introduced. Then Negroes were largely imported from Africa, and the population of the several islands consisted of Negro slaves, of their white masters (comparatively few in number), and of a mixed European and Negro race who sprang up. The whites were Spaniards chiefly; also English, French, and others. The Negroes generally follow the religion and language of the island they are in, speaking Spanish in the Spanish islands, English in the English islands.

660. DIVISIONS. (1) Cuba and Porto Rica belong to Spain. These are the only islands where slavery is still maintained. Not one-third of the cultivable area of Cuba is occupied, and owing to slave revolts the island has for years been in a poor state. The capital Havanna contains 200,000 inhabitants, and is by far the largest town in the archipelago.

(2) Hayti, or St. Domingo, originally belonged half to France, half to Spain. In 1791 the slaves rose, slew their masters, and successfully resisted all attempts of the old countries to subdue them. Since that time the government has been much like the governments of Central America or Mexico: some man succeeds in establishing a military despotism, till he is assassinated. The state of Hayti is miserable, and trade has come to nothing.

(3) Jamaica, an English colony. The slaves were emancipated in 1834. The produce of the island in rum and sugar has since diminished, but the Negroes have had a good time ; in so bountiful a climate they can with little exertion raise enough maize and pumpkins to satisfy their wants. The capital of Jamaica is Kingston, population 32,000.

(4) The Lesser Antilles, containing the Windward and Leeward Islands, are divided among the English, French, Dutch, and others. They are used as naval stations. Barbadoes, a British island, is a prosperous sugar-growing colony.

(5) The Bahamas and the Bermudas are English colonies; the latter are only outliers of the West Indies.

Sect. LIII. SOUTH AMERICA.

661. EXTENT. The area of South America is nearly double that of Europe, the population is supposed not to exceed that of Britain. It is the uninhabited among continents.

662. BOUNDARIES. The Atlantic on the East; the Straits of Magelhan on the South; the Pacific on the West; the Caribbean Sea and the Isthmus of Panama on the North.

663. ATTACHED ISLANDS. (1) Trinidad, near the mouth of the Orinoco.

(2) Terra del Fuego, off Cape Horn.

(3) The Falkland Isles, not far east of Cape Horn.

664. CLIMATE. Nearly three-fourths of South America lies within the tropics, and of the extra-tropical portion all, except the peninsula of Patagonia, lies within the warmtemperate zone. The climate is highly favourable to vegetation, and to the support of a large population. It appears to be on the whole more healthy than the tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The extra-tropical portion possesses a very fine climate, adapted excellently for man and beast; and there are large areas within the tropics where elevated table-lands afford a temperate climate. No part of South America is rendered sterile by frost and snow (Patagonia is windy and rainy rather than frozen), and there are no huge sandy burning deserts as in all the other tropical continents, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

665. MOUNTAINS. (1) The Cordillera of the Andes runs from the isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn, keeping close to the west coast of the continent the whole way. The steep side of the Andes thus faces the Pacific; while attached to the more sloping side are several elevated plateaus. The main watershed lying so close to the west of the continent, its drainage falls into the Atlantic.

The Andes are very continuous, there being no low pass

across them their general elevation is very great (second only to that of the Himalaya), the average height of the watershed being over 11,000 feet. The Andes are almost throughout their length studded with volcanoes, dormant or active, whose cones form the highest points of the chain. The highest is Aconagua, a cone in Chili attaining 23,910 feet; but the highest portion of the Andes range is in Ecuador, where Chimborazo attains 21,422 feet above sealevel.

(2) The ranges of mountains and high land which, commencing near Rio, extend to Bolivia. The ridges run mainly north and south, but form really a large band of high land separating the basin of the La Plata from that of the Amazon. The mountains immediately behind Rio are well known as the organ mountains, and are 7,000 feet high: the Bolivian plateau is 9,000-11,000 feet above sea-level, and the high land joins this.

(3) The Sierra Parimè, which separates the basin of the Orinoco from that of the Amazon. The highest part of this range is south of Guiana (to which part of it the name Parimè is not applied), which is 16,000 feet above sea-level. The mountains westward become gradually lower, till in the west it is said that in the rainy season a boat may from the Amazon ascend the Rio Negro and descend the Orinoco.

666. PLATEAUS. The greater part of Peru and Bolivia east of the Andes consists of a pleateau 9,000-11,000 feet high; that portion of it included between the main Cordillera of the Andes and its flanking parallel lower ridge being above 12,000 feet elevation.

From this plateau high land extends east to Rio de Janeiro.

In Colombia, a large plateau occupies the whole interior of the State. But the average elevation of South America above the sea is small; less than that of the other continents except Australia.

667. RIVERS. (1) The Amazon, the largest (though not the longest) river in the world. The tide is perceptible on it

a thousand miles from its mouth; at 400 miles out at sea from its mouth the water is perceptibly fresher than the ocean generally is. Large ships can ascend the river 2,000 miles, and its extreme length is estimated at 3,900 miles.

Its tributaries are first-class rivers: such are the Rio Negro on the left bank; the Madeira, the Tapajos, and the Tocantins, on the right.

(2) The Rio de la Plata, called "The Plate" by the English. (3) The Orinoco, in Venezuela.

668. LAKES. None of importance: Titiaca in Peru is celebrated for its elevation (12,800 feet) above the sea. Maracaybo is only a remarkable gulf of the sea in Venezuela.

669. COMMUNICATIONS. Railways: The Argentine Republic, Brazil, Peru, and Chili, have 1,000 miles of railway each, more or less, the rest of America none.

Canals: none; but the Amazon is one of the grandest navigable rivers in the world.

Roads: almost none fit for carriage traffic; communication is by horses, mules, and llamas.

670. HISTORIC SKETCH. The present States of America nearly all arose from colonies made in the first half of the 16th century. The Portuguese colonised Brazil, and the Spaniards all the rest of the continent. The inhabitants were found to be of numerous tribes and languages, but all varieties of Red Indians, and speaking varieties of the Red Indian class of languages. The people of Peru were found to be the most advanced of the native races, and had a settled government under the Incas, as their sovereigns were called. They had executed large buildings and discovered the use of metals before the Spaniards arrived.

In the early part of the 19th century, all the Spanish colonies revolted and set up separate States. These have since suffered in turn from revolutions and from military dictators. They have had much war, and they are now mostly bankrupt or nearly so. Brazil also in the beginning of the century became independent of Portugal.

671. RACES OF MEN. The population of each State in South America consists of European whites, mainly Spaniards (or Portuguese in Brazil), Red Indians, and Mestizos. There are also many Negroes in Brazil who were till lately slaves. The chief immigration at present from Europe is to the Argentine Republic and Chili, to which Germans, Italians, English, and Swiss resort.

672. RELIGION. Generally Roman Catholics. The Spanish and Portuguese, and the Spanish and Portuguese Mestizos, are Roman Catholics. Further, the Indians have been largely converted by Roman Catholic Missionaries, especially Jesuits: and in many countries the Missionaries collect the Indians in villages, and partly instruct them in civilization, partly induce them to labour and to call themselves Christians.

673. LANGUAGES.

The white and partially white population speak Spanish, or in Brazil, Portuguese. The Indians generally retain Indian languages.

674. ANIMALS. South America is poor in large quadrupeds as compared with Africa or Asia; though geologists have discovered fossil skeletons showing that at some not distant period (geologically speaking) there were huge quadrupeds in South America. Also all the quadrupeds of South America are different from those of the Old World, and many of the Old-world families of animals are altogether missing in South America. The following is a list of the larger Mammalia :

:

(1) Marsupials: half-a-dozen kinds of opossums.

(2) Pachyderms: two tapirs; three peccaries (much resembling small pigs).

(3) Solidungula : none. But horses were introduced by the Spaniards, and vast herds of wild horses, sprung from these, now roam on the plains.

(4) Ruminants: four kinds of llama or alpaca (unlike

any Old-world animals, nearest the camel, but only about three feet high at the shoulder): several species of deer.

(5) Edentata: the great ant-eater and several smaller species; the armadillos and sloths.