formerly the lords of Canada and Louisiana, but have now lost all footing in North America. On the southern continent, however, they have still a settlement, which is called Cayenne, in Guiana. The chief town is Caen, or Cayano, in which there are twelve hundred white inhabitants, exclusive of the garrison. The coast is very low, but within land there are fine hills, proper for almost every species of cultivation. But the French have not yet extended them so far as they might. The soil and climate seem unexceptionable, but during the rains many parts are inundated. The dry season is from June to October, and the heaviest rains are in our winter season. Cayenne pepper is the principal product of this country; besides which, they export sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and indigo.

The French have also taken possession of the island of Cayenne, which is situated at the mouth of the river of the same name. It is about fortyfive miles in circumference, and is reckoned very unhealthy. To this place the tyrant Robespierre banished many of the best men of France, for political offences. The Corsican Buonaparte has made use occasionally of this island for the same purpose.

After the Portuguese had dispossessed the Dutch of Brazil, they formed settlements in Guiana, A. D. 1663; lut four years afterwards they were expelled by the English, whose descendants form part of the colony, which was given back to the Dutch, in exchange for New York, in 1676. Dutch Guiana is to the N. W. of the French settlement, and is often called Surinam, from a river of that name on which the capital is situated. The chief towns are Paramaribo, on the western bank

of

of the Surinam, and New Middleburg near. the N. W. extremity of the colony. Demerara is a settlement on a river of that name. Issequibo is another Dutch settlement on the Spanish Main, which surrendered to the English in 1781, but which was not considered of sufficient importance to be retained.

The climate of this country is reckoned unwholesome. The wet and dry seasons are alternate, each for about three months. It is one of the richest and most valuable colonies belonging to the United Provinces; but it is in a less prosperous situation than it was some years since, owing to the wars in which they have been engaged with their fugitive negroes, whom they treated with great barbarity, and who are become sufficiently numerous to form a kind of colony in the woods, and to be really formidable enemies to their former masters. Under the command of chiefs elected from among themselves, they have cultivated lands for their subsistence; and, making frequent incursions into the neighbouring plantations, revenge themselves upon their old oppressors. The chief trade of Surinam consists in sugar, cotton, coffee, tobacco, flax, skins, and very valuable dyeing drugs.

The inhabitants of Dutch Guiana are either whites, blacks, or the reddish-brown aboriginal natives of America. The promiscuous intercourse of these different people has likewise generated several intermediate casts, whose colours depend on their degree of consanguinity to either Whites, Indians, or Negroes.-There are so many birds of various species, and remarkable for the beauty of their plumage, in Guiana, that several persons in the colony have employed themselves with their dependents very advantageously in

killing

killing and preserving them for the cabinets of naturalists in different parts of Europe. The torpedo, or electrical eel, is found in the rivers of Guiana, But the immense number and variety of snakes in this country form one of its chief inconveniences. It is said that several years ago one was killed which measured 33 feet in length, and in the largest part three feet in circumference. The lauba is a peculiar amphibious animal of small size, about the size of a pig four months old, covered with fine short hair; its flesh is preferred to all other kinds of meat. The quassi, the castor-oil nut, the cassia, the palnt-oil, the cowhage, the balsam of capivi, and ipecacuanha, are all natives here. An herbaceous plant called troolies, grows here, whose leaves are the largest of any yet known: they lie on the ground, and have sometimes attained the almost incredible length of thirty feet, by three feet in width. So admirable a material for covering has not been bestowed on this country in vain; most of the houses are thatched with it, and it will last for years without repair. Gum caoutchouc is produced from a large tree in Guiana, and is used for vessels of various kinds and for torches. A small tree called caruna yields a farinaceous nut, from which the Indians prepare a slow poison, the instrument of jealousy or revenge. Still more certain is the Ticuna poison, which is prepared from the roots of the nibbees, that inhabit the entangled forests of these immeasurable swamps, and are a shelter to the panthers, the serpents, and all those monstrous and abominable reptiles that generate in this pestilential atmosphere.

CHAP.

CHAP. VIII.

Henry VII. authorizes Cabot to make Discoveries. Cabot takes Possession of a great Part of North America. Patent granted to Sir Walter Raleigh. London and Plymouth Companies. Puritans persecuted, and go to America. Their Character and Sufferings. Maryland an Asylum for the Roman Catholics. Liberal Policy of England to her Settlements. Importance of the American Colonies. Wars with France. Washington's Expeditions. Hopes conceived of his future Celebrity. General Peace. American Commerce limited by Great-Britain. Stamp Act. Opposition to it. Repealed. Declaratory Act. Plan for taxing Glass, Tea, &c. American Opposition, in which Boston takes the lead. Quarrels between the Military and Inhabitants. Three of the latter killed. Letters from Governor Hutchinson intercepted by Dr. Franklin. Dr. Franklin dismissed from his Office.

HAVING discussed in the former chapters of

this volume the subject of the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries and settlements on the continent of America, we now proceed to those that were made under the auspices of our own country, which will lead us to take a connected view of the History of the United States to the present times; in the course of which we shall, as far as our limits will allow, exhibit a distinct historical, poli

tical, and geographical view of the northern continent of America*.

Henry VII. of England, by the exertion of an authority similar to that of pope Alexandert, granted to John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, and his three sons, who were subjects and natives of England, a commission "to navigate all parts of the ocean for the purpose of discovering islands, countries, regions, or provinces, either of Gentiles or infidels, which have been hitherto unknown to all Christian people, with power to set up his standard, and take possession of the same as vassals of the crown of England." By virtue of this commission Sebastian Cabot, one of the sons, explored and took possession of a great part of the North American continent, in the name and on behalf of the king of England. This discovery was made in consequence of an attempt to find a north-west passage to China; an enterprise in which he failed, but which led to more important consequences.

A. D.

1498.

The

A. D.

For the space of more than half a century after the discovery, the English neither navigated the coast nor attempted to establish colonies. first English patent which was granted for making settlements in the country was 1578. issued by queen Elizabeth to sir Humphrey Gilbert. Shortly after she licensed Mr. Walter, afterwards sir Walter, Raleigh" to search for Heathen lands not inhabited by Christian people;" and granted to him in fee, all the soil within 200 leagues of the places

A. D.

1584.

* See the table at the end of the volume.

See page 24 of this volume.

VOL. XXIV.

T

where