The country is very thinly inhabited, by a people resembling the Laplanders, and the other nations in the north-western parts of Europe, from whence their ancestors probably migrated. CANA DA. SITUATION and EXTENT. Miles. Length 600 Breadth 200 Between 61° and 81° Weft Longitude from London. 45° and 52° North Latitude. Boundaries.] BOUN DEwrence, fouth, by Nova-Scotia and the United OUNDED north, by New-Britain; eaft, by the Bay of St. States; weft, by unknown lands. Rivers.] The principal are, the Outtauais, St. John's Seguina, Def prairies and Trois Rivieres, which are large, bold and deep, and are all fwallowed up by the river St. Lawrence, which falls into the ocean at Cape Rofieres, by a mouth ninety miles broad. Chief Towns.] QUEBEC is the capital of Canada. It is built on the bank of St. Lawrence river, on a rock, in two divifions, 320 miles from the fea, and contained in 1784, 6,472 inhabitants. One hundred and feventy miles from Quebec, as you afcend the St. Lawrence, ftands MONTREAL, on a beautiful island in the river. It is nearly as large as Quebec. Population.] In 1784, a cenfus of the inhabitants of the province of Quebec was taken, by order of General Haldimand, when they amounted to 113,012 English and French, exclufive of the Loyalifts, who have lately fettled in the upper parts of the province, to the number, it is faid, of 10,000. Conftitution.] The conftitution of the province is founded on the 14th of George the IIId, called the Quebec Bill. By this bill the legiflative power is vefted in the governor and legislative council. The council is compofed of the lieutenant-governor, chief juftice and fecretary for the time being, and twenty other members, nearly one half of whom are French. They are appointed by the crown, and receive £.100 a year as a falary. Their power extends to almoft all the neceffary purposes of government, except the levying of taxes, wherein the faid ftatute inhibits, whereby Great Britain pays the falaries to the counsellors, and all the expences of the civil lift of the province, which amount to £25,000 per annum, exclufive of the governor-general's falary. Trade.] The amount of the exports from the province of Quebec in the year 1786, was £.343,262: 19:6. The amount of imports in the fame year was £.325,116. The exports confifted of wheat, flour, bifcuit, flax-feed, Jumber of various kinds, fifh, pot-afh, oil, ginfeng and other other medicinal roots, but principally of furs and peltries, to the amount of £.285,977. The imports confifted of rum, brandy, molaffes, coffee, fugar, wines, tobacco, falt, chocolate, provifions for the troops and dry goods. Hiftory.] This country was difcovered by the English, as early as about 1497, and fettled by the French in 1608, who kept poffeffion of it till 1763, when, after a long and bloody war, it fell into the hands of the British, to whom it has ever fince belonged, NOVA SCOTI A. Miles. Length 350 Between. 43° and 49° North Latitude, 160° and 67° West Longitude from London, Boundaries.] BOUNDED weft, by the eaftern boundary of the United States; north, by the river St. Lawrence; east and fouth, by the Gulph of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. It has about 90 leagues of fea coaft, on the Atlantic Ocean. In 1784, this province was divided into two governments. One of the governments is called New Brunswick, and lies bordering on the United States. Rivers and Bays.] The rivers Rifgouche and Nipifiguit run from weft to eaft, and fall into the Bay of St. Lawrence. St. John's, Paffamagnadi, and St. Croix, run from north to fouth into the Bay of Fundy, or the fea. Nova Scotia is indented with numerous bays, which afford many commodious, bold harbours. The Bay of Fundy is the largest of the bays, and extends 50 leagues into the country. Here the ebb and flow of the tide is from 45 to 60 feet. Climate, Soil, Productions and Trade.] During a great part of the year the atmosphere is clouded with thick fog, which renders it unhealthy for the inhabitants; and four or five months it is intenfely cold. A great part of this country lies in foreft, and the foil, in moft parts, is thin and barren. On the banks of the rivers, and fome other parts, the foil is good; many of the bays, and falt water rivers, and fome parts of the fea coaft, are bordered with tracts of falt marsh. The inhabitants do not raife provifion enough for home confumption. They fubfift principally by the lumber trade, which is fupplied by their forefts; and by the fifhery, which is very profitable, The fifhery on the fea coft of the island of Cape Bre ton, in the year 1743, while in poffeffion of the French, yielded 1,149,000 quintals of dried fish, and 3,900,000 quintals of mud fish; the value of both, including 3116 tons of train oil, was estimated at £. 926, 577: 10 Aterling. Five hundred and fixty-four fhips, befides fhallops, and 27,000 feamen, were employed in this trade. Chief Towns.] HALIFAX is the capital of Nova Scotia, and ftands on Chebucto Bay. It has a good harbour, fufficiently large and fafe to shelter fhelter a fquadron of fhips through the winter. The town has an entrenchment, and is ftrengthened with forts of timber. It is commodioufly fituated for the fishery. ANNAPOLIS ftands on the eaft fide of the Bay of Fundy, and has one of the finest harbours in the world. ST. JOHN'S is a new fettlement at the mouth of the river of the fame name. Since the conclufion of the war, there have been large emigrations of the refugees from the United States to this province. They have built feveral new towns, the largest of which is SHELBURNE, which is faid to contain gooo inhabitants. Hiftory and Government.] Notwithstanding the forbidding aspect of this country, it was here that fome of the first European fettlements were made. The first grant of land in it, was made by James 1, to his fecretary William Alexander, who named it Nova Scotia, or New Scotland.— Since that time it has frequently changed from one private proprietor to another, and repeatedly from the French to the English. At the peace of Utrecht is was confirmed to the English, under whofe government it has ever fince continued, Boundaries.] B OUNDED north, by Georgia; eaft, by the Atlantic Ocean; South by the Gulph of Mexico; weft by the Miffifippi: lying in the form of an L. Rivers. St. John's and Indian rivers, which empty into the Atlantic Ocean; Seguana, Apalachicola, Chatahatchi, Efcambia, Mobile, Pafcagoula and Pearl rivers, all of which rife in Georgia, and run foutherly in to the Gulph of Mexico. Climate. Very little different from that of Georgia. Soil and Productions.] There are, in this country, a great variety of foils. The eastern part of it, near and about St. Auguftine, is far the most unfruitful; yet even here two crops of Indian corn a year are produced. The banks of the rivers which water the Floridas, and the parts contiguous, are of a fuperior quality, and well adapted to the culture of rice and corn, while the more interior country, which is high and pleafant, abounds with wood of almost every kind; particularly white and red oak, pine, hiccory, cyprefs, red and white cedar. The intervals between the hilly part of this country are extremely rich, and produce fpon. taneously taneously the fruits and vegetables that are common to Georgia and the the Carolinas. But this country is rendered valuable in a peculiar manner, by the extensive ranges for cattle. Chief Towns.] ST. AUGUSTINE, the capital of E. Florida, is situated on the fea coaft-is of an oblong figure, and interfected by four ftreets, which cut each other at right angles. The town is fortified with baftions, and enclofed with a ditch. It is likewife defended by a castle, called Fort St. John, which is well appointed as to ordnance. The north and fouth breakers, at the entrance of the harbour, form two channels, whofe bars have eight feet water. The principal town in Weft Florida is PENSACOLA. It lies along the beach, and, like St. Auguftine, is of an oblong form. The water-approach to the town, except for fmall veffels, is obftructed by a low and fandy fhore. The bay, however, on which the town ftands, forms a very commodious harbour, and veffels may ride here fecure from every wind. Hiftory.] The Floridas have experienced the viciffitudes of war, and frequently changed mafters, belonging alternately to the French and Spaniards. It was ceded by the latter to the English at the peace of 1763, During the laft war it was again reduced by the arms of his Catholic Majefty, and was guaranteed to the crown of Spain by the late definitive treaty. Its first discoverer was Sebaftian Cabot, in 1497. LOUISIANA. Boundaries.] BOUNDED by the Miffifippi caft; by the Gulph of finitely north. Mexico fouth; by New Mexico weft; and runs inde Rivers.] It is interfected by a number of fine rivers, among which are the Natchitoches, which empties into the Miffifippi a. Point Coupee, and the Adayes or Mexicano river, emptying into the Gulph of Mexico. Capital.] NEW ORLEANS. It ftands on the eaft fide' of the Miffifippi, 105 miles from its mouth, in latitude 30° 2' north. In the beginning of the last year it contained about 1100 houfes, feven-eighths of which were confumed by fire, in the space of five hours, on the 19th of March, 1788. It is now faft rebuilding. Its advantages for trade are very great. Situated on a noble river, in a fertile and healthy country, within two weeks fail of Mexico by fea, and ftill nearer to the British, French and Spanish Weft-India iflands, with a moral certainty of its becoming the general receptacle for the produce of that extenfive and valuable country on the Miffifippi and Ohio, are sufficient to enfure its future growth and commercial importance. Religion, &c.] The greater part of the white inhabitants are Roman Catholics. They are governed by a viceroy from Spain, and their number is unknown. Climate, Soil and Produce.] Louifiana is agreeably fituated between the extremes of heat and cold. Its climate varies as it extends towards the north. The fouthern parts, lying within the reach of the refreshing breezes breezes from the fea, are not fcorched like thofe under the fame latitudes in Africa; and its northern regions are colder than thofe of Europe under the fame parallels, with a wholefome ferene air. To judge of the produce to be expected from the foil of Louisiana, let us turn our eyes to Egypt, Arabia Felix, Perfia, India, China and Japan, all lying in correfponding latitudes. Of thefe, China alone has a tolerable government; and yet it must be acknowledged they all are, or have been, famous for their riches and fertility. From the favourablenefs of the climate, two annual crops of Indian corn, as well as rice, may be produced; and the foil, with little cultivation, would furnish grain of every kind in the greatest abundance. Their timber is as fine as any in the world, and the quantities of live oak, afh, mulberry, walnut, cherry, cyprefs and cedar, are aftonishing. The neighbourhood of the Mifliffippi, befides, furnishes the richest fruits in great variety; the foil is particularly adapted for hemp, flax and tobacco; and indigo is at this time a staple commodity, which commonly yields the planter three or four cuttings a year. In a word, whatever is rich and rare in the most defirable climates in Europe, feems to be the fpontaneous production of this delightful country. The Miffiffippi furnishes in great plenty feveral forts of fish, particularly perch, pike, turgeon and eels. Hiftory. The Miffiflippi, on which the fine country of Louifiana is fituated, was first difcovered by Ferdinand de Soto, in 1541. Monfieur de la Salle was the firft who traverfed it. He, in the year 1682, having paffed down to the mouth of the Miffiffippi, and furveyed the adjacent country, returned to Canada, from whence he took paffage to France. I From the flattering accounts which he gave of the country, and the confequential advantages that would accrue from fettling a colony in thofe parts, Louis XIV. was induced to establish a company for the purpofe. Accordingly a fquadron of four veffels, amply provided with men and provifions, under the command of Monfieur de la Salle, embarked, with an intention to fettle near the mouths of the Miffiffippi. But he unintentionally failed too leagues to the weftward of it, where he attempted to establish a colony; but, through the unfavourableness of the climate, most of his men miferably perished, and he himself was villainously murdered, not long after, by two of his own men. Monfieur Ibberville fucceeded him in his laudable attempts. He, after two fuccessful voyages, died while preparing for a third. Crozat fucceeded him; and in 1712, the king gave him Louisiana. This grant continued but a short time after the death of Louis XIV. In 1763 Louisiana was ceded to the king of Spain, to whom it now belongs. NEW |