that those parts of America which we now consider as
the most populous attain the relative population of the kingdom of
Navarre, of Galicia and the Asturias, which, next to the province of
Guipuscoa, and the kingdom of Valencia, reckon the greatest number of
inhabitants to the square league in all Spain; the maximum of America
is, however, below the relative population of the whole of France
(1778 to the square league), and would, in the latter country, be
considered as a very thin population. If, taking a survey of the whole
surface of America, we direct our attention to the Capitania-General
of Venezuela, we find that the most populous of its subdivisions, the
province of Caracas, considered as a whole, without excepting the
Llanos, has, as yet, only the relative population of Tennessee; and
that this province, without the Llanos, furnishes in its northern
part, or more than 1800 square leagues, the relative population of
South Carolina. Those 1800 square leagues, the centre of agriculture,
are twice as numerously peopled as Finland, but still a third less
than the province of Cuenca, which is the least populous of all Spain.
We cannot dwell on this result without a painful feeling. Such is the
state to which colonial politics and maladministration have, during
three centuries, reduced a country which, for natural wealth, may vie
with all that is most wonderful on earth. For a region equally desert,
we must look either to the frozen regions of the north, or westward of
the Allegheny mountains towards the forests of Tennessee, where the
first clearings have only begun within the last eighty years!

The most cultivated part of the province of Caracas, the basin of the
lake of Valencia, commonly called Los Valles de Aragua, contained in
1810 nearly 2000 inhabitants to the square league. Supposing a
relative population three times less, and taking off from the whole
surface of the Capitania-General nearly 24,000 square leagues as being
occupied by the Llanos and the forests of Guiana, and, therefore,
presenting great obstacles to agricultural labourers, we should still
obtain a population of six millions for the remaining 9700 square
leagues. Those who, like myself, have lived long within the tropics,
will find no exaggeration in these calculations; for I suppose for the
portion the most easily cultivated a relative population equal to that
in the intendencias of Puebla and Mexico,* full of barren mountains,
and extending towards the coast of the Pacific over regions almost
desert. (* These two Intendencias contain together 5520 square leagues
and a relative population of 508 inhabitants to the square
sea-league.) If the territories of Cumana, Barcelona, Caracas,
Maracaybo, Varinas and Guiana should be destined hereafter to enjoy
good provincial and municipal institutions as confederate states, they
will not require a century and a half to attain a population of six
millions of inhabitants. Venezuela, the eastern part of the republic
of Columbia, would not, even with nine millions, have a more
considerable population than Old Spain; and can it be doubted that
that part of Venezuela which is most fertile and easy of cultivation,
that is, the 10,000 square leagues remaining after deducting the
Llanos and the almost impenetrable forests between the Orinoco and the
Cassiquiare, could support in the fine climate of the tropics as many
inhabitants as 10,000 square leagues of Estramadura, the Castiles, and
other provinces of the table-land of Spain? These predictions are by
no means problematical, inasmuch as they are founded on physical
analogies and on the productive power of the soil; but before we can
indulge the hope that they will be actually accomplished, we must be
secure of another element less susceptible of calculation--that
national wisdom which subdues hostile passions, destroys the germs of
civil discord and gives stability to free and energetic institutions.

When we take a view of the soil of Venezuela and New Grenada we
perceive that no other country of Spanish America furnishes commerce
with such various and rich productions of the vegetable kingdom. If we
add the harvests of the province of Caracas to those of Guayaquil, we
find that the republic of Columbia alone can furnish nearly all the
cacao annually demanded by Europe. The union of Venezuela and New
Grenada has also placed in the hands of one people the greater part of
the quinquina exported from the New Continent. The temperate mountains
of Merida, Santa Fe, Popayan, Quito and Loxa produce the finest
qualities of this febrifugal bark hitherto known. I might swell the
list of these valuable productions by the coffee and indigo of
Caracas, so long esteemed in commerce; the sugar, cotton and flour of
Bogota; the ipecacuanha of the banks of the Magdelena; the tobacco of
Varinas; the Cortex Angosturae of Caroni; the balsam of the plains of
Tolu; the skins and dried provisions of the Llanos; the pearls of
Panama, Rio Hacha and Marguerita; and finally the gold of Popayan and
the platinum which is nowhere found in abundance but at Choco and
Barbacoa: but conformably with the plan I have adopted, I shall
confine myself to the old Capitania-General of Caracas.

Owing to a peculiar disposition of the soil in Venezuela the three
zones of agricultural, pastoral and hunting-life succeed each other
from north to south along the coast in the direction of the equator.
Advancing in that direction we may be said to traverse, in respect to
space, the different stages through which the human race has passed in
the lapse of ages, in its progress towards cultivation and in laying
the foundations of civilized society. The region of the coast is the
centre of agricultural industry; the region of the Llanos serves only
for the pasturage of the animals which Europe has given to America and
which live there in a half-wild state. Each of those regions includes
from seven to eight thousand square leagues; further south, between
the delta of the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro, lies a
vast extent of land as large as France, inhabited by hunting nations,
covered with thick forests and impassable swamps. The productions of
the vegetable kingdom belong to the zones at each extremity; the
intermediary savannahs, into which oxen, horses, and mules were
introduced about the year 1548, afford food for some millions of those
animals. At the time when I visited Venezuela the annual exportation
from thence to the West India Islands amounted to 30,000 mules,
174,000 ox-hides and 140,000 arrobas (of twenty-five pounds) of
tasajo,* or dried meat slightly salted. (* The back of the animal is
cut in slices of moderate thickness. An ox or cow of the weight of 25
arrobas produces only 4 to 5 arrobas of tasajo or tasso. In 1792 the
port of Barcelona alone exported 98,017 arrobas to the island of Cuba.
The average price is 14 reals and varies from 10 to 18 (the real is
worth about 6 1/2 pence English). M. Urquinasa estimates the total
exportation of Venezuela in 1809 at 200,000 arrobas of tasajo.) It is
not from the advancement of agriculture or the progressive
encroachments on the pastoral lands that the hatos (herds and flocks)
have diminished so considerably within twenty years; it is rather
owing to the disorders of every kind that have prevailed, and the want
of security for property. The impunity conceded to the skin-stealers
and the accumulation of marauders in the savannahs preceded that
destruction of cattle caused by the ravages of civil war and the
supplies required for troops. A very considerable number of goat-skins
is exported to the island of Marguerita, Punta Araya and Corolas;
sheep abound only in Carora and Tocuyo. The consumption of meat being
immense in this country the diminution of animals has a greater
influence here than in any other district on the well-being of the
inhabitants. The town of Caracas, of which the population in my time
was one-tenth of that of Paris, consumed more than one-half the
quantity of beef annually used in the capital of France.

I might add to the productions of the vegetable and animal kingdoms of
Venezuela the enumeration of the minerals, the working of which is
worthy the attention of the government; but having from my youth been
engaged in the practical labours of mines I know how vague and
uncertain are the judgments formed of the metallic wealth of a country
from the mere appearance of the rocks and of the veins in their beds.
The utility of such labours can be determined only by well directed
experiments by means of shafts or galleries. All that has been done in
researches of this kind, under the dominion of the mother-country, has
left the question wholly undecided and the most exaggerated ideas have
been recently spread through Europe concerning the riches of the mines
of Caracas. The common denomination of Columbia given to Venezuela and
New Grenada has doubtless contributed to foster those illusions. It
cannot be doubted that the gold-washings of New Grenada furnished, in
the last years of public tranquillity, more than 18,000 marks of gold;
that Choco and Barbacoa supply platinum in abundance; the valley of
Santa Rosa in the province of Antioquia, the Andes of Quindiu and
Gauzum near Cuenca, yield sulphuretted mercury; the table-land of
Bogota (near Zipaquira and Canoas), fossil-salt and pit-coal; but even
in New Grenada subterranean labours on the silver and gold veins have
hitherto been very rare. I am far, however, from wishing to discourage
the miners of those countries: I merely conceive that for the purpose
of proving to the old world the political importance of Venezuela, the
amazing territorial wealth of which is founded on agriculture and the
produce of pastoral life, it is not necessary to describe as
realities, or as the acquisitions of industry, what is, as yet,
founded solely on hopes and probabilities more or less uncertain. The
republic of Columbia also possesses on its coast, on the island of
Marguerita, on the Rio Hacha and in the gulf of Panama pearl fisheries
of ancient celebrity. In the present state of things, however, fishing
for these pearls is an object of as little importance as the
exportation of the metals of Venezuela. The existence of metallic
veins on several points of the coast cannot be doubted. Mines of gold
and silver were worked at the beginning of the conquest at Buria, near
Barquesimeto, in the province of Los Mariches, at Baruta, on the south
of Caracas, and at Real de Santa Barbara near the Villa de Cura.
Grains of gold are found in the whole mountainous territory between
Rio Yaracuy, the Villa de San Felipe and Nirgua, as well as between
Guigue and Los Moros de San Juan. M. Bonpland and myself, during our
long journey, saw nothing in the gneiss granite of Spanish Guiana to
confirm the old faith in the metallic wealth of that district; yet it
seems certain from several historical notices that there exist two
groups of auriferous alluvial land; one between the sources of the Rio
Negro, the Uaupes and the Iquiare; the other between the sources of
the Essequibo, the Caroni and the Rupunuri. Hitherto only one working
is found in Venezuela, that of Aroa: it furnished, in 1800, near 1500
quintals of copper of excellent quality. The green-stone rocks of the
transition mountains of Tucutunemo (between Villa de Cura and
Parapara) contain veins of malachite and copper pyrites. The
indications of both ochreous and magnetic iron in the coast-chain, the
native alum of Chuparipari, the salt of Araya, the kaolin of the
Silla, the jade of the Upper Orinoco, the petroleum of Buen-Pastor and
the sulphur of the eastern part of New Andalusia equally merit the
attention of the government.

It is easy to ascertain the existence of some mineral substances which
afford hopes of profitable working but it requires great
circumspection to decide whether the mineral be sufficiently abundant
and accessible to cover the expense.* (* In 1800 a day-labourer (peon)
employed in working the ground gained in the province of Caracas 15
sous, exclusive of his food. A man who hewed building timber in the
forests on the coast of Paria was paid at Cumana 45 to 50 sous a day,
without his food. A carpenter gained daily from 3 to 6 francs in New
Andalusia. Three cakes of cassava (the bread of the country), 21
inches in diameter, 1 1/2 lines thick, and 2 1/2 pounds weight, cost
at Caracas one half-real, or 6 1/2 sous. A man eats daily not less
than 2 sous' worth of cassava, that food being constantly mixed with
bananas, dried meat (tasajo) and panelon, or unrefined sugar.) Even in
the eastern part of South America gold and silver are found dispersed
in a manner that surprises the European geologist; but that
dispersion, together with the divided and entangled state of the veins
and the appearance of some metals only in masses, render the working
extremely expensive. The example of Mexico sufficiently proves that
the interest attached to the labours of the mines is not prejudicial
to agricultural pursuits, and that those two branches of industry may
simultaneously promote each other. The failure of the attempts made
under the intendant, Don Jose Avalo, must be attributed solely to the
ignorance of the persons employed by the Spanish government who
mistook mica and hornblende for metallic substances. If the government
would order the Capitania-General of Caracas to be carefully examined
during a series of years by men of science, well versed in geognosy
and chemistry, the most satisfactory results might be expected.

The description above given of the productions of Venezuela and the
development of its coast sufficiently shows the importance of the
commerce of that rich country. Even under the thraldom of the colonial
system, the value of the exported products of agriculture and of the
gold-washings amount to eleven or twelve millions of piastres in the
countries at present united under the denomination of the Republic of
Columbia. The exports of the Capitania-General of Caracas alone,
exclusive of the precious metals which are the objects of regular
working, was (with the contraband) from five to six millions of
piastres at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Cumana,
Barcelona, La Guayra, Porto Cabello and Maracaybo are the most
important parts of the coast; those that lie most eastward have the
advantage of an easier communication with the Virgin Islands,
Guadaloupe, Martinique and St. Vincent. Angostura, the real name of
which is Santo Tome de Nueva Guiana, may be considered as the port of
the rich province of Varinas. The majestic river on whose banks this
town is built, affords by its communications with the Apure, the Meta
and the Rio Negro the greatest advantages for trade with Europe.

The shores of Venezuela, from the beauty of their ports, the
tranquillity of the sea by which they are washed and the fine timber
that covers them, possess great advantages over the shores of the
United States. In no part of the world do we find firmer anchorage or
better positions for the establishment of ports. The sea of this coast
is constantly calm, like that which extends from Lima to Guayaquil.
The storms and hurricanes of the West Indies are never felt on the
Costa Firme; and when, after the sun has passed the meridian, thick
clouds charged with electricity accumulate on the mountains of the
coasts, a pilot accustomed to these latitudes knows that this
threatening aspect of the sky denotes only a squall. The
virgin-forests near the sea, in the eastern part of New Andalusia,
present valuable resources for the establishment of dockyards. The
wood of the mountains of Paria may vie with that of the island of
Cuba, Huasacualco, Guayaquil and San Blas. The Spanish Government at
the close of the last century fixed its attention on this important
object. Marine engineers were sent to mark the finest trunks of
Brazil-wood, mahogany, cedrela and laurinea between Angostura and the
mouth of the Orinoco, as well as on the banks of the Gulf of Paria,
commonly called the Golfo triste. It was not intended to establish
docks on that spot, but to hew the weighty timber into the forms
necessary for ship-building, and to transport it to Caraque, near
Cadiz. Though trees fit for masts are not found in this country, it
was nevertheless hoped that the execution of this project would
considerably diminish the importation of timber from Sweden and
Norway. The experiment of forming this establishment was tried in a
very unhealthy spot, the valley of Quebranta, near Guirie; I have
already adverted to the causes of its destruction. The insalubrity of
the place would, doubtless, have diminished in proportion as the
forest (el monte virgen) should have been removed from the dwellings
of the inhabitants. Mulattos, and not whites, ought to have been
employed in hewing the wood, and it should have been remembered that
the expense of the roads (arastraderos) for the transport of the
timber, when once laid out, would not have been the same, and that, by
the increase of the population, the price of day labour would
progressively have diminished. It is for ship-builders alone, who
determine the localities, to judge whether, in the present state of
things, the freight of merchant-vessels be not far too high to admit
of sending to Europe large quantities of roughly-hewn wood; but it
cannot be doubted that Venezuela possesses on its maritime coast, as
well as on the banks of the Orinoco, immense resources for
ship-building. The fine ships which have been launched from the
dockyards of the Havannah, Guayaquil and San Blas have, no doubt, cost
more than those constructed in Europe; but from the nature of tropical
wood they possess the advantages of hardness and amazing durability.

The great struggle during which Venezuela has fought for independence
has lasted more than twelve years. That period has been no less
fruitful than civil commotions usually are in heroic and generous
actions, guilty errors and violent passions. The sentiment of common
danger has strengthened the ties between men of various races who,
spread over the plains of Cumana or insulated on the table-land of
Cundinamarca, have a physical and moral organization as different as
the climates in which they live. The mother-country has several times
regained possession of some districts; but as revolutions are always
renewed with more violence when the evils that produce them can no
longer be remedied these conquests have been transitory. To facilitate
and give greater energy to the defence of this country the governments
have been concentrated, and a vast state has been formed, extending
from the mouth of the Orinoco to the other side of the Andes of
Riobamba and the banks of the Amazon. The Capitania-General of Caracas
has been united to the Vice-royalty of New Grenada, from which it was
only separated entirely in 1777. This union, which will always be
indispensable for external safety, this centralization of powers in a
country six times larger than Spain, has been prompted by political
views. The tranquil progress of the new government has justified the
wisdom of those views, and the Congress will find still fewer
obstacles in the execution of its beneficent projects for national
industry and civilization, in proportion as it can grant increased
liberty to the provinces, must render the people sensible to the
advantages of institutions which they have purchased at the price of
their blood. In every form of government, in republics as well as in
limited monarchies, improvements, to be salutary, must be progressive.
New Andalusia, Caracas, Cundinamarca, Popayan and Quito, are not
confederate states like Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. Without
juntas, or provincial legislatures, all those countries are directly
subject to the congress and government of Columbia. In conformity with
the constitutional act, the intendants and governors of the
departments and provinces are nominated by the president of the
republic. It may be naturally supposed that such dependence has not
always been deemed favourable to the liberty if the communes, which
love to discuss their own local interests. The ancient kingdom of
Quito, for instance, is connected by the habits and language of its
mountainous inhabitants with Peru and New Grenada. If there were a
provincial junta, if the congress alone determined the taxes necessary
for the defence and general welfare of Columbia, the feeling of an
individual political existence would render the inhabitants less
interested in the choice of the spot which is the seat of the central
government. The same argument applies to New Andalusia or Guiana which
are governed by intendants named by the president. It may be said that
these provinces have hitherto been in a position differing but little
from those territories of the United States which have a population
below 60,000 souls. Peculiar circumstances, which cannot be justly
appreciated at such a distance, have doubtless rendered great
centralization necessary in the civil administration; every change
would be dangerous as long as the state has external enemies; but the
forms useful for defence are not always those which, after the
struggle, sufficiently favour individual liberty and the development
of public prosperity.

The powerful union of North America has long been insulated and
without contact with any states having analogous institutions.
Although the progress America is making from east to west is
considerably retarded near the right bank of the Mississippi, she will
advance without interruption towards the internal provinces of Mexico,
and will there find a European people of another race, other manners,
and a different religious faith. Will the feeble population of those
provinces, belonging to another dawning federation, resist; or will it
be absorbed by the torrent from the east and transformed into an
Anglo-American state, like the inhabitants of Lower Louisiana? The
future will soon solve this problem. On the other hand, Mexico is
separated from Columbia only by Guatimala, a country and extreme
fertility which has recently assumed the denomination of the republic
of Central America. The political divisions between Oaxaca and Chiapa,
Costa Rica and Veragua, are not founded either on the natural limits
or the manners and languages of the natives, but solely on the habit
of dependence on the Spanish chiefs who resided at Mexico, Guatimala
or Santa Fe de Bogota. It seems natural that Guatimala should one day
join the isthmuses of Veragua and Panama to the isthmus of Costa Rica;
and that Quito should connect New Grenada with Peru, as La Paz,
Charcas and Potosi link Peru with Buenos-Ayres. The intermediate parts
from Chiapa to the Cordilleras of Upper Peru form a passage from one
political association to another, like those transitory forms which
link together the various groups of the organic kingdom in nature. In
neighbouring monarchies the provinces that adjoin each other present
those striking demarcations which are the effect of great
centralization of power in federal republics, states situated at the
extremities of each system are some time before they acquire a stable
equilibrium. It would be almost a matter of indifference to the
provinces between Arkansas and the Rio del Norte whether they send
their deputies to Mexico or to Washington. Were Spanish America one
day to show a more uniform tendency towards the spirit of federalism,
which the example of the United States has created on several points,
there would result from the contact of so many systems or groups of
states, confederations variously graduated. I here only touch on the
relations that arise from this assemblage of colonies on an
uninterrupted line of 1600 leagues in length. We have seen in North
America, one of the old Atlantic states divided into two, and each
having a different representation. The separation of Maine and
Massachusetts in 1820 was effected in the most peaceable manner.
Schisms of this kind will, it may be feared, render such changes
turbulent. It may also be observed that the importance of the
geographical divisions of Spanish America, founded at the same time on
the relations of local position and the habits of several centuries,
have prevented the mother-country from retarding the separation of the
colonies by attempting to establish Spanish princes in the New World.
In order to rule such vast possessions it would have been requisite to
form six or seven centres of government; and that multiplicity of
centres was hostile to the establishment of new dynasties at the
period when they might still have been salutary to the mother country.