A. D. 1492. ^ 



Herrera, the great Spaniflihiftorian of America, exprefsly affirins, ' That 

 ' neither on the continent, nor ifles of the Weft-Indies, (the name the 

 * Spaniards ufually give to all America), were there either filk, wine, 

 ' fugar, oKves, wheat, barley, or pulfe ; all which, and many other 

 ' things, have been tranfplanted thither from Spain.' Their own 

 original produilions were only tobacco, indigo, cochineal, cotton, gin- 

 ger, cocoa, pimento, fundry ufeful drugs and woods for dying, fur- 

 niture, phyfic, and fhip and houfe -building. Our Britifli colonifts haVe 

 fince found plenty of ironftone, as alfo copper and lead mines. And it 

 is from thofe two countries of Spain and Portugal, that Europe has been 

 fupplied with that immenfe quantity of treafure, which has fo much en- 

 riched and improved it. From Peru and Mexico, as alfo from fome 

 Weft-India ifles, Europe has been fupplied with great quantities of ex- 

 cellent materials for dying, (and above all, with that incomparable one 

 of cochineal, hitherto peculiar only to Mexico), drugs, gums, colours 

 and minerals for painters, preferved fruits of their own growth, ginger, 

 Jamaica pepper (called pimento), tobacco, furs, ikins, and many excel- 

 lent timbers ; all which were originally in thole countries, but whiqh 

 have, by the cultivation of the Europeans, been fince improved in qual- 

 ity, and much increafed in quantity: So that, upon the whole, it may 

 be faid, that, even abftrafting from the gold and filver of America, 

 there has really been a greater accefllon of rich and ufeful materials for 

 commerce introduced into it by the Europeans (their great improve- 

 jnents of American produd:ions jointly confidered) than all America 

 afforded, before it was known to Europe ; all which, through the be- 

 nignity of the climate, and the fertility of the virgin foil of America, 

 have long iince repaid, and do ftill continue to fupply Europe with im- 

 menfe ufury. This, it is true, was alfo moftly the cafe with refped to 

 many of the colonies fettled in ancient times by the Arabians, Egyp- 

 tians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, though perhaps not in fo emi- 

 nent a degree as in the modern cafe of the plantation of America. 



Columbus, in his way homeward, called at the great and fine ifland 

 of Efpanola (or Hifpaniola), where he bartered bits ofglafs, fmall hawks 

 bells, and fuch other trifles, with the natives, for plates of virgin gold, 

 which they wore as ornaments, beaten into fiiape with a ftone, and made 

 without melting or refining the ore, of which they were totally ignor- 

 ant. Here he loft his beft ftiip ; and, leaving forty-nine of his men in a 

 wooden fort, he returned to Spain, full of glory, having been no longer 

 than fix months'and an half in making thefe difcoveries, from his let- 

 ting out to his return. 



That America could not have been much longer hid from the Europ- 

 eans feems at leaft probable, by reafon that the ufe of the magnetic 

 needle in navigation was general, if not univerfal ; more efpecially after 

 the Portuguefe went fo far Southward in their difcoveries on the weft 



A 2 



