114 



arrived by opposite ways ; but the almost savage 

 state of the unpeopled coasts of Ochotsk and 

 Kamtschatka, the want of resources furnished 

 by the ports of Asia, and the barbarous system 

 hitherto adopted in the Scandinavian colonies 

 of the New World, are shackles that will hold 

 them long in infancy. Hence it follows, that if 

 in the researches of political economy we ac- 

 custom ourselves to investigate only the mass, 

 we cannot but admit, that the American con- 

 tinent is divided, properly speaking, solely be- 

 tween three great nations, of English, Spanish, 

 and Portuguese race. The first of these three 

 nations, the Angloamericans, is also, next to the 

 English of Europe, that which covers with it's 

 flag the greatest extent of sea. Without any 

 distant colonies, it's commerce has acquired a 

 growth attained in the ancient world by that 

 nation alone, which communicated to North 

 America it's language, the splendor of it's lite- 

 rature, it's love of labour, it's predilection for 

 liberty, and a part of it's civil institutions. 



The English and Portuguese colonists have 

 peopled only the coasts opposite to Europe ; the 

 Castiilians, on the contrary, from the beginning 

 of the conquest^ have passed over the chain of 

 the Andes, and made settlements in the most 

 western regions. There only, at Mexico, Cun- 

 dinamarca, Quito, and Peru, they found traces 

 of ancient civilization, agricultural nations, and 



