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Africa, and the greater part of South America* 

 are destitute of gulfs and inland seas. We will 

 not here dwell on the observation, that the 

 existence of our Mediterranean has been closely 

 connected with the first dawn of human culti- 

 vation among the nations of the west, and that 

 the articulated form of the lands, the fre- 

 quency of their contractions, and the concatena- 

 tion of peninsulas, favoured the civilization of 

 Greece, Italy, and perhaps of all Europe, to the 

 westward of the meridian of the Propontis. In 

 the New World the uninterruptedness of the 

 coasts, and the monotony of their straight lines, 

 are most remarkable in Chili and Peru. The 

 shore of Columbia is more varied, and its spa- 

 cious gulfs, such as that of Paria, Cariaco, Ma- 

 racaybo, and Darien, were at the time of the 

 first discovery better peopled than the rest, and 

 facilitated the interchange of productions. That 

 shore possesses an incalculable advantage in 

 being washed by the Caribbean sea, a kind of 

 inland sea with several outlets, and the only 

 one pertaining to the New Continent. This 

 basin, the different shores of which belong to 

 the United States, the republic of Columbia, 

 Mexico, and some maritime powers of Europe, 

 gives rise to a peculiar system of trade, exclu- 

 sively American. The south-east of Asia, with 

 its neighbouring Archipelago, and above all, the 

 state of the Mediterranean in the time of the 



