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All the ancient arts of Mexico and Peru have never furnished one

single manufacture to Europe. The Spanish armies, though they

scarce ever exceeded five hundred men, and frequently did not

amount to half that number, found almost everywhere great

difficulty in procuring subsistence. The famines which they are

said to have occasioned almost wherever they went, in countries,

too, which at the same time are represented as very populous and

well cultivated, sufficiently demonstrate that the story of this

populousness and high cultivation is in a great measure fabulous.

The Spanish colonies are under a government in many respects less

favourable to agriculture, improvement, and population, than that

of the English colonies. They seem, however, to be advancing in

all those much more rapidly than any country in Europe.