296 EUROPEAN NATIONS 
Returning to Cumana, they made preparations 
for their departure, and availing themselves of an 
American vessel, laden at New Barcelona for Cuba, 
they set out on the 16th November, and crossed for 
the third time the Gulf of Cariaco. The night was 
cool and delicious, and it was not without emotion 
that they saw for the last time the disk of the moon 
illuminating the summits of the cocoa-trees along 
the banks of the Manzanares. The breeze was 
strong, and in less than six hours they anchored 
near the Morro of New Barcelona. 
The continental part of the New World is divid- 
ed between three nations of European origin, of 
which one, the most powerful, is of Germanic race, 
and the two others belong to Latin Europe. The 
latter are more numerous than the former; the in- 
habitants of Spanish and Portuguese America con- 
stituting a population double that of the regions 
possessed by the English. The French, Dutch, and 
Danish possessions of the New Continent are of 
small extent, and the Russian colonies are as yet of 
little importance. The free Africans of Hayti are 
the only other people possessed of territory, except- 
ing the native Indians. The British and Portu- 
guese colonists have peopled only the coasts opposite 
to Europe; but the Spaniards have passed over the 
Andes, and made settlements in the most western 
provinces, where alone they discovered traces of an- 
cient civilisation. In the eastern districts, the in- 
habitants who fell into the hands of the two former 
nations were wandering tribes or hunters, while in 
the remoter parts the Spaniards found agricultural | 
states and flourishing empires; and these circum- 
stances have greatly influenced the present condi- 
panei 
ss 
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