RECAPITULATION. 341 



(£443,625,000). Three mining districts, Guanaxuato, CHAP. XXVI 

 Zacatecas, and Catorce, yield nearly halt' of all the gold 

 and silver of New Spain. 



Manufactures. — The value of the produce of the Manufac- 

 manufacturing industry of New Spain is estimated at ''"'es. 

 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 of piasters (valuing the piaster 

 of exchange at .3s. 8|d., £1,152,083 to £1,316,667). 

 Cotton and woollen cloths, cigars, soda, soap, gunpowder, 

 and leather, are the principal articles manufactured. 



It is scarcely necessary to add, that the regions of p ,.j. . . 

 America, which at the time of Humholdt's visit were dependence. 

 Spanish colonies, have, after a series of sanguinary 

 struggles, excited by the real or imagined grievances 

 under which the inhabitants laboured, now succeeded in 

 acquiring independence. This condition is more suitable 

 than subjection to a remote power, protracted beyond 

 the period at which such settlements are themselves fit 

 to become empires. With colonies it is in some degree 

 as with children. They i-eceive the protection necessary 

 for their growth, and obey at first from weakness 

 and attachment ; but beyond the stage at which they 

 acquire a right to think for themselves, the attempt to 

 perpetuate subordination necessarily excites a hatred 

 which effectually quenches the feeble gratitude that 

 man, in any condition, is capable of cherishing. The 

 political divisions of America — the land of republican 

 principles — are foreign to our object, and would require 

 a more particular description than they could receive in 

 this volume. 



