( 146 ) 



DISSERTATION III. 



On the Land of Mexico. 

 HOEVER reads the horrid defcription which 



V V fome Europeans give of America, or hears the 

 injurious flander with which they fpeak of its foil, its 

 climate, its plants, its animals, and inhabitants, will eafi- 

 ly be perfuaded that malice and unnatural rancour have 

 armed their pens and their tongues, or that the new 

 world is truly a curfed land, and deftined by heaven for 

 the punifhment of malefactors. If we reft faith in count 

 de BuiFon, America is an entirely new country, fcarcely 

 arifen out of the waters which overwhelmed it (rn) 9 a 

 continual marfh in its plains, a land uncultivated and co- 

 vered with woods, even after having been peopled by 

 Europeans more induftrious than Americans, or incum- 

 bered with mountains that are inacceffible, and leave but 

 a fmall territory for cultivation and the habitations of 

 men ; an unhappy region, lying under a fordid iky, 

 where all the animals that have been tranfported from 

 the old continent are degenerated, and thofe native to 

 its clime are fmall, deformed, weak, and deftitute of 

 arms for their defence. If we credit Mr. de Paw (who 

 in a great meafure copies the fentiments of count de 

 Buffon, and where he does not copy, multiplies and ex- 

 aggerates errors ) America has been in general^ and is at 

 prefent a very barren country , in which all the plants of 

 Europe have degenerated, except thofe which are aqua- 

 tic and fucculent. Its (linking foil bears a greater num- 

 ber of poifonous plants than all the other parts of the 



world. 



(m) Hift. Natur. torn. vi. 



