In 1794, there were in the intendancy of Arequipa, an aggregate population of 136,024, of whom 39,357 were whites, 66,609 Indians, 17,797 Mestizoes, 7003 Mulat toes, and 5258 slaves.
How or in what manner the population of Peru has been affected by recent revolutionary movements we are unable to state, but according to Baron Humboldt, the inhabitants of that country amounted to 1,400,000, about 1820. In 1794, when the estimates were made from which the preceding summary was formed, the compo nents of the people of Peru were, whites 136,311, Indians 608,911, and the residue Mestizoes, Mulattoes and slaves. The proportions given by Humboldt, are nearly the same, and it is probable, have not varied mate rially in the last 34 years.
Since 1821, Peru has been definitively separated from Spain, but the political condition of the former is far from fixed, nor have we document for its actual condition.
When we read florid descriptions of the tropical moun tain vallies and plains of America, we are seduced from a consideration of their great disadvantages. In the table lands of Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Peru, a perpetual summer may be said to reign, but these gardens arc separated from the continent and each other, by steep and excessively lofty mountains, and by deep and precipitous vallies. Here, nature seems to have opposed equal barriers against water or land intercommunication. To construct roads over the chains and vallies of the An des, or the Anahuac, demands a labour almost beyond all human power, and to open the channels of the rivers to navigation is a task still more appalling. If we turn our attention to a map of Peru, and the provin ces of Colombia, we see the great fountains of the Ama zon rising near the very shore of the Pacific, through 16 degrees of latitude, and gradually uniting, trace a direct channel to the Atlantic Ocean. But when we learn, that to reach the navigable bosoms of these rivers, we must fall from 2000, to 12,000 feet, we also learn the painful truth, that ages must elapse before united wealth and physical force can render those flowing masses of water available to the inhabitants of the elevated plains of the Andes.
Since the discovery of America, the commerce of these peculiar regions has been conducted by package trans portation on the backs of animals, with but little excep tion, and the features of the earth indicate the perpetuity of this caravan mode of conveyance.
Thus far we have surveyed the vast provinces of Co lombia, Brazil, the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, Chile, and Peru, and to complete the view ol' civilized settlements on South America, we return to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
GUIANA—Guyana, taken in the utmost extent, desig nates a space in South America, stretching south-east ward from the Orinoco, to the Oyapok river, having the Atlantic Ocean north-east, the Orinoco river north-west, and the Brazillian provinces west, south-west, and south. Thus extended, Guyana would extend upwards of one thousand miles from east to west, with a mean breadth of at least three hundred miles, but under the head of Co lombia, the extensive country between the Orinoco, At lantic Ocean, and the Pomaron and Essequibo rivers, has been already noticed. Therefore, under the present ar ticle, we have to review the region particularly called Dutch, French, and English Guyana, comprising a tract of 450 miles by 300; area 135,000 square miles.
Of the foregoing superficies, the inland, and far greater part is not only unsettled by civilized colonies, but re mains unexplored. The coasts are low, and the river banks in many places liable to inundation, and the very gradual acclivity of the country from the ocean, permits the flow of the tides far inland. From every description of the ocean border of Guyana, it bears a very striking similitude to that of Louisiana ; on both, sand hills parallel to the shore, and of no great, if any elevation above high tides, seem to indicate accretion from the alluvion of the ocean. The great current of rotation from Africa, wash es along the coast of Guyana, and no doubt contributes to the deposit of sand. The general range of Guyana is from east to west, ps is that of the mountains which sepa. rate it from the rivers flowing into the Amazon. The principal rivers of Guyana are thus determined in their course, and the Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, Corentin, Surinam, Maroni, and Oyapok, flow in nearly a north wardly direction.