Spanish America (Vol.1&2). Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle
of Contents
In this enlightened age, Geography has assumed a form so new and interesting, that it has become the study, as well as, the amusement of all ranks of society; the philosopher peruses with admiring attention, the details of the localities of distant climes; and the mere reader instructs as well as amuses himself in turning over the pages of a geographical performance.
This science, which till very lately, bore so low a rank in the scale of intellectual attainment, has arisen by the exertions of men of genius, and the increasing commerce of the Atlantic states of Europe to a proud elevation, amid the numerous objects of scientific research; in fact, it blends itself so minutely with almost all of them, that in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of it, it is necessary to study the whole circle of the arts and sciences.
Philosophy enables the geographic traveller to account for the ever varying appearances of nature which meet his wondering sight.
Mathematical knowledge gives him the means of calculating with accuracy the positions and forms of the places which arrest his attention in his progress; and, with his apparatus of Astronomical instruments, whether he be in distant Inde, on the snow-capped summits of the Cordillera of the Andes, or in the frozen regions of the north, he is still able to fix the exact route which he intends to follow.
Painting, or rather its twin sister, Drawing, is also an acquirement absolutely necessary for the man of research in this science, as by its assistance, he can point out to his brethren, the surprising features of those distant regions, which it is their lot to hear of, but never to see; and by this delightful art, which may well be ranked among the first of gifts to man, he can bring home to the imagination the forms of things unknown.
Poetry is not without its share in assisting to give just notions of geographic details, as by its fascinating aid, the ideas which we form of distant objects are heightened and impressed on our memories; and without the fellowship of History, Geography would prove the most uninteresting of studies.
But there are other branches of philosophy, which have of late given a form and stability to the pursuit of knowledge in this science, and by whose powerful co-operation the march of geographical acquisition is daily spreading over a wider and more noble field.
Chemistry has within the last century, assumed a character so widely different from its ancient bounds, that the world is as it were a new region. We have become acquainted with phenomena, which were not before imagined to exist, and we can trace the causes, and consequently the effects of many of the operations of nature, which had hitherto baffled all the efforts of man.
Geology, Mineralogy, and Oryctology, have also, as a consequence of the advanced state of chemical knowledge, become so universally studied, that no modern writer of travels ought to be unacquainted with, at least, their leading principles, and to render his labours very acceptable to the public, he should possess an accurate and extended knowledge of these branches of science.
Zoography has a close connection with the details of Modern Geography, as without a description of the properties and forms of the various races of animals, which all-bounteous Providence has placed on the Earth, for the sustenance or the use of man, a mere outline of the features of kingdoms and states would be, though not useless, yet uninteresting.
Botany also takes an active part in the formation of works of this nature, and perhaps, no other science has a more pleasing share in such undertakings, for every day, and almost every hour, discloses to the phytologist some new and singular variety of Natureʼs performance.
It is not our intention to enter into a disquisition on the Origin and Progress of Geography; this has been so ably performed in several very recent works, that it would be useless to attempt it, nor in fact could any thing more be said, to the purpose, on the subject than what has been already advanced; but instead of considering the different periods in which the science became more clearly illustrated, from the early ages; we shall content ourselves with looking only to its actual state, and to its connections with the subject of the present work.
Notwithstanding all the assistances which Geography derives from the maturity to which the sciences have arrived, yet it is still miserably deficient with respect to descriptions of some of the countries immediately surrounding us; the vast extent of European and Asiatic Russia, is also imperfectly known, Africa is yet unexplored, Tartary and the Chinese empire, have a veil of darkness drawn over them; New Holland is untraversed, and by far the greater portion of America remains to be visited by the European traveller.
To other nations it is a matter of little consequence, excepting as a source of curiosity, whether Englishmen have a thorough knowledge of the various little groups that surround their isle: but to a Briton there is no corner of his land, with which he does not wish to have a minute acquaintance.
Although we possess such an accurate knowledge of England, yet there are many parts of Scotland, and almost the whole of the western coast of Ireland, to which we are as much strangers as though they were situated beyond the Desert of Zahara.
Of Shetland scarcely any thing more than the mere outline of its coast is known to the British geographer, although it offers some of the most singular scenes, both natural and artificial, that can be found in the Northern Ocean.
These scenes consist, in the natural part, of the most fantastic and exuberant workings of Natureʼs ever varying pencil. Here she has grouped assemblages of the most extraordinarily formed islets, twisted and split in every direction; some reaching above the regions of the clouds, and showing, in their pointed or overhanging heads, the most dreadful precipices that can be imagined; such is the island of Foula, between the Orkneys and Shetland. In another place, a large island, which rises gradually on all sides from the sea to a great height, in the form of a parabolic conoid, has its body severed from the apex to the base, as regularly as if it had been the work of art; such is the islet Eglesha, on the west coast of Shetland. A third form is that of an immense islet rising perpendicularly on every side from the subjacent ocean to a great elevation, having its whole body perforated with an arch, of such dimensions that a large vessel could sail under it without lowering her topgallant sails. In short it would require a volume to detail the astonishing operations of nature in these islands.
The artificial scenery of Shetland consists in the numerous remains of ancient fortresses, hollow towers, castles, &c.
Some of these scenes have been drawn by the author of this work; others which he had not an opportunity of visiting, he was furnished with sketches of, by a gentleman resident in Unst, and the whole he has consigned to the author of a work on Shetland, who intends publishing them.
But to recur to the primary object of this publication; although the recent travels of Humboldt, Depons, Helms, &c., have considerably enlarged the circle of our knowledge of Spanish American Geography, yet there still remains a wide field for inquiry in those regions.
When M. de Humboldt shall publish the remaining parts of his Personal Narrative, we shall certainly, from what he has already said on the subject, be better acquainted with a very interesting portion of the Trans-atlantic colonies of Spain, the kingdom of New Granada, and the province of Guiana, as his route was through the latter in his exploratory voyage down the Apure to the Rio Negro, and along the Cassiquiari, down the vast stream of the Orinoco. The viceroyalty of New Granada was nearly traversed by that illustrious savan, as he passed through the cities of Bogota and Guayaquil to the capital of Peru.
Peru is, however, still imperfectly known on its eastern frontier; and the volcanoes, mountains and other striking features of that government remain yet to be explored and described.
Chili is also very little known; the immense barrier of the Andean chain, offers, with the difficulty of crossing the Pampas of La Plata, many almost insurmountable obstacles to the European traveller from Buenos Ayres, and the great length of the navigation round Tierra del Fuego affords a considerable drawback to the adventurer who should wish to arrive in the Chilian regions by a sea voyage.
The interior of the vast government of La Plata and the Savannah of the Amazons is nearly involved in as much obscurity as the central parts of Africa; inhabited by a tribe of fierce