fixpence of our money.

It is to be remem

bered, however, that in the fixteenth century, the effective value of a peso, i. e. the quantity of labour which it represented, or of goods which it would purchase, was five or fix times as much as at prefent.

The

THE

HISTORY

OF

AMERICA.

БООК I.

The earth flowly peopled.

I

he progrefs of men in difcovering and peopling the various parts of the earth, has been extremely flow. Several ages elapsed before they removed far from thofe mild and fertile regions where they were originally placed by their Creator. The occafion of their firft general difperfion is known; but we are unacquainted with the course of their migrations, or the time when they took poffeffion of the different countries which they now inhabit. Neither hiftory nor tradition fournish such information concerning those remote events as enables us to trace, with any certainty, the operations of the human race in the infancy of fociety.

First migrations by land.

We may conclude, however, that all the early migrations of mankind were made by land. ROBERTSON Vol. I.

A

The ocean, which every-where furrounds the habitable earth, as well as the various arms of the fea which feparate one region from another, though deftined to facilitate the communication between diftant countries, feem, at firft view, to be formed to check the progrefs of man and to mark the bounds of that portion of the globe to which nature had confined him. was long, we may believe, before men attempted to pass these formidable barriers, and became fo fkilful and adventruous as to commit themselves to the mercy of the winds and waves, or to quit their native fhores in queft of remote and unknown regions.

First attempts towards navigation.

It

Navigation and fhip-building are arts fo nice and complicated, that they require the ingenuity, as well as experience, of many fucceffive ages to bring them to any degree of perfection. From the raft or canoe, which 'first ferved to carry a favage over the river that obftructed him in the chace, to the conftruction of a veffel capable of conveying numerous crew with fafety to a diftant coaft, the progress in improvement is immenfe. Many efforts would be made, many experiments would be tried, and much labour as wellas invention would be employed, before men could accomplish this arduous and important undertaking. The rude and

imperfect ftate in which navigation is ftill found among all nations which are not confiderably civilized, correfponds with the account of its progrefs, and demonftrates that, in early times, the art was not fo far improved as to enable men to undertake diftant voyages, or to attempt remote discoveries.

Introduction of commerce.

As foon, however, as the art of navigation became known, a new fpecies of correfpondence among men took place. It is from this æra, that we muft date the commencement of fuch an intercourse between nations as deferves the appellation of commerce. Men are, indeed, far advanced in improvement before commerce becomes an object of great importance to them. They muft even have made fome confiderable progrefs towards civilization, before they acquired the idea of property, and ascertain it fo perfectly, as to be acquainted with the moft fimple of all contracts, that of exchanging by barter one rude commodity for another. But as foon as this important right is established, and every individual feels that he has an exclufive title to poffefs or to alienate whatever he has acquired by his own labour and dexterity, the wants and ingenuity of his nature fuggeft to him a new method of increasing his acquifitions and enjoyments, by difpofing of what is fuper