472 



easier to indicate the different shades of national 

 improvement, and the point toward which the 

 unfolding- of the intellect tends in preference, 

 than to compare and class things that cannot be 

 investigated under the same point of view. It 

 appeared to me, that a strong tendency toward 

 the study of the sciences prevailed at Mexico 

 and Santa FeV de Bogota ; more taste for litera- 

 ture, and whatever can charm an ardent and 

 lively imagination, at Quito and Lima; more 

 accurate notions of the political relations of 

 countries, and more enlarged views on the state 

 of colonies and their mother countries, &t the 

 Havannah and Caraccas. The numerous com- 

 munications with commercial Europe, with that 

 sea of the West Indies, which we have described 

 as a mediterranean with many outlets, have had 

 a powerful influence on the progress of society 

 in the island of Cuba, and in the five provinces 

 of Venezuela. Civilization has in no other part 

 of Spanish America assumed a more European 

 physiognomy. The great number of Indian 

 cultivators, who inhabit Mexico and the interior 

 of New Grenada, have impressed a peculiar, I 

 might almost say an exotic character, on those 

 vast countries. Notwithstanding the increase 

 of the black population, we seem to be nearer 

 Cadiz and the United States at Caraccas and the 

 Havannab, than in any other part of the New 

 World. 



