Book I. AGRICULTURE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 197 



fatal habit of eating dirt, than which nothing is more horribly disgusting, nothing moie 

 to be dreaded ; nothing exhibiting a more heart-rending ghastly spectacle, than a negro 

 child possessed of this malady. Such is the craving appetite for this abominable cus- 

 tom, that few, either children or adults, can be broken of it, when once they begin 

 to taste and swallow its insidious slow poison. For, if by incessant care, watchfulness, 

 or keeping them about the dwelling-house, giving them abundance of the best nou- 

 rishing food, stomachic medicines, and kind treatment, it is possible to counteract the 

 effects and habit of it for some time, the creature will be found wistfully and irresistibly 

 to steal an opportunity of procuring and swallowing the deadly substance. The symp- 

 toms arising from it are a shortness of breathing, almost perpetual languor, irregular 

 throbbing, weak pulse, a horrid cadaverous aspect, the lips and whites of the eyes a deadly 

 pale (the sure signs of malady in the Negro), the tongue thickly covered with scurf, 

 violent palpitation of the heart, inordinately swelled belly, the legs and amis reduced in 

 size and muscle, the whole appearance of the body becoming a dirty yellow, the flesh a 

 quivering pellucid jelly. The creature sinks into total indifference, insensible to every 

 thing around him, till death at last declares his victory in his dissolution. This is no 

 exaggerated account of the effects and termination of this vile propensity. (/6. ,118. 1 20. ) 



1225. The agriculture of the other West India Islands may be considered as similar to 

 that of Jamaica. So many different kinds of East India fruits have not yet been intro- 

 duced in them ; but the great articles of sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, pepper, &c., are 

 every where cultivated One of the richest of these islands is St. Domingo, now inde- 

 pendent, and known by its original name of Hayti. 



Sect. VI. Of the present State of Agriculture in South America. 



1226. The climate of South America combines the most opposite extremes. The 

 southern parts are subject to all the horrors of the antarctic frosts ; Terra del Fuego 

 being subject to the almost perpetual winter of Greenland. Even under the torrid zone 

 the cold is extreme on the Andes, and the heat and moisture equally extraordinary in the 

 plains. The surface of the country is remarkably irregular : these are immense chains 

 of mountains which stretch along the western coast from the one extremity of the country 

 to the other. Many parts of the interior are still obscure ; wide regions on the great 

 river Maragnon being covered with impenetrable forests, and others flooded by the 

 inundations. In the south there are vast saline plains, and small sandy deserts and savan- 

 nas. This country being, or having been, almost entirely under the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese, the cultivated parts display a slovenly agriculture, something like that of 

 Spain ; the varied and abundant products of the soil depending more on nature than on 

 man. Indeed minerals have always been more the objects of European nations in South 

 America than vegetables. After this general outline we shall, without regard to the 

 recent political changes, offer such slight notices of South American agriculture as we 

 have been able to collect, under the divisions of Terra Firma, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, 

 Brazil, Cayenne, Colombia, Surinam, Amazonia, and Patagonia. 



1227. The climate (f Terra Firma is extremely hot throughout the year. From the 

 month of May to the end of November, the season called winter by the inhabitants, is 

 almost a continual succession of thunder, rain, and tempests ; the clouds precipitating 

 the rain with such impetuosity, that the low lands exhibit the appearance of an ocean. 

 Great part of the country is in consequence almost continually flooded ; and this, toge- 

 ther with the excessive heat, so impregnates the air with vapours, that in many of the pro- 

 vinces, particularly about Papayan and Portobello, it is extremely unwholesome. The 

 soil of this country is very different, the inland parts being exceedingly rich and fertile, 

 while the coasts are sandy and barren. It is impossible to view, without admiration, the 

 perpetual verdure of the woods, the luxuriance of the plains, and the towering height of 

 the mountains. This country produces corn, sugar, tobacco, and fruits of all kinds : the 

 most remarkable is that of the manzanillo tree ; it bears a fruit resembling an apple, but 

 which, under this appearance, contains a most subtile poison. The bean of Carthagena 

 is about the bigness of a common bean, and is an excellent remedy for the bite of the 

 most venomous serpents, which are very frequent all over this country. 



1228. In Peru the soil is dry and has no rain, vegetation being supported by immense 

 dews. The only spots capable of cultivation are the banks of the rivers, and other places 

 susceptible of being artificially irrigated. The improvement of the mines is, or ought to 

 be, the first object of attention in this singular coxintry. 



1229. Chile is an extensive, rich, and fertile country. The climate is the most deli- 

 cious in the new world, and is hardly equalled by that of any region on the face of the 

 earth. Though bordering on the torrid zone, it never feels extreme heat, being screened 

 on the east by the Andes, and refreshed on the west by cooling sea-breezes. The tem- 

 perature of the air is so n^.ild and equable, that the Spaniards give it the preference to that 

 of the southern provinces of their native country. The fertility of the soil corresponds 

 with the benignity of the climate, and it is wonderfully accommodated to European 



O 3 



