228 
fufe letting of blood, injef&tions, and bark, 
when the fever fubfides. They recommend 
~ athin broth, made by the boiling of a 
fowl in water, barley-water, &c. for cos- 
ftant drinks ; and wiil not fuffer the pa- 
tient to.eat any thing while the fever is 
upon him, but allow him to drink as 
much water as he pleafes. The part 
moft affected by this. diforder is the’ 
head. 
It pofibly may not be uninterefting to 
mention, that a propoiition was made to 
the Court of Spain, to open a canal from 
the bay of Panama, te communicate with 
the river Chagres at Cruz, and fo with 
the Atlantic Ocean. It was rejeCted, on 
the fuppofition that it would deprive the 
Pacific of fo much water as to Jeave their 
harbours on that fide dry ; and, on this, 
have a tendency to overflow the Welt 
India iflands, and the fea-coaft of the con- 
tinent, as it was contended that the 
waters of the Pacific at that part of the 
eontinent were much higher than on the 
oppofite fidein the Atlantic Ocean. This 
¥8 probably an ablurd idea; and the more 
probable caufe of rejeéting the propolition, 
arole from thofe contraéted principles of 
policy which diftinguifh the Spanith Cabi- 
net, and which tend to deprive other na- 
tions from profiting by an intercourfe 
with her American poffeffions, which a 
canal would much facilitate, and expofe 
her poffeffions in the Pacific to an ealy 
conquelt. It 1s not foreign to the fubject 
to relate, that the ebb and flow of the 
tides at Panama is from fourteen to 
twenty feet, and that at Porto-Bello they 
are but three or four feet. 
Should a canal ever be opened at the 
place mentioned, it wiil probably caufe a 
complete revolution in commerce, and 
make Panama and Porto-Bello two great 
emporiums for the interchange of the 
produ&ions of the eaftern and weftern 
world. 
There are many confiderable fzttle- 
ments on the lake and river of Nicaragua, 
and between the river and Panama, on 
the gold mines of Veragua, from which 
are taken about twenty quintals of gold 
annually. The provinces of Veragua and 
Coita-Rica (between Panama and the lake) 
are not numeroufly peopled, neither is 
that of Leon ; but by means of this lake 
vaft quantities of goods from Portc- 
Bello wouli fiad their way into the dif 
tri of Mexico, and trom thence the 
whole country within’ the jarifuiction of 
Guatimala would receive {upplics, as 
hkewwve from Panama, which 4s fituated 
atthe head of a deep dnd ipacicus bay, 
Defeription of the Coaft of South America. 
[April i; 
about two hundred leagues fouth-eaft 
from the city of Guatimala. Panama is 
a walled town, and contains about thirty 
thoufand inhabitants. Ina fouthern and 
weftern direction from thence, about fix 
hundred miles, is the city of Guayaquil, 
fituated upon a river which rifles from the 
Andes in the province of Quito, and 
unites its waters with thofe of the Pacific - 
Ocean at Guayaquil bay. This river is 
navigable, and goods are conveyed up it 
thence to the city of Quito. Between 
Panama and Guayaquil are feveral inter- 
mediate ports, which would receive more 
or lefs goods from thence, from whence 
they would likewife find their way to 
Quito. Payta is a very confiderable 
town onthe Pacific, about one hundred 
miles from Guayaquil. The province of 
Quito is very populous, and faid to be the 
richeft of Peru. Lima is about eight 
hundred miles from Guayaquil, well 
known as the moft opulent and luxurious 
city of South America. It is the great 
‘emporium from whence every part of 
Peru receives fupplies, as likewife the 
greater part of Chili, and monopolizes 
almoft the whole trade of South America 
on the Pacific fide, when Spain is-at peace, 
and has a free intercourfe with that 
country. 
Sta. Martha is about ten leagues from 
Carthagena, and the river St. Magdalena 
unites with the Atlantic between thofe 
two places. The river St. Magdalena 
rifes in the Andes, in the province of 
Grenada, and thofe two places are the re- 
ceptacles of the produétions of that pro- 
vince, and fupply it with merehandize.— 
From St. Martha to Caraceas there is a 
fafe communication by land or water, 
and the expences attending the tranfporta- 
tion of goods by either mode of convey- 
ance are trifling ; fo that I calculate my 
plan to include the fupply of the principal 
partof that country alfe. 
The trade of that part of Spanifh Ame. - 
rica which my plan comprifes, is very 
limited and confined.- The European 
merchants enjoy all the advantages to be 
derived from their ex:ernal commerce, the 
unjult and impolitic Jaws of their country 
having given them the power to impole 
their own prices on the American fubject 
tor the manutactures of Europe, and to re- 
ceive the produce of their country on fach 
terms as they think proper. Their inter- 
nal commerce is principally an iliicit traf- 
fic, which every clafs of people, from the 
viceroys to the meaneft fubjects, are more 
or lefs concerned in, and 1s reduced to fuch 
fyftem by habit and cultom, that each 
has 
