The crown of Spain, by its share of the gold and silver, derived some revenue from its colonies from the moment of their first establishment.It was a revenue, too, of a nature to excite in human avidity the most extravagant expectations of still greater riches.The Spanish colonies, therefore, from the moment of their first establishment, attracted very much the attention of their mother country, while those of the other European nations were for a long time in a great measure neglected.The former did not, perhaps, thrive the better in consequence of this attention; nor the latter the worse in consequence of this neglect.In proportion to the extent of the country which they in some measure possess, the Spanish colonies are considered as less populous and thriving than those of almost any other European nation.The progress even of the Spanish colonies, however, in population and improvement, has certainly been very rapid and very great.The city of Lima, founded since the conquest, is represented by Ulloa as containing fifty thousand inhabitants near thirty years ago.Quito, which had been but a miserable hamlet of Indians, is represented by the same author as in his time equally populous.Gemelli Carreri, a pretended traveller, it is said, indeed, but who seems everywhere to have written upon extremely good information, represents the city of Mexico as containing a hundred thousand inhabitants; a number which, in spite of all the exaggerations of the Spanish writers, is, probably, more than five times greater than what it contained in the time of Montezuma.These numbers exceed greatly those of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the three greatest cities of the English colonies.Before the conquest of the Spaniards there were no cattle fit for draught either in Mexico or Peru.The llama was their only beast of burden, and its strength seems to have been a good deal inferior to that of a common ass.The plough was unknown among them.They were ignorant of the use of iron.They had no coined money, nor any established instrument of commerce of any kind.Their commerce was carried on by barter.Asort of wooden spade was their principal instrument of agriculture.Sharp stones served them for knives and hatchets to cut with; fish bones and the hard sinews of certain animals served them for needles to sew with; and these seem to have been their principal instruments of trade.In this state of things, it seems impossible that either of those empires could have been so much improved or so well cultivated as at present, when they are plentifully furnished with all sorts of European cattle, and when the use of iron, of the plough, and of many of the arts of Europe, has been introduced among them.But the populousness of every country must be in proportion to the degree of its improvement and cultivation.In spite of the cruel destruction of the natives which followed the conquest, these two great empires are, probably, more populous now than they ever were before: and the people are surely very different; for we must acknowledge, Iapprehend, that the Spanish creoles are in many respects superior to the ancient Indians.
After the settlements of the Spaniards, that of the Portuguese in Brazil is the oldest of any European nation in America.But as for a long time after the first discovery neither gold nor silver mines were found in it, and as it afforded, upon that account, little or no revenue to the crown, it was for a long time in a great measure neglected; and during this state of neglect it grew up to be a great and powerful colony.While Portugal was under the dominion of Spain, Brazil was attacked by the Dutch, who got possession of seven of the fourteen provinces into which it is divided.They expected soon to conquer the other seven, when Portugal recovered its independency by the elevation of the family of Braganza to the throne.The Dutch then, as enemies to the Spaniards, became friends to the Portuguese, who were likewise the enemies of the Spaniards.They agreed, therefore, to leave that part of Brazil, which they had not conquered, to the King of Portugal, who agreed to leave that part which they had conquered to them, as a matter not worth disputing about with such good allies.But the Dutch government soon began to oppress the Portuguese colonists, who, instead of amusing themselves with complaints, took arms against their new masters, and by their own valour and resolution, with the connivance, indeed, but without any avowed assistance from the mother country, drove them out of Brazil.The Dutch, therefore, finding it impossible to keep any part of the country to themselves, were contented that it should be entirely restored to the crown of Portugal.In this colony there are said to be more than six hundred thousand people, either Portuguese or descended from Portuguese, creoles, mulattoes, and a mixed race between Portuguese and Brazilians.No one colony in America is supposed to contain so great a number of people of European extraction.