Having thus briefly stated the voyage of Columbus, which has been done with the view of fixing the epoch of Spanish colonization in the New World, we shall not enter into the discoveries of parts of the Spanish American colonies by other navigators or adventurers, at present; but reserving these subjects for the particular provincial descriptions, we shall proceed to relate what extent of territory is claimed by the Spanish Crown in North America.
EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES.
In North America, the northern and eastern boundary of the Spanish territory is situated in north latitude 31°, where an ideal line, running through St. Maryʼs River, separates the United States from the Floridas. The Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the river Perdido on the west, complete the limit of that division which comprises the tract of territory known by the name of Florida.
The northern and western boundary is much disputed, but according to the best information, it extends from Port St. Francisco on the Pacific Ocean in 37° 48ʹ 30ʺ north latitude, and 122° 36ʹ 45ʺ west longitude, (according to Vancouver); between which and Port Sir Francis Drake, there is a wild country. Port Sir Francis Drake is in about 39° north latitude, and to this port the British claims on the western coast of America extend.
The Spanish government have set up an inadmissible claim to the whole western coast, but, as much doubt has existed on the claims of the two nations, 39° north latitude, has been usually taken as the boundary of Spanish acquisitions in the New World; because they have some settlements in that latitude to the north of the town of Santa Fé, in New Mexico, as well as because the sources of the Rio Bravo are situated thereabouts. Therefore, commencing from the coast of the Pacific in 39° north latitude, we draw an ideal line from that parallel across the country, until we have passed the province of New Mexico; thence the line bends southward and eastward, until it meets the River Mexicano, or Mermento, which it follows to the Gulf of Mexico; where, in this quarter, the boundaries are again disputed by the government of the United States; who, since Louisiana has been ceded to them, lay claim to the whole country, up to the eastern bank of the Rio Bravo del Norte; the Spaniards, however, do not admit this, and fix their boundaries at the estuary of the Mexicano, or Mermento. A reference to the accompanying map will better explain those disputed limits than any verbal account.
The western barrier of Spanish territory in North America, is the Pacific Ocean; on the south east, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Honduras, and the Caribbean Sea, are the boundaries established by nature; and on the south, a chain of mountains called the Sierro de Canatagua, which run across the extremities of the two provinces of Veragua and Panama, in about 80° 50ʹ west longitude. This chain divides the northern from the southern continent of America, and the country is here known by the geographical name of the Isthmus of Darien.
The extent of these possessions may be computed, by taking 7° north latitude, as the southern extremity, and 39° as the northern, which will give about 1900 miles in length, whilst from the varying form of the country in the Isthmus of Darien, the cutting out of Louisiana, the singular figure of the Floridas, and the immense inlet of the Californian Gulf, it may be computed at about 450 miles in mean breadth.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
THIS vast extent of continent, including the two West India islands of Porto Rico, and Cuba, is divided into four great governments. The viceroyalty of New Spain, or Mexico, the Capitania general of Guatimala, and the two Capitanerias Generales of Porto Rico and Cuba, which last includes the Floridas.