513 



give rise ; for, an unhealthy and damp climate, 

 and the excessive abundance of moschettoes, will 

 as little impede the progress of cultivation at the 

 Oroonoko, as at the Rio Magdalena, whenever 

 a powerful mercantile interest shall call new 

 planters thither. Habitual evils are those which 

 are least felt ; and men born in America do not 

 suffer the same intensity of pain as Europeans 

 recently arrived. Perhaps also the destruction 

 of forests round the inhabited places, although 

 slow, will a little diminish the cruel torment of 

 the tipulary insects. San Fernando de Atabapo, 

 Javita, San Carlos, and Esmeralda, appear (from 

 their situation at the mouth of the Guaviare, the 

 portage between Tuamini and the Rio Negro, 

 the confluence of the Gassiquiare, and the point 

 of bifurcation of the Upper Oroonoko) to pro- 

 mise a considerable increase of population and 

 prosperity. The same circumstances will take 

 place in the fertile but uncultivated countries, 

 through which flow the Guallaga, the Amazon, 

 and the Oroonoko ; as well as at the isthmus of 

 Panama, the lake of Nicaragua, and the Rio 

 Huasacualco, which furnish a communication 

 between the two seas. The imperfection of po- 

 litical institutions may for ages have converted 

 places, where the commerce of the world should 

 be found concentred, into deserts ; but the time 

 approaches, when these obstacles will exist no 

 onger. A vicious administration cannot always 

 vol. v. 2 L 



