language, and exhibit in her conduct a striking picture of the forti.. tude which distinguishes the one sex, mingled with the sensibility and tenderness peculiar to the other. The early Spanish writers have given to this river the name of the man who first descended it. The RIO DE LA PLATA, or RIVER of PLATE, rises likewise among the mountains on the western side of South America; its course is said to be more than eight hundred leagues, in which it receives above fifty rivers; it discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean by a very extensive mouth, its northern coast being in 35°, and its southern in 36° 20′ south latitude. This vast river was first discovered by John Diaz de Solis, whom Ferdinand of Spain had fitted out at his own expense, in the year 1515, and provided with two ships for the purpose of opening a communication with the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by the west. De Solis was considered as one of the most skilful navigators in Spain. On the 1st January, 1716, he entered a river which he called Janeiro. He proceeded thence to a spacious bay, which he supposed to be the entrance into a strait that communicated with the Indian Ocean; but on advancing farther, he found it to be the mouth of Rio de la Plata. In endeavouring to make a descent in the country, De Solis and several of his crew were slain by the natives, who, in sight of the ships, cut their bodies in pieces, roasted and devoured them. Discouraged by the loss of their commander, and terrified at this shocking spectacle, the surviving Spaniards set sail for Europe, without attempting any discovery, and nothing farther was heard of it until several years afterward, when the Portuguese gained a knowledge of its amazing extent. P. Cataneo, a Modenese Jesuit, who landed at Buenos Ayres in the year 1749, represents his astonishment at viewing this vast body of water in the following manner. "While I resided in Europe," says he," and read in books of history or geography that the mouth of the river De la Plata was a hundred and fifty miles in breadth, I considered it as an exaggeration, because in this hemisphere we have no example of such vast rivers. When I approached its mouth, I had the most vehement desire to ascertain the truth with my own eyes; and I have found the matter to be exactly as it was represented. This I deduce particularly from one circumstance: When we took our departure from Monte-Video, a fort situated more than a hun dred miles from the mouth of the river, and where its breath is considerably diminished, we sailed a complete day before we discovered the land on the opposite bauk of the river; and when we were in the middle of the channel, we could not discern land on either side, and saw nothing but the sky and water, as if we had been in some great ocean. Indeed, we should have taken it to be sea, if the freshness of its water, which was turbid like the Po, had not satisfied us that it was a river. Moreover, at Buenos Ayres, another hundred miles up the river, and where it is still much narrower, it is not only impossible to discern the opposite coast, which is indeed very low and flat; but one cannot perceive the houses, or the tops of the steeples, in the Portugueze settlement at Colonia, on the other side of the river." The number of the different sorts of fish in the rivers of South America is so extraordinary, as to merit particular notice. "In the Maragnon," says P. Acugna, "they are so plentiful, that, without any art, one may take them with the hands." "In the Orinoco," says P. Gumilla, "beside an infinite variety of other fishes, tortoise or turtle abound in such numbers, that I cannot find words to express them. I doubt not then that such as read my account will accuse me of exaggeration: but I can affirm, that it is as difficult to count them, as to count the sands on the banks of that river. One may judge of their multitude by the amazing consumption of them; for all the nations contiguous to the river, and even mauy who are at a distance, flock thither at the season of breeding, and not only find sustenance during that time, but carry off great numbers both of the turtles and of their eggs, &c." It has been asserted, that most of the rivers in Peru and Chili have scarce any motion by night, while upon the appearance of the morning sun, they resume their former rapidity: this proceeds from the mountain snows, which melting with the heat, increase the stream, and continue to drive on the current, whilst the sun continues to dissolve them. These wonderful inasses of water have been thus ably and elegantly described by the poet of the Seasons : Nor less thy world, Columbus, drinks refresh'd The lavish moisture of the melting year. To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees, At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms. In silent dignity they sweep along, And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilde, Where the sun shines, and seasons teem in vain, O'er peopled plains they far diffusive flow, And Ocean trembles for his green domain. A [Labat, Lobo, Swinburne, Camden, Raynal, Carver, Robertson, Condamine, Herrera.] SECTION III. CLASSICAL, OR PICTURESQUE SPRINGS, LAKES, RIVERS, AND CASCADES, DESCRIBED BY CLASSICAL AUTHORS. 1. Source of the Scamander, the Mender of the present day. On the eleventh of March, having collected our guides and horses as upon the preceding day, we set out again from Evgillar, and proceeded up the mountain, to visit the Cataract, which constitutes the source of the Mender, on the north-west side of Gargarus. Ascending by the side of its clear and impetuous torrent, we reached, in an hour and a half, the lower boundary of the woody region of the mountain. Here we saw a more entire chapel than either of those described in our excursion the preceding day, situated upon an eminence above the river. Its form was quadrangular, and oblong. The four walls were yet standing, and part of the roof: this was vaulted, and lined with painted stucco. The altar also remained, in an arched recess of the eastern extremity: upon the north side of it was a small and low niche, containing a marble table. In the arched recess was also a very antient painting of the Virgin; and below, upon her left hand, the whole length portrait of a Saint, holding an open volume. The heads of these figures were encircled by a line of Glory. Upon the right-hand side of the Virgin there had been a similar painting of some other Saint, but part of the stucco, whereon it was painted, no longer remained. The word IIAPOENON, written among other indistinct characters, appeared upon the wall. The dimensions of this building were only sixteen feet by eight. Its height was not quite twelve feet, from the floor to the beginning of the vaulted roof. Two small windows commanded a view of the river, and a third was placed near the altar. Its walls, only two feet four inches in thickness, afforded, nevertheless, space for the roots of two very large fir-trees; these were actually growing upon them. All along the banks of this river, as we advanced towards its source, we noticed appearances of similar ruins; and in some places, among rocks, or by the sides of precipices, were seen remains of several habitations together; as if the monks, who retreated hither, had possessed considerable settlements in the solitudes of the mountain. Our ascent, as we drew near to the source of the river, became steep and stony. Lofty summits towered above us, in the greatest style of Alpine grandeur; the torrent, in its rugged bed below, all the while foaming upon our left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest natural amphitheatres the eye ever beheld; and here the guides desired us to alight. The noise of waters silenced every other sound. Huge craggy rocks rose perpendicularly, to an immense height; whose sides and fissures, to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were covered with pines; growing in every possible direction, among a variety of evergreen shrubs, wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and creeping herbage. Enormous plane-trees waved their vast branches above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulph, we beheld several cascades, all of foam, pouring impetuously from chasms in the naked face of a perpendicular rock. It is said the same magnificent cataract continues during all seasons of the year, wholly unaffected by the casualties of rain or melting snow. That a river so ennobled by antient history should at the same time prove equally eminent in circumstances of natural dignity, is a fact worthy of being related. Its origin is not like the source of ordinary streams, obscure and uncertain; of doubtful locality and indeterminate character; ascertained with difficulty, among various petty subdivisions, in swampy places, or amidst insignificant rivulets, falling from different parts of the same mountain, and equally tributary; it bursts at once from the dark womb of its parent, in all the greatness of the divine origin assigned to it by Homer.* The early Christians, who retired or fled from the haunts of society to the wilderness of Gargarus, seem to have been fully sensible of the effect produced by grand objects, in selecting, as the place of their abode, the scenery near the source of the Scamander; where the voice of nature speaks in her most awful tone; where, amidst roaring waters, waving forests, and broken precipices, the mind of man becomes impressed, as by the influence of a present Deity + The course of the river, after it thus emerges, with very little variation, is nearly from east to west. Its source is distant from Evgillar about nine miles; or, according to the mode of computation in the country, three hours; half this time is spent in a gradual ascent from the village. The rock whence it issues consists of micaceous schistus, containing veins of soft marble. While the artist was employed in making drawings, il calculated to afford adequate ideas of the grandeur of the scenery, I climbed the rocks, with my companions, to examine more closely the nature of the chasms whence the torrent issues. Having reached these, we found, in their front, a beautiful natural bason, six or eight feet deep, serving as a reservoir for the water in the first moments of its enission. It was so clear, that the minutest object might be discerned at the bottom. The copious overflowing of this reservoir causes the appearance, to a spectator below, of different cascades, falling to the depth of about forty feet; but there is only one source. Behind are the chasms whence the water issues. We entered one of these, *Iliad. . 1. Præsentiorem et conspicimus Deum, |