It does not appear, that any of the Roman colonies gave evidence of a progress remarkably superior to that of old settled states. This inferiority to the Grecian settlements, may be ascribed, partly to the almost ex clusive attention of the parent state to military affairs, and more perhaps to the circumstance of the Roman establishments taking place in districts already occupied and cultivated. The new settlers were consequently in corporated with the mass of former inhabitants, and were more likely to imbibe their manners than to succeed in introducing those habits of economy and exertion, which, in general, arc characteristic of emigrating citizens. The Roman colonies have some resemblance to the Indian settlements of modern Europeans. The native popula tion prcdominning greatly over the new colliers, the hirer are to be considered in the light of a garrison to an out-post, maintained for the benefit of the mother country.
Carthage, approaching in her policy, much more than any Wier ancient state, to the habits of the maritime powers of modern times, we arc enabled to trace a cor respondent resemblance in her colonies. There is no reason to assign their origin to scarcity of subsistence at home, since the fleets and treasures of Carthage could, without difficulty, import an abundant supply of corn. Her colonies, therefore, seem to have been military sta tions, chosen for the purpose of commanding tribute, or appropriating the commerce of a particular district. The two mercantile treaties between Carthage and Rome, preserved by Polybius, imply an earlier attention on the part of the Romans to maritime affairs, than is common ly imagined. On the part of the Carthaginians, these curious documents discover a mercantile jealousy, whiclt strongly reminds us of the prevalence of the same feelings in our own days.
Modern Colonies.—The Gothic ages, unfavourable to every kind of improvement, have_ nothing to boast of in respect to colonies. The crusades, though conducive, in several respects, to the removal of European barba rism, appear to have led to few useful establishments of the kind which we are now discussing. We meet ac cordingly with no examples of colonization, sufficiently general to mark an xra in history, until the comparative ly recent discoveries of America, and of a passage to India by the Cape of Good lIope. It is fully three centuries since the progressive extension of the labours of the leading navigators opened the East and West to the enterprise of colonists from Spain and Portugal. In dia, the imagined depot of incalculable wealth, was the common object of the voyagers of either country. Co lumbus, sufficiently instructed, even in that illiterate age, to be convinced of the spherical form of the earth, calculated that the longer the distance to India was by an eastward course, the shorter it would be by the west.
This argument formed the ground-work of his various applications to maritime powers for the equipment of a suitable squadron ; and, in defence of any miscalculation on his part, it is proper to state, that the distance of In dia to the east had been magnified, beyond all bounds, by the reports of travellers. It was in consequence of India being uppermost in the thoughts of Columbus and other navigators, that the name of Hirst Indies, or, as the French call them, the Little Indies, was given to the Windward and Leeward Islands ; and the appella tion of Indians, bestowed, in the most comprehensive sense, on the savage aborigines of the immense conti nent of America.
The boldness and perseverance of Columbus, have, in connection with the selfish conduct of the court of Spain, after the death of his royal patroness Isabella, procured for him a large share of public sympathy, and have made the politic part of his proceedings attract a smaller portion of attention. He displayed, however, all the thoughtfulness of an Italian, along with that ac tivity awl power of rendering circumstances subservient to his plans, which characterise the authors of great en terprises. He continued to give the name of India to his discoveries, after it became perfectly clear that the two countries had nothing in common ; and he made, in a public procession, a splendid parade of the gold and the products imported from these new regions. By way of interesting the Spanish government in the labour of the mines, he proposed that no less than half the metal lic treasures found in them should belong to the crown. This proportion was soon found exorbitant, and progres sively reduced to a third, a fifth, a tenth, and eventually to a twentieth. The precious metals were long the sole object of attraction to the emigrants from Spain ; to set tle in their new territories with a view to cultivation, be ing for many ages foreign to their thoughts. The Portuguese, likewise, pursued mineral and metallic trea sures in India, and the difference of conduct in the two nations proceeded less from a diversity in their plans or intentions, than in the power and civilization of the coun tries which they respectively invaded. Mexico and Pe ru, defended by a feeble and unskilful race, offered little resistance to bands of enterprising adventurers ; while India and her islands possessed sufficient population to call forth all the courage and exertion of the Portuguese commanders.