930 
we fhould receive the greateft part for our 
_merchandize fent thither, are gold, filver, 
piatina (which is taken from the gold- 
mines of Chaco only), pearls, precious 
ftones, copper, drugs of various kinds, 
lignum-vite, ebony, mahogany, fuftic, 
braziletto, Nicaragua wood, logwood, and 
generally every kind of dye-woods, which 
are in great abundance on the coafts of 
Porto-Bello, but have never been made an 
article of export from thence, as they have 
never had a trade to encourage the pro- 
curing of them. 
The only place where pearls are taken 
in any quantity is at the Ifles del Rey, in 
the Bay of Panama. The annual value 
of the fifhery is about 150,000 fequins ; 
and the pearls are faid to be the 
heft known. But the luxury in drefs of 
the Spanith ladies fo enhances the price of 
them there for ornaments to their perfons, 
that they would not become an article of 
value for export. 
The agricultural produ&tions of that 
country are cotton, cacao, and indigo.— 
Hides and tallow would become coafider- 
able articles of export from thence, and fo 
would tortoife-fheil. 
The country in the vicinity of Porto- 
Bello, though extremely fertile, remains 
jn the fame uncultivated ftate in which 
nature formed it; hardly prefenting a 
fingle trace of the art or induftry of man. 
In the neighbourhood of Panama the at- 
tention of the agriculturift is paid only to 
the breeding of cattle. 
In the provinces of Leon and Cofta- 
Rica confiderable quantities of indigo and 
cacao are produced ; but of the laiter ar- 
ticle we fhould receive the greater part 
from Guayaquil, where it is produced in 
abundance. We fhould receive from 
Guaatimala, by the way of Panama, the 
greateft quantity of indigo, and perhaps 
fome cochineal ; but there is.no attention 
paid to the culture or gathering of that 
article in the fouthern part of America. 
The province of Carthagena produces 
great quantities of cotton, and thence 
eaftward there are confiderable quantities 
raifed. s , 
In the vicinity of Santa-Fé, in Grenada, 
wheat and other kinds of grain are raifed 
in abundance. But the expence of con- 
veyance fo enhances the pices, that by 
the time they arrive at Carthagena, Porto. 
Bello, or Panama (whether from thence or 
from Chill, where they are alfo produced), 
that we could fupply thofe places with 
flour much cheaper than they can now ob- 
tain it. : 
Oifervations re[peéting Emigration to America. - (April i, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AVING, in my concluding Paper 
onthe Situation of Emigrants to, 
America, afferted, that however moderate 
the terms may feem to be on which the 
proprietors of American back-lands offer 
them for fale in Europe, yet they are in 
reality exorbitant ; and that if a propri- 
etor were to give away nine-temths of his 
land to actual fettlers, he would fill 
make a very profitable {peculation ; and 
having alfo promifed to preve it to a de- 
monftration, by giving your readers an 
infight into the areana of American land- 
jobbing, I fit'down to perform it. Ihave 
only to premife, that my fole intention in 
fo doing is, to paint in juft and unexagge- 
rated terms the madne(s of quitting culti- 
vation and fociety for immenfe and impe- 
netrable forefts, and the company of wild 
beafts, and Mill more favage Indians. In 
thefe, as in my former Papers, I totally 
difavow all prejudices for or againft any 
country. I fhall lay open the ichemes of 
fpeculators and land-jobbers, a {pecies of 
men juft as much beloved and refpefed 
among the Americans, as monopolifts and, 
foreftallers are among us. Of fuch a 
fpecies of men, therefore, and not of 
Americans in geneial, I now fpeak. 
Ihave already quoted M. Volney to 
prove thatthe American panegyrifts have 
blazoned their de!cription beyond not only 
reality, but even credibility ; which can 
only be afcribed to their well-known anti- 
pathy to the mother-country, above~ 
which they withed to exalt her infant co- 
lonies in moral and politieal economy.— 
By the moft exaggerated accounts they — 
hoped to drain her of her agriculturifts, 
mechanics, and other members mof ufe- 
ful to a young country, and to make the ~ 
colonies what they reprefented them to be, — 
not what they really were. All fenfikle 
Americans defpife the authors of fuch ac= 
counts ; in proof of whichI beg leave to — 
lay before your readers the words of one 
of the moft enlightened and patriotic ci- 
tizens of the United States, delivered’ on 
one of the moft folemn- occabons they 
have ever experienced fince their indepen- 
dence.* They are as follow :—‘* While 
* An Oration en the Death of the late 
General George Wafhington; delivered at - 
the Old South Meeting-houfe in Bofton, be- 
fore his Honour the Lieutenant Governor, 
the Covncil, and the two Branches of the 
Legiflature of Maffachufetts, at their requeft, 
on Saturday the 8th of February, 100 3 by © 
Fisher Ames, Efq. Member of Congrefs. = 
; re ' Great? 
e 
A 
70 
son = 
= 
i 
