20 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is probable, the time will come, when the attraction 

 which has so long drawn the nations of Europe to 

 China and Hindostan, will be much diminished. In 

 time, almost every thing that the earth can produce, 

 will be found in America. 



All the commercial nations of Europe, have mani- / 

 fested at different periods, a desire to obtain a foot- 

 hold in South America. The attempts of the Dutch 

 to wrest the Brazils from the Portuguese, gave rise to 

 one of the most bloody wars ever known on this side 

 of the Atlantic. The English never lost sight of their 

 covetous designs on the new world. Although in a 

 great measure, masters of its commerce, they were also 

 ambitious of being master of its soil. Scarcely any 

 part of South America, has escaped the daring enter- 

 prize of this nation. Their capture of Carthagena, 

 and of Cuba, the possession of which they afterwards 

 resigned, and their subsequent attempts on La Plata, 

 are well known. England in every mode has occa- 

 sioned the greatest annoyance to Spain of any other 

 nation; she was almost the only one from whom she 

 had any thing to fear; and but for the extraordinary 

 occurrence which converted these natural enemies into 

 allies, there is no telling to what extent England 

 would have taken advantage of the decrepitude of the 

 Spanish monarchy. It is probable, however, that in- 

 stead of open attempts at conquest, she would have 

 resorted to the arts of seduction to withdraw the 



furnish annually three millions and a half marks of silver, {^,S70, 

 046 troy weight,) while in the whole of the European states, in- 

 cluding Asiatic Russia, the total annual produce of the mines, 

 scarcely exceeds three hundred thousand marks, (230,130 pounds 

 troy.) 



