Though the Atlantic coast of South America is lined in many places by islands, they are mostly very narrow and separated from the main shore by very confined channels. From the straits of Magellan to the equator, the only island of considerable extent is that of Joanes, be tween the mouth of the Amazon and Tocantin ; lying be tween the equator and I° 30' S. Length from N. E. to S. W. 180 miles. Its form is oval, and comprises an area of about 9000 square miles. There arc several villages on its shores.
TR1NtnAn, off the mouth of the Orinoco, is per haps the far most important island of South Ame rica, to which with Tobago it certainly belongs. The ranges of mountains, and the longitudinal position of Tobago and Trinidad, connect them with the Sierra de Paria. The latter lies between N. lat. 06' and 10° 51'; and excepting four sharp and narrow capes, the form is nearly a square of 40 miles each side. The out lines of Trinidad are peculiar ; from each angle of the square protrudes a point, to the south-cast Point Gale ota, to the south-west Point Yeacas, north-west Point Coroval, and north-east Point Calera.
The two western points of Trinidad, Punta de la Pena, Cumana, and the Delta of the Orinoco, nearly enclose the gulf of Paria, a sheet of water, of one hundred miles from cast to west, with a mean breadth of sixty miles. This gulf opens to the north, between Trinidad and Cumana, by the channel of the Dragon's Mouth, and towards the Orinoco by the Serpent's Mouth. It was through the Dragon's Mouth, that Columbus, in 1498, entered the gulf of Paria, and gave the island the name of Santissima Trinidad. It was first colonized by the Spaniards, and with casual interruptions from the Eng lish and French, continued a Spanish colony to 1797, when it was invaded and taken by the English, and by the treaty of Amiens, March 27th, 1801, it was finally ceded to Great Britain.
The products of Trinidad are cotton, sugar, coffee, indigo, and ginger, with a great variety of tropical fruits, and maize. The climate is moderately healthy, with a soil of boasted fertility. Existing population uncertain.