181 



contains a superficial extent equal to that of Mexico - ? and the 

 latter, the western division, almost entirely wild and un- 

 peopled, a territory as large as that of the republic of Co- 

 lumbia. 



In the statistical researches which have been 

 prosecuted in several countries of Europe, im- 

 portant consequences have been drawn from the 

 comparison of the relative population of the 

 maritime and inland provinces. In Spain* these 

 relations are to one another as 9 to 5 ; in the 

 United Provinces of Venezuela, and, above all, 

 in the ancient captain-generalship of Caraccas, 

 they are as 35 to L How powerful soever may 

 be the influence of commerce on the prosperity 

 of states, and the intellectual development of 

 nations, it would be wrong to attribute in Ame- 

 rica, as we do in Europe, to that cause alone 

 the differences we have j ust remarked. In Spain 

 and Italy, if we except the fertile plains of Lorn- 

 bardy, the inland districts are arid, filled with 

 mountains, or high table-lands ; the meteoro- 

 logical circumstances on which the fertility of 

 the soil depends, are not the same in the lands 

 bordering on the sea as they are in the central 

 provinces. Colonization in America has gene- 

 rally begun on the coast, and advanced slowly 



* Antillon, Geografia astronomka, natural y poiitica, 1815 * 

 p. 145. 



