934 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



feet. On the other hand granite, 

 which in Europe crowns the high- 

 est mountains, is not found in the 

 American continent at a greater 

 height than 11,500 feet. The icy 

 summits of Chimborazo, ofCayam- 

 be, and of Anitsana, are entirely 

 composed of porphyry, which on 

 he sides of the Andes form a mass 

 1,000, or 1,200 feet thick. 



The planters of New Spain divide 

 the cultivated part of the country 

 into three zones. First, the hot 

 territory, not rising above the ele- 

 vation of 1,000. This region pro- 

 duces, in abundance, sugar, indigo, 

 cotton, plantains, and bananas. Se- 

 condly, the temperate lands, which 

 lie on the acclivity of the great 

 chain, and which, at the height of 

 5,000 feet, enjoy the temperature 

 of spring, which rarely varies, dur- 

 ing the course of the whole year, 

 so much as ten degrees. Thirdly, 

 the cold region, at the height of 

 8,000feet, comprehending such ele- 

 vated plains or platforms as those 

 of Mexico, whose temperature is 

 generally under 63 degrees, and 

 never exceeds 75. 



where man is so easily supplied 

 with the necessaries of life. Al- 

 thoughthey are sometimes governed 

 by caprice, they are never induced 

 to depart for a moment from their 

 habitual listlessness by the love of 

 gain. When our travellers visited 

 the Havannah, they were struck 

 with the singular beauty of the 

 flowers which fell, white as snow, 

 from the tops of the royal-palm, 

 and, being desirous to examine the 

 economy of vegetation in this efflor- 

 escence, for every branch or sprig, 

 bearing flowers, they offered the 

 children of the negroes inhabiting 

 the neighbouring villages two pias- 

 tres, or near eight shillings ster- 

 ling ; but nothing could move them 

 to stir a step. 



Mr. Humboldt has confirmed 

 former accounts, and thrown some 

 rays of new light on the character, 

 habits, and manners of the native 

 Indians. The natives of the tem- 

 perate regions of New Spain are of 

 a deeper colour than those that live 

 under a hotter climate. This race 

 of people, and above all the Mexi- 

 cans, bending under long oppres- 

 sion, in qualities both moral and 

 intellectual, seem inferior even to 

 the Africans. The same apathy 

 of character is common to them and 

 the individuals of the hot climates, 



As the summer advances, the 

 low plains of the American coast 

 begin to be scorched with excessive 

 heat. The herbage is dried up to 

 the very roots, and the hardened soil 

 is of a burning heat. The cattle and 

 other beasts of the field, enveloped 

 in clouds of dust, and tormented 

 with thirst, run wildly from place 

 to place. But the mule, better 

 guided by his natural instinct, 

 scrapes out the water-melon with 

 his foot, and sucks in a refreshing 

 beverage. All of a sudden the 

 piercing cries of apes of the largest 

 kind announce the approach of rain. 

 Incessant torrents inundate the 

 plains. The crocodile and the boa, 

 long concealed in a state of torpor, 

 raise theirhorribleheads, and come 

 out of their tombs with a terrible 

 noise. By and by the rivers, over- 

 flowing their banks, cover the land 

 with their vast inundations. The 

 whole delta of the Oronooko is laid 

 under a sheet of water. In the 



midst 



