on its banks, which produces, in great abundance, all sorts of corn, especially wheat.

The Schoolkill, or Skulkill, has its source in the same country, running almost parallel to the two other rivers, till at length it falls into the Delaware, near the city of Philadelphia, above which it is navigable for boats, at least a hundred miles higher up the country.

These rivers, with the numerous bays and creeks in Delaware bay, capable of containing the largest fleets, render this province admirably suited for carrying on a foreign trade. The country also abounds in streams fit for mills, and all other kinds of mechanical expedients for easing the labour of man; hence there is here manufactured a greater quantity of iron than in any province on the continent.

The bay of Chesapeak is one of the largest and safest bays perhaps in the world; for it enters the country near three hundred miles from the south to the north, having the eastern side of Maryland, and a small part of Virginia, on the same peninsula, to cover it from the Atlantic Ocean. This bay is almost eighteen miles broad for a considerable way, and seven where it is narrowest, the water in most places being nine fathom deep. Through its whole extent it is enriched, both on the eastern and western side, by a vast number of fine navigable rivers: for, beside those of Maryland, it receives from the side of Virginia, James-river, York-river, the Rappaha nock, and the Potowmac.

These rivers are not only navigable themselves for very large ves sels a considerable way into the country, but have so many creeks, and receive such a number of smaller navigable rivers, as render the communication of all parts of this country inconceivably more easy than that of any other. The Potowmac is navigable for near two hundred miles; it is nine miles broad at its mouth, and for a vast way not less than seven. The other three are navigable upward of eighty; and in the windings of their several courses approach one another so nearly, that the distance between them is in some parts not more than ten, and in others not more than five miles; while in others again there are fifty miles between each of them. The planters, as in Maryland, load and unload vessels of great burden at their own doors; which, as their commodities are of small value in prʊportion to their bulk, is an incalculable convenience.

CONNECTICUT river rises in New Hampshire state, latitude 45° 10; it pursues a remarkably straight course to the south, and dis

charges its waters into the sound opposite to Long Island. About one hundred and forty miles from its source, near the town of Walpole, are very rapid falls, the force of which is caused by the water's being enclosed by two rocks within a space of about thirty feet, and falling into a broad bason below. Over these rocks a bridge was constructed in 1784, with such an elevation as to be inaccessible to the highest floods. From these falls to the mouth of the river the distance is about one hundred and sixty miles.

SOUTH AMERICA.

We have yet to describe three majestic floods, that may well vie with any we have yet glanced at. These are, the Oronooko, or Orinoko, the River of Amazons, sometimes called the Orellana, but more properly the Marúgnon; and the Plate River, or Rio de la Plata. They all run in the general direction of from west to east.

The ORONOOKO forms one boundary for Guiana. It is said to be seven hundred and fifty-five leagues in length, from its source, in Popayan, near the Pacific Ocean, to its discharge into the Atlantic, in 9° north latitude, where its impetuosity is so great, that it stems the most powerful tides, and preserves the freshness of its waters to the distance of twelve leagues out at sea. The Oronooko in the month of April begins to swell, and continues to rise during five months; the sixth it remains at its greatest height; in October it begins to subside, and falls gradually until the month of March during which month it remains at a fixed state of its utmost diminution. This regular rise and fall of its waters is unquestionably produced by the rainy and the dry seasons, which alternately prevail in this part of the world.

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Columbus, in his third voyage of discovery, which commenced on the 30th of May, 1498, taking a more southern course than he had pursued in his two former voyages, discovered the island of Trinidad, on the coast of Guiana, near the mouth of this great river, on the first of August following. The swell occasioned by its waters pouring into the ocean was so great as to expose the ships to extreme danger, but after long combating the currents and tremendous waves with doubtful success, he conducted his squadron safe through a narrow strait, which separates that island from the continent; this

he called "Bocca del Drago," the dragon's mouth. He justly concluded that such a vast body of water must flow through a country of immense extent, and that he was now arrived at that continent which it had long been the object of his wishes to discover. Full of this idea, he stood to the west, along the coast of those provinces now known by the names of Paria and Comana.

The Oronooko, though a river only of the third or fourth magni. tude in the new world, far surpasses the largest rivers in our hemisphere. It rolls toward the ocean such a vast body of water, and rushes into it with such impetuous force, that when it meets the tide, which on that coast rises to an uncommon height, their collision oc casions a swell and agitation of the waters no less surprising than formidable.

The RIVER of the AMAZONS, which is the northern boundary of Brasil, as it has its source among the Andes, which are the highest mountains on the globe, is the greatest river in the world. Its rise is not far from the Pacific Ocean, and it runs in an eastern course, according to Ulloa and Condamine, more than twelve hundred leagues, in which progress it received above sixty considerable rivers. In some parts it divides into several branches, encompassing a multitude of islands, and at length discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean, directly under the equinoctial line, by a channel one hundred and fifty miles broad.

The first European who sailed down the river of Amazons, or as it is more properly called the Maragnon, was Francis Orellana, soon after the conquest of Peru, in the year 154). He was next in commaud to Gonzalo Pizarro, the governor of Quito, and a brother of that heinous barbarian who slaughtered or enslaved the Peruvians, alike regardless of every restraint from the calls of justice, as insensible to the feelings of humanity. Gonzalo Pizarro, with a body of Spanish soldiers, and some thousand Indians, attempted to penetrate into the interior recesses of the American continent, expecting to acquire great wealth in countries possessed by other tribes of Indians; but in his whole progress, neither inhabitants, nor silver, nor gold, supplied him and his followers with their expected prey: but a fate more merited pursued them; for they encountered such hardships from incessant rains, want of subsistence, and continual exertions in cutting their way through thick woods, or wading through marshes and morasses, that great numbers of the party perished miserably;

at length, the survivors reached the Coca or Napo, one of the large rivers whose waters pour into the Maragnon, and contribute to its grandeur. There a bark was built, and fifty soldiers, under the command of Orellana, proceeded in it down the stream, sent by Piz arro to procure food for their perishing associates; but no principle of honour, or emotion of pity, could actuate such men; Orellana, regardless of their situation whom he had left on shore, determined to abandon them to their fate, to follow the course of the stream, and explore the countries through which it passed.

Pizarro had no suspicion of the treachery of his officer until he learnt the fatal tidings by one of the fifty in the bark, and this man had been landed on a desert shore, there to perish, because he expressed his abhorrence of such a cruel breach of trust: Pizarro having proceeded onward, happening to reach the spot, and hearing the dreadful tidings, immediately attempted to return to Quito, which was at the distance of twelve hundred miles. In this desponding rout hunger compelled them to feed on roots and berries, and even to gnaw the leather of their saddles and sword-belts. Four thousand Indians and two hundred and ten Spaniards perishi ed in this wild, disastrous expedition, which continued near two years; and only fourscore got back to Quito, naked as savages, and so emaciated by famine and fatigue, that they appeared more like spectres than men.

Of Orellana's enterprise, Dr. Robertson speaks as follows. "This scheme of Orellana's was as bold as it was treacherous. For, if he be chargeable with the guilt of Iraving violated his duty to his commander, and with having abandoned his fellow-soldiers in a pathless desert, where they had hardly any hopes of success, or even of safety, but what were founded on the service which they expected from the bark; his crime is, in some measure, balanced by the glory of having ventured upon a navigation of near two thousand leagues, through unknown nations, in a vessel hastily constructed, with green timber, and by very unskillful hands, without provisions, without a compass, or a pilot. But his courage and alacrity supplied every defect. Committing himself fearlessly to the guidance of the stream, the Napo bore him along to the south, until he reached the great channel of the Maragnon. Turning with it toward the coast, he held on his course in that direction. He made frequent descents on both sides of the river, sometimes seizing by force of arms the provisions of the fierce savages seated on its banks; and sometimes pro®

curing a supply of food by a friendly intercourse with more gentle tribes. After a long series of dangers, which he encountered with amazing fortitude, and of distresses which he supported with no less magnanimity, he reached the ocean, where new perils awaited him. These he likewise surmounted, and got safe to the Spanish settlement in the island of Cubagua; thence he sailed to Spain. The vanity natural to travellers who visit regions unknown to the rest of mankind, and the art of an adventurer, solicitous to magnify his own merit, concured in prompting him to mingle an extraordinary proportion of the marvellous in the narrative of his voyage. He pretended to have discovered nations so rich, that the roofs of their temples were covered with plates of gold; and described a republic of women, so warlike and powerful, as to have extended their domi nion over a considerable tract of the fertile plains which he had visited. Extravagant as those tales were, they gave rise to an opinion that a region abounding with gold, distinguished by the name of El Dorado, and a community of Amazons, were to be found in this part of the New World; and such is the propensity of mankind to believe what is wonderful, that it has been slowly and with difficulty that reason and observation have exploded those fables. The voyage, however, even when stripped of every romantic embellishment, deserves to be recorded, not only as one of the most memorable occurrences in that adventurous age, but as the first event which led to any certain knowledge of the extensive countries that stretch eastward from the Andes to the ocean."

Herrera, in his History of America, gives a circumstantial account of Orellana's voyage. It appears that he was very near seven months from the time of his embarking to his reaching the mouth of the river.

M. de la Condamine, in the year 1743, for the purpose of measuring a degree of the meridian, sailed from Cuenca to Para, a settlement of the Portuguese at the mouth of the river, a navigation much longer than that of Orellana, in less than four months. But the two adventurers were very differently provided for the voyage. This hazardous undertaking, to which ambition prompted Orellana, and the love of science M. de la Condamine, was undertaken by Madam Godin des Odonais, in the year 1769, from conjugal affection. The narrative of the hardships which she suffered, of the dangers to which she was exposed, and of the disasters which befel ber is one of the most singular and affecting stories related in any