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obstacles to agriculture and industry. The most 

 enterprising* and robust planters cannot advance 

 in the mountainous districts of Merida, Antio- 

 quia, and los Pastos, in the llanos of Venezuela 

 and Guaviare, in the forests of Rio Magdalena, 

 the Oroonoko, and the province of las Esmeral- 

 das, west of Quito, as they have extended their 

 agricultural conquests in the woody plains on 

 the west of the Alleghanies, from the sources of 

 the Ohio, the Tennesee, and the Alabama, as far 

 as the banks of the Missoury and the Arkansas. 

 In calling to mind the account of my voyage on 

 the Oroonoko, we may appreciate the obstacles, 

 which the force of nature opposes to the efforts 

 of man in burning and humid climates. In 

 Mexico, large extents of soil are destitute of 

 springs ; rains seldom fall, and the want of 

 navigable rivers impedes communication. As 

 the ancient native population is agricultural, and 

 had been so long before the arrival of the Spa- 

 niards, the lands of more easy access and cul- 

 tivation have already their proprietors. Fertile 

 countries of vast extent, at the disposition of 

 the first occupier, or ready to be sold in lots for 

 the profit of the state, are much less common 

 than is imagined in Europe. Hence it follows, 

 that the progress of colonization cannot be every 

 where as free and rapid in Spanish America, as 

 it has been hitherto in the western provinces of 

 the Angloamerican union. The population of 



