In the channel between the British island of Trinidad and Cape Paria are several small and desert isles which are of little importance; and descending further to the south, the islands of the mouths of the Orinoco present themselves, inhabited by a fierce and warlike tribe of Indians, named the Guarounoes.
No island of any importance occurs on the Spanish coast of South America, till we reach the mouth of the La Plata, where the island of Lobos, Wolves, in south latitude 35° and fifteen miles south-west of Cape Santa Maria, is found; it is small and chiefly noted for the quantity of sea-wolves, seals and other marine animals which are taken on it.
The Falkland or Malouin Islands, on the east of the Straits of Magellan, are at present possessed by the Spaniards, as they have a fort and barracks on the eastern one, which they have named Soledad; here all the male criminals from Peru and Buenos Ayres are sent for life; vessels sail with these convicts, and with provisions at stated seasons, but as no woman ever accompanies them, Soledad cannot be named a Spanish colony; and it is even doubtful, whether in the present state of the government of Buenos Ayres, they continue to send their delinquents to this banishment.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE
OF
COMPARATIVE ALTITUDES OF THE MOUNTAINS
IN
SPANISH NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA.
The accompanying plate represents the elevations which some of the most noted summits attain in Mexico or New Spain, contrasted with the altitudes of the higher peaks of the Southern Andes in Quito, Merida, Santa Marta and Caraccas; by which it will be readily seen, that the northern range of the Cordillera of the Andes, is not very inferior in height to that part of the chain which has been considered, till very lately, to reach an elevation unequalled by any other mountains in the world.
Recent enquiries, and the researches of zealous travellers and geographers, have not only disclosed the fact, that the Asiatic summits rival and surpass those of Peru, but have also made it questionable whether the continuation of the Andean chain, south of Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, &c. is not far superior in altitude to those celebrated peaks.
It is true, that the Cordillera sinks very much after it has passed the confines of Peru, and that it continues to lower its lofty crest in running through the vast deserts of Atacama, in the kingdom of La Plata, and the upper districts of Chili; but no sooner has it passed these provinces, than it again assumes the same majestic form, and continues it in three parallel ridges, as far as the forty-fifth degree of south latitude, beyond which scarcely any thing is known of this enormous chain, excepting that its height is very great till it loses itself in the ocean of the south, opposite to Cape Pilares, the western entrance of the Straits of Magalhaens.