saltpetre, and a multitude of other articles; while among medicinal plants, probably the greater part of the 1200 described by Hernandez, are to be met with in some one or other of the United Provinces.
With such an extensive catalogue of productions, Guatimala would seem destined to be one of the most prosperous and wealthy of republics. What important changes may be produced by revolving years, it is impossible to foresee, and must be left for the pages of its future history to relate. At present owing to the indolence and ignorance of its population, scarcely any thing is produced in considerable quantities, or brought to full perfection; and the country although rolling in the midst of natural wealth, remains poor, and the mass of its inhabitants wretched.
Of the physical geography of the country, as little can be said as of its natural history. No Humboldt has traversed these regions, and excepting from the statements of natives often strangely inaccurate, no account of the elevations of its mountains or valleys, or of its volcanic phenomena can possibly be collected. The mountains in some places bordering on the Atlantic, in others coasting the Pacific, and again in other situations traversing the middle of the Isthmus, give their own peculiar character to
