SS.

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second

the thirty-first

District of New-York, Independence of the United States of America, ISAAC RILEY, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the right whereof `he claims as proprietor, in the words and figures following, to wit:

"A Voyage to the Eastern part of Terra Firma, or the Spanish Main, "in South America, during the years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, con"taining a description of the Territory under the jurisdiction of the Cap"tain-General of Caraccas, composed of the provinces of Venezuela, Ma. "racaibo, Varinas, Spanish Guiana, Cumana, and the Island of Margaretta ; "and embracing every thing relative to the Discovery, Conquest, Topo"graphy, Legislation, Commerce, Finance, Inhabitants and Productions "of the Provinces, together with a view of the manners and customs of "the Spaniards, and the savage as well as civilized Indians, by F. DEPONS, "late agent of the French Government at Caraccas, in three volumes, "with a large Map of the Country, &c. translated by an American Gen❝tleman."

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IN CONFORMITY to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of "such Copies, during the times herein mentioned;" and also to an Act entitled "An Act supplementary to an act entitled, An act for the encour"agement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and "Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the "times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof, to the Arts "of Designing, Engraving and Etching historical and other prints."

EDWARD DUNSCOMB.

Clerk of the District of New-York.

FROM THE HON. S. L. MITCHILL TO THE

PUBLISHERS.

New-York, September 18, 1806.

MESSRS. I. RILEY AND CO.

HAVING heard that you intend to publish a Translation of Mr. Depons' Voyage to the Eastern Part of Terra Firma, published in Paris a few months ago, I send you a hasty version of the author's introductory remarks. In these his objects are so far unfolded, that the reader may form a tolerable opinion of his opportunities to collect information, and of his talent to communicate it. I hope you will soon give the three volumes to the public, in an English dress: For the seasonableness and importance of a work, written with the ability manifested in every part of this, on the Provinces of South-America, belonging to the Captain-Generalship of Caraccas, cannot fail to recommend it to the notice of statesmen, merchants, and the lovers of general knowledge. The perusal of this performance, which discloses to our view some of the most favoured countries, which, though but moderately distant from us, and situated in the same quarter of the globe, have been kept out of our sight for three hundred years by the care and prudence of Spanish policy, has given me more than usual pleasure and instruction. I doubt not that many of my fellow-citizens will receive from it equal gratification; for it displays many new and curious particulars, which lose nothing by the manner of telling. To many, it may be a recommendation that the author writes more like a man of business than a man of science.

SAM. L. MITCHILL.

INTRODUCTION.

THE work which I offer to the public has no other foundation than truth, nor any ornament but that which is derived from correctness. My object in undertaking it was to place in the annals of geography and politics, countries hitherto unknown, where nature spreads her bounties with a prodigal hand, and where she displays all her magnificence, unknown, as it were, to the rest of the globe.

I have no hesitation in maintaining that no part of America, in whatever latitude, can be compared for the fertility, variety and richness of its productions to that which forms the captain-generalship of Caraccas, that is to say, the provinces of Venezuela, Varinas, Maracaibo, Cumana, Spanish Guiana and the island of Margaretta, which extend from the 12th degree of north latitude to the equator, and from the 62d degree of longitude west of the meridian of Paris to the

75th.

I designate this country by the new title of the Eastern part of Terra Firma, to distinguish it from that part of Terra Firma which is situated further westward and is dependent on the viceroyalty of Santa Fe; having for boundaries on its northern extremity, Cape de la Vela to the east, and the Isthmus of· Panama on the west.

All sorts of colonial produce are raised in this land of promise, without exception, in greater abundance

than in any of the Antilles, and they are of a far superior quality. It is perfectly well known that the cocoa of Caraccas brings a price in commerce twice as great as that which grows in the islands of the Mexican Gulfs, without even excepting St. Domingo. It sells for 15 or 20 per cent more than that which is raised in the same latitude upon the banks of the celebrated river Magdalena, which runs through a considerable part of the new kingdom of Grenada, and empties into the sea not far from Carthagena. The cocoa of Guayaquil, on the shores of the South Sea, almost under the line, is not worth more than half as much as that of Caraccas and its dependencies. The indigo of the eastern part of Terra Firma is inferior to none but that of Guatimala. The difference is not more than about 8 or 10 per cent.

Tobacco cultivated and prepared in these provinces, is worth as much again as the best which the United States afford. This single article, which is exported on the king's account, neats yearly to the treasury about four millions.

The sugar and coffee of these regions are finer than in the rest of the Torrid Zone, although the processes of art do much less for them here than they ought.

Besides the present products of these provinces, there is a great variety of others, which the soil of eastern Terra Firma offers to its inhabitants without requiring from them any advance, or subjecting them to any other trouble than that of collecting them and bestowing on them a light and easy preparation.

In this numerous class may be ranked; 1. Vanilla, the fruit of a climbing plant, which like the wild