SPANISH AMERICA.
PART II
SOUTH AMERICAN DOMINIONS.
The dominions of Spain in North America having been described as fully as the nature of the work permitted, our attention is now to be turned to the acquisitions of that power in the southern division of the American continent.
The territories acquired by Spanish enterprise in South America are more extensive than those which have just been treated of; they reach from the Canataguan chain of mountains, between the provinces of Veragua and Panama, in the isthmus of Darien, to the gulf of Chonos; but Cape Vela, the extreme northern point of South America, being in a higher latitude than the Sierra de Canatagua, it is usual to reckon the total length from it. This cape is in 12° north, and the gulf of Chonos in 44° south latitude[A]: thus the Spanish colonies extend through a space equal to 3360 geographical miles, while their breadth, taken at a medium, is about 900 of the same miles. In fact, nearly the whole of that vast division of the New World, called by the general name of Southern America, is divided between two European powers, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese; the Portuguese holding the eastern, the Spaniards the northern, western and most of the southern part; the colonies of Great Britain and France being only slips of coast; and even the unconquered countries are very small, when compared with those belonging to the two powers first named.
Adding to this immense tract the kingdoms of Mexico and Guatimala, it appears that Spain possesses in the Americas an empire reaching from the 39th degree of north, to the 44th degree of south latitude; or a space included in eighty-three degrees, which is greater than the length of Africa, or more than five thousand miles.