200 



the almost impenetrable forests between the 

 Oroonoko and the Cassiquiare, could nourish^ 

 under the fine sky of the tropics, as many inha- 

 bitants as 10,000 square leagues of Estrama- 

 dura, the Castilles, and other provinces of the 

 table-land of Spain. These predictions are by 

 no means problematical, inasmuch as they are 

 founded on physical analogies, and on the pro- 

 ductive power of the soil; but in order to in- 

 dulge the hope that they will be actually ac- 

 complished, we must be able to take into our 

 reckoning another element less susceptible of 

 calculation,— that national wisdom which sub- 

 dues the hostile passions, stifles the germ of 

 civil discord, and gives stability to free and 

 energetic institutions. 



Productions. — When we take a view of the 

 soil of Venezuela and New Grenada, we per- 

 ceive that no other country of Spanish America 

 supplies commerce with such various and such 

 rich productions of the vegetable kingdom. If 

 we add the harvests of the province of Caraccas 

 to those of Guayaquil, we find that the republic 

 of Columbia can furnish alone nearly all the 

 cocoa annually demanded by Europe. The 

 union of Venezuela and New Grenada has also 

 placed in the hands of one people the greater 

 part of the cincona exported from the New Con- 

 tinent. The temperate mountains of'Merida, 



