BRAZIL.

taking seals. These animals are amphibious, and are here found in herds, and in great plenty. The common size of the animal is about three feet in length, resembling in part a fish, and in part a dog, and is sometimes called a sea dog. Their

oil and skins have become important articles of commerce, more particularly the latter, which are extensively used in saddlery, cap and trunk making.

BRAZIL. The principal remaining country of South America, is the empire of Brazil, extending from the equator to latitude 32° south, on the Atlantic coast, and bordering in every other part, on the new republics, comprehending about one half of this section of the continent. It was a Portuguese colony from 1500, the time of its discovery and conquest by Portugal, until 1808. It had then become superior in strength and wealth to the parent state, its superficies exceeding it more than twenty fold. A French invasion in that year, drove the reigning family and the court of Portugal, from Lisbon to Rio Janeiro. From that time, Brazil became the principal, and Portugal the secondary state. Its commerce which had, until that time, been regu lated by rigid colonial principles, was opened to all nations. Its government took the form of a limited monarchy, and the name of the empire of Brazil, the head of the reigning family of Portugal, John VI. being the first emperor. From that period, the wealth, population, and importance of Brazil, rapidly increased. In 1821, John returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son, (Don Pedro) regent; who, on the death of his father, became the second emperor of Brazil. The population amounts to 5,000,000. Rio Janeiro, on the Atlantic, in latitude 23° south is its principal city and seaport. Before the revolution it had a population of fifty thousand; it now amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand.

The city of St. Paulo, in the interior, situated on an eminence rising out of an extensive plain, is surrounded on three sides by meadow land, and is washed by several streams at its base, near which they unite and form the river Tiete. Its climate is said to be one of the most pure and healthy in the world. It contains a population of 30,000.

GUIANA. A small territory on the north of Brazil, called Guiana, is the only part of South America subject to European colonization. The south-eastern part, under the name of Cayenne, is subject to France, and is noted for being the place to

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

which the republicans of that nation at one period banished their political enemies. Adjoining it on the west is the Dutch colony of Surinam, and still farther west are the English possessions of Demerara and Essequibo, formerly taken from the Dutch.

Although South America is distinguished for the salubrity of its climate, the value of its productions, and other natural advantages, we still find the people devoid of enterprize, uneducated, and in an unsettled political condition, while the United States is celebrated for its rapid advance in population, intelligence, and all that contributes to the greatness of a country. Without entering into an examination of the causes which produce this marked difference in the inhabitants of the American continent, the citizen of the United States may well rejoice that Providence has placed him amid institutions which guard and protect his rights, and with a people celebrated for their virtue, their enterprize, and attainments in knowledge, diffused throughout the whole mass, to an unexampled extent.

40*

CHAPTER XIX.

Oceanica, embracing the islands of the Pacific and Indian occans, as the fifth division of the world. Classes of inhabitants. Religion. Governments. Geographical position. Distances. Sumatra. Its siluation and extent. Pepper plant. Camphor. Java in possession of the Dutch. Its productions. Batavia. The Upas tree. Borneo. Moluccas, or Spice islands. Cloves and nutmegs; how produced. Amboyna. Dutch monopolies. Introduction of spices into Europe. Philippine islands. Spanish establishment. Character of the inhab itants. Trade. Jesuit missions. Polynesia, or Eastern Oceanica. Whale fishery in the Pacific. Friendly islands. Society islands. English missionaries. Marquesas. Commodore Porter's possession of them. Their number and population. Sandwich islands; their number, situation, and population. Present importance. Condition in 1820. Success of American missions. Southern Polynesia. New Zealand. New Holland and Van Dieman's land.

OCEANICA. The four quarters of the globe, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, with their adjacent and connected islands, the present condition of which has been sketched in the foregoing chapters, comprehend the whole of what former geographers have described as the habitable earth. Later discoveries have brought into view Australia, Van Dieman's land, and several hundred other islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans, inhabited by numerous people, having no political connexion with either continent; this has led to a fifth division, termed by modern geographers, Oceanica or Polynesia.

These great oceans form but one body of water, extending from the western coast of America, to the eastern and southern border of the eastern continent, and as far as, researches can be made, from the north to the south pole; the eastern and northern division is called the Pacific, and the southern, the Indian

ocean.

They cover more than one third of the globe, and present as large a surface at least, as both continents. They contain in every direction groups of islands of every size, description and character. The islands, as far as they have been explored, which are capable of furnishing any sustenance, are inhabited. The number, size and population of these islands are not known. Their whole number of inhabitants has been estimated at 20,000,000. In some of them, different European nations have

CLASSES OF INHABITANTS.

permanent trading establishments, and exercise jurisdiction over a portion of the territory. With such islands, the trade is under the exclusive control of the power possessing the establishment. At others, there are temporary residents of different powers; the trade of such islands is free to all. In the greater number of them there are neither permanent nor temporary residents. Such have been only occasionally visited by European and American navigators. It is supposed that there are still great numbers which have never been discovered.

One of the most valuable productions of the islands, is the bread fruit tree. It grows to the height of forty feet; its fruit is the size of a child's head, and when gathered before it is fully ripe, and baked, it becomes a wholesome bread like that produced from wheaten flour. It bears fruit for eight months in succession, and the produce of three trees is sufficient for one person a year. The trunk is used for building cottages and boats; the inner bark for manufacturing cloth; the leaves for napkins, and its glutinous juice for cement. The palm tree is another valuable production, common to most of the islands. It presents a long, straight body, to a great height without limbs, crowned at the top with a load of leaves, arranged in circles, one above another, yielding flowers and fruit. The trunk produces a hard and heavy wood; materials for wadding, ropes, and cordage are obtained from its fibres. The leaves also serve for fans, parasols, and paper. The cocoa, a species of the palm, furnishes a delicious fruit, enclosed in a shell, which supplies the place of a cup. The milky liquid found in its cavity may be converted into wine, vinegar, or alcohol; and from the same fruit oil is produced.

CLASSES OF INHABITANTS. The inhabitants are of two distinct races or stocks, the Malay and the negro. The former is much the most numerous, and constitute the mass of the popu lation on the islands near to, and north of, the equator. There is a considerable variety of complexion, the fairest being on the northerly and westerly islands, all, however, having a dark, tawny cast. European and American visiters give them, generally, the character of thieves and robbers, openly plundering where they have courage, and stealing where they have not. In the intercourse between the islanders and such visiters, the balance of wrong is on the side of the latter. Their object is to obtain from the islands which they visit, such articles as they want, at the cheapest rate possible. Intelligence, and every other advantage, is on their side, and which they never fail to improve. The instances of massacre and plunder which occur, and they are not unfrequent, are generally owing to some abuse on the part of the visiter. The general similarity of language, customs, manners and government of the inhabitants, constitute them one class of people, and afford evidence of a common ori