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America form together a population twice as 

 numerous as that of English race. The French, 

 Dutch, and Danish possessions of the new con- 

 tinent are of small extent ; but, to complete the 

 general view of the nations, which may have an 

 influence on the destiny of the other hemisphere, 

 we ought not to forget the colonies of Scandina- 

 vian origin, who are trying to form settlements 

 from the peninsula of Alashka as far as Califor- 

 nia; and the free Africans of Hayti, who have 

 accomplished the prediction of the Milanese 

 traveller Benzoni in 1545. The situation of 

 the Africans, in an island more than three times 

 as big as Sicily, in the middle of the Mediterra- 

 nean of the West Indies, augments their po- 

 litical importance. Every friend of humanity 

 prays for the developement of a civilization, 

 which advances in so calm and unexpected a 

 manner. Russian America hitherto less resem- 

 bles an agricultural colony, than the factories 

 which the Europeans have established on the 

 coast of Africa, to the great misfortune of the 

 natives, presenting only military posts, stations 

 of fishermen, and Siberian hunters. It is no 

 doubt a striking phenomenon, to find the rites 

 of the Greek church established in one part of 

 America; and to see two nations, which in- 

 habit the eastern and western extremities of 

 Europe, the Russians and Spaniards, thus bor- 

 dering on each other on a continent where they 



VOL. VI. I 



