come the historian of the New World. He had formed (he says) the design of putting his researches together, at some future period, in a large and general description of the Spanish colonies, and, with that view, collected a variety of materials relating both to the Spanish islands and the shores of the Continent from La Vela to the Oronoko,' (a little way, by-the-bye, towards the immense excursion he meditated,) which have been, during the last war, the most accessible to foreigners.' Nature, however, conspired with man to frustrate his magnificent designs. Part of his papers were seized by the French at St. Domingo; and one of those dreadful hurricanes which sometimes sweep the West India seas,' sunk the rest, with his Majesty's ship the Lark. Still, however, the image of the large book was deeply engraven on his fancy; and though now left with little else than the faint traces of memory for his guidance,' he could not forbear writing two octavo volumes, to shew what might have been expected from him, if the enemy and the elements had not so unpitifully destroyed his 'seven years labours.'

The introduction to his work is an account of Hispaniola. This takes up the whole of the first volume; the second is devoted to the natural and political history of the New World.—But it is impossible to convey a correct idea of the loose and desultory manner in which he writes. Some notion of it may, however, be formed from a sketch of one of the most important chapters, if we are to judge from the title, which runs thus. Indians; their history; one of their idols described; decline and rise of Hispaniola; policy of the French in the West Indies.' In the first year (Mr. Walton begins) after the discovery of this island, European settlers flocked hither from every part of the mother-country, led by the impulse of riches, and baited by the flattering repre sentations of those who returned home with the first samples of gold. Under a sun so benign, and a soil so fertile, establishments rose in every direction, lands were dealt out by grants from the emperor, the Indians were shared in repartimientos amongst the rich and powerful, and taught to till the earth, or dig from its bowels the means of enriching their masters. Cities, palaces, temples, and towns, to rival many in Europe, soon swelled upon the sight; and, if we can credit their own historians, in 1504, that is, ten years after the discovery, and during the government of Ovando, there were seventeen towns founded and peopled, all of which, according to Herrera, had their respective blazons, or coat of arms, of which the details are found in his history, taken from the royal grant, under date of the 6th of December, 1508. But of these, except in the capital, scarcely a trace is now to be met with or recognized by their present respective inhabitants.' Of short duration,

duration, however, was this blaze of prosperity; the natives'-(it was full time to come to them)- the natives, by whose labour this rapid advance had been made, began to decline.' We must confess that Mr. Walton's history of the Indians does not begin ab ovo. But, as he had touched on their decline, he would not miss the opportunity of mentioning the famous Las Casas; and after unhesitatingly stating, as a fact, that the worthy Bishop of Chiapa was the first who introduced slaves into Santo Domingo,* and gravely philosophizing on the contradictory conduct of this humane defender of the Indians, he recollects that he had promised to give their history,' and we are led to hope that he is going to set about it in earnest. Nothing like it; by History of the Indians' the author means that such history is not to be found in his book. To enter' (he says)' on the history of the Indian aborigines of Hispañola at the time it was discovered by Columbus, were to wander from the line prescribed; nor can we find any local traces to aid us in substituting fact for conjecture.'

To console the reader, however, for his disappointment, Mr. Walton tells him how he sought, in vain, some remnant of isolated population, under a wish to obtain a comparative knowledge of their language and traditions.' This, indeed, was rather gratuitous in Mr. Walton, for it is pretty well known at Santo Domingo, that there are no such remnants of isolated population of aborigines in the island; and he might have spared himself his wandering in search of it, and his readers this negative chapter.

But what does Mr. Walton call the Indian language? We sometimes' (he says, p. 166) 'meet with Spanish authors who boast of

The extraordinary and disinterested exertions of this excellent man have made him an object of veneration. The fact of his having recommended the importation of negro slaves, to save from destruction the weak race of the Santo Domingo Indians, rests upon the authority of Herrera. But it is absolutely false that he was the first promoter of that horrid trade in the Spanish Colonies. A tax on the importation of slaves into the Spanish Colonies was planned by Cardinal Ximenes as early as 1516. (Herrera, Decad. 2. Lib. 2. c. 8.) Las Casas had limited bis efforts to obtain a Regulation for the relief of the Indians, which was granted by Charles V. in 1542. These regulations excited considerable troubles in the colonies, and Las Casas's hopes of their good effect were completely disappointed. He then, according to Herrera, seeing that every thing failed him, betook himself to the expedient of recommending that licences should be granted to the Spaniards who lived in the colonies for the importation of negroes, in order to relieve the Indians.' . (Herrera, Dec. 2. lib. 2. c. 20.) It is to be observed that this historian had before mentioned that such licences had been suspended in order to increase the intended duty on the importation. (Vide Dec. 2. lib. 2. c. 8.) It evidently appears from this that the humane bishop neither promoted nor invented the measure. The importation of negroes was merely suspended upon a barbarous speculation. This suspension would naturally produce a greater demand for Africans, after having occasioned the complete destruction of the Indian race at Santo Domingo. So that Las Casas's advice only tended to diminish two evils-the immediate destruction of the Indians, and an extensive importation of negroes, neither of which it was in his power to remedy.

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the

the fertility and softness of the Indian language.' Which? that spoken at St. Domingo? Not at all. Many of the Creoles of the Main (he continues) tell us that the Indian language is extremely adapted to express the affections of the soul, and in love matters is highly superior.' However well disposed we may be to imagine the American woods echoing the melodious strains of love, conveyed in the highly superior Indian language, we are sorry to see Mr. Walton wasting his descriptive powers and his granimatical knowledge upon a non-entity. The great variety of languages' (says Baron Humboldt*) still spoken in the kingdom of Mexico proves a great variety of races and origin. The number of these languages exceeds twenty, of which fourteen have grammars and dictionaries tolerably complete. It appears that the most part of these languages, far from being dialects of the same, (as some authors have falsely advanced,) are at least as different from one another as the Greek and the German, or the French and the Polish. This is at least the case with the seven languages of New Spain, of which I possess vocabularies. The variety of idioms spoken by the people of the New Continent, and which, without the least exaggeration, may be stated at some hundreds, offers a very striking phenomenon, particularly when we compare it with the few languages spoken in Asia and Europe.' Hervas, a learned Spanish writer, supposes that about a hundred and fifty barbarous languages are spoken in the Brazil; and he has given a long catalogue of more than fifty, of which the roots had been, more or less, investigated. Yet Mr. Walton speaks of the Indian language as if it were oue dialect from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn!

Having thus failed in finding something to say about the first topic of his promising chapter, Mr. Walton proceeds to the next, which he thus opens.

The figure represented in the annexed plate is that of an idol in granite, found in the island of Santo Domingo, and originally worshipped by the natives as an household god.' (Could not Mr. Walton tell us from what chapter of the Indian liturgy he infers the rank which his idol held in the estimation of the Indian devotees?) It corresponds perfectly with the description given by Moore in his learned work called the Hindu Pantheon,' (thus it is that one shallow and incompetent writer turns the brain of a thousand others, ou subjects which none of them are capable of comprehending,) and answers exactly to the Lingam worship of that

Vol. 1. p. 138.

+ See Southey's History of Brazil, Chap. VIII. p. 224, where a very interesting account of some of these languages is given.

people;

people; but it may be said to represent it more fully' (God forbid!) and in a more striking manner than any idols by him described.' 'We are told by this learned and celebrated author that Brahma' Mr. Walton gives us the history of Brahma, (for who could doubt, after seeing such a striking likeness, that his idol is the Hindoo divinity?) and then continues his description. In the idol now before us the Brahma A is represented by a disk; B represents the Yoni; C the Linga, the symbol of regeneration, or the phallic emblem of the Greeks. On the top of the Linga is placed the head of the God of Prudence.' However well placed the God of Prudence may be by Mr. Walton, we cannot but wonder at his consummate assurance in the whole of this description, the minute details of which have no other foundation than the 'striking likeness' which Mr. Walton imagined himself to have discovered between his idol and one of the hundred delineated by his oracle Mr. Moore. We have undergone the toil of examining this most important likeness; and, unfortunately for the whole system of Haytian theology, which Mr. Walton has taken the pains to illustrate, we find that the St. Domingo idol is no more like the Hindoo emblem, or the God of Prudence, than any other rude imitation of a head would be, stuck upon a shaft, and bottomed with a round base, for the mystical purpose of being kept from falling.

Our readers are not to understand that this is a singular instance of the vague, inaccurate, and desultory mode in which Mr. Walton has contrived to fill his two volumes, and which can only be conceived by those who, like ourselves, may undertake to give an abstract of them. The labour we have undergone, with a view to collect either facts or observations which might coalesce into some heads or general topics, has been quite harassing, and, we regret to add, unavailing. Leaving, therefore, to those of our readers who may feel disposed to try their logical powers, the Herculean task of methodizing Mr. Walton's book, we will exert ourselves in clearing up one point at least among the many which he has specified in his title-page, and which we consider of the highest importance at this moment; that is, the present state of the Spanish colonies with respect to the mother-country.' In treating this subject we may, perhaps, select some passages of Mr. Walton's book, to prove that, had he limited his endeavours to a few practical observations concerning the countries which he visited, and produced a well digested collection of travelling memoirs, without any attempt at learning and science, he might justly have laid claim to the name of an enlightened merchant, who had stolen some moments from the occupations of trade, in order

to add his mite to that peculiar stock of information which the literary world can seldom look for from the works of its sedentary leaders.

The population of the Spanish colonies may be considered as divided into five classes; 1st, Spaniards born in Old Spain; 2dly, The descendants of Europeans, without any mixture of African or Indian blood, called Creoles; 3dly, The different races of Mulattoes and Mestizoes, or the issue of the crossings of the European, Indian, and African blood; 4thly, The Indians or Aborigines; 5thly, The imported African slaves. The first two classes, from their political importance, chiefly deserve our attention.

What the old Spaniards are, when transplanted to their American colonies, or what peculiar turn their national character takes in that particular situation, would not be a difficult point for conjecture, even if we were deprived of facts and observations. Prejudices are strong in proportion to their range, and evidently derive activity from the numbers which adopt them. Family prejudices are more tenacious than those of individuals, and national prejudices exceed both, in violence and duration. Those, especially, which are grounded on pretensions to superiority over a particular set or nation, are so early imbibed by all classes of the state, so indissolubly blended with every individual feeling, that their conjoint or national effects are astonishing, even when culture has scarcely left any visible traces of them in the common intercourse of life.

We may conceive what the national prejudices of the Spaniards, with respect to their colonies, now are, from the manner in which their ancestors took possession of them, and the authority which the descendants of those conquerors have enjoyed there during four centuries. The Spanish adventurers who flocked to America, immediately after the discovery of those countries, considered them in the light of a wilderness occupied merely by four and two footed game, of which they might dispose at their pleasure. The avowed and infinite cruelties which they committed without the least feeling of remorse, would demonstrate, if other proofs were wanting, the general opinion which prevailed for some time among them, of the irrationality of the Indians.

It will be easily conceived that the overbearing pride of the first conquerors, swelled with the destruction or submission of the Indians, was transmitted in full force to the adventurers whom the thirst of gold, and the desire of living freely at an immense distance from the seat of government, allured to those fertile regions. Those whose haughty and turbulent character was scarcely to be curbed by the authority of a powerful sovereign, must have exerted a dreadful