ADVANCE OF POPULATION. 125 



I have thought it right to enter into these general 

 considerations on the future connection of the two conti- 

 nents, before tracing the political sketch of the provinces of 

 Venezuela. These provinces, governed till 1810 by a cap- 

 tain-general residing at Caracas, are now united to the old 



i >yalty of New Grenada, or Santa Fe, under the name 

 ot the Eepublic of Columbia. I will not anticipate the 

 description which I shall have hereafter to give of New 

 Grenada ; but, in order to render my observations on the 



>tics of Venezuela more useful to those who would 

 judge of the political importance of the country, and the 

 advantages it may offer to the trade ol Europe, eren in its 



'lit unadvanced state of cultivation, I will describe the 

 United Provinces of Venezuela in their relations with Gun- 

 dinnmarca, or New Grenada, and as forming part of the new 

 state of Columbia. M. Bonpland and I passed nearly three 



s in the country, which now forms the territory of the 

 republic of Columbia; sixteen months in Venezuela, and 

 eighteen in New Grenada. "We crossed the territory in its 

 whole extent ; on one hand from the mountains of Paria 

 as far as Emeralda on the Upper Orinoco, and San Carlo 

 del Rio Negro, situated near the frontiers of Brazil ; and on 

 the other, from Rio Sinu and Carthagena as far as the 

 snowy s u mm its of Quito, the port of Guayaquil on the 

 i 'acific, and the banks of the Amazon in the 

 province of Jaen de Bracamoros. So long a stay and an 

 expedition of one thousand three hundred leagues in the 



: ior of the country, of which more than six hundred and 

 re by water, have furnished me with a pretty 



..nowlcdge of local circumstances. 



I am aware that travellers, who have recently visited 



regard its progress as far more rapid than my statis- 



ivx'aivhes seem to indicate. For the year 1913 they 



uromise one hundred and twelve millions of inhabitants in 



Mexico, of which they believe that the population is doubled 



y twenty-two years ; and during the same interval one 



1 red and forty millions in the United States. These 



. I confess, do not appear to me to be alarming 



from the motives that may excite fear among the disciples 



of M.ilt 1, us. It is possible, that some time or other, two or 



three hundred millions of men may find subsistence in the 



