NORTH AMERICA. 



113 



west of the Mississippi. The other tribes are the Dahcotahs, living about the Upper Mis- 

 sissippi ; the Hohays or Assiniboins, further north ; the Omawhaws, near the Platte ; the 

 Mandans on the Missouri, further north ; the Kansas, on the river of the same name ; the 

 Osages, further south ; the loways, the Otoes, the Missouris, the Quapaws, &c. Several of 

 these tribes are more civilized and peaceable than the more eastern nations. 



(5.) The Pawnee family are a fierce and warlike people, consisting of several tribes, who 

 have learned how to manage the horse which has become numerous in those regions. The 

 principal tribes are the Pawnees, the Arrapahoes, and the Cumanches, who roam through 

 the regions on the Platte, the Arkansas, and Norte. 



(6.) Of the Columbian family, on the west of the Rocky Mountains, little is known. There 

 are many tribes, known under the names of Flatheads, Shoshonees, Esheloots, &,c. 



(7.) The great Mexican family comprises the Aztecs, Toltecs, and Tarascos of Mechoa- 

 can ; these nations had established civil governments, practised the useful arts, and built cities, 

 at the time of the conquest of the country by the Spaniards. Many remnants of their works 

 survive, and are elsewhere described. Their descendants are incorporated, to a considerable 

 degree, with the Spanish population. 



13. Political Divisions. Although a large portion of North America is still occupied by 

 the aboriginal tribes, and extensive tracts are not fitted for the residence of a civilized society, 

 yet the whole continent has been at least nominally divided by lines of demarcation among sev- 

 eral European powers and the former European colonies. Russia and Great Britain are now 

 the only foreign States which lay claim to any part of the mainland ; but Denmark claims Ice- 

 land and Greenland, and France has a sort of usufruct of the little islands of St. Pierre and 

 Miquelon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



I. Danish America comprises Iceland, inhabited by 50,000 persons of Scandinavian 

 descent ; Greenland, in which there are several missionary stations on the southwest coast, the 

 rest of the country being occupied by wandering bands of Esquimaux, or being without inhab- 

 itants. 



II. Russian America consists of the northwestern peninsula, west of the 141st meridian, 

 with a strip of seacoast reaching as far south as the southernmost point of Prince of Wales 

 Island. The only Russian establishments, however, within this vast tract are a few factories 

 and forts of the Russian American Fur Company. The capital, if it can be so styled, is New 

 Archangel on Sitka Island, the King George the Third of Vancouver. The company has also 

 a fortified factory at Bodega, on the coast of California. 



III. British America comprises all that immense region lying between the Polar Seas 

 and the United States, and stretching across the whole breadth of the continent In its widest 

 part. On the west of the Rocky Mountains the conflicting claims of Great Britain and the 

 United States extend over the basin of the Columbia River. The frozen and sterile regions 

 north of the 50th parallel, with the exception of the Moravian missions of Labrador, and the 

 posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, are actually occupied by the indigenous tribes, or are 

 uninhabited and uninhabitable. South of that parallel lie the Provinces, rapidly filling up with 

 an English population, and capable of accommodating and supporting 20,000,000 of inhabitants. 

 Great Britain also holds the Bermudas, and the colony of Honduras on the peninsula of 

 Yucatan. 



IV. The United States of America, lying in the central part of the continent, and 

 occupying its whole breadth from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, embrace a region unsur- 

 passed in the world for Its productive powers and useful qualities. 



V. The Republic of Texas has lately made good its claim to independence, but its 

 precise limits are not yet settled. 



VI. The Republic of Mexico, until 1835 the United States of Mexico, occupies the 

 peninsular tract west of Texas and the United States, and extending from 15° to 42° N. lat. 

 There are, however, few Spanish settlements north of the 30th parallel, the missions and posts 

 on the coast of California, and the towns and villages on the banks of the Del Norte, being 

 almost the only establishments in that region. The country west of the Norte is more remark- 

 able for its mineral wealth than for its agricultural resources, and sufl'ers much from droughts. 

 Further south the soil becomes more productive. 



VII. The Republic of Guatemala, styled the United States of Central Ameri- 

 ca, occupies the long narrow tract between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, a large 

 portion of which is yet a wilderness. 



