The finest timber for ship-building is abundant, and easily obtained; and there are many excellent harbours.  Numerous fishing stations are situated along the coasts, and are very valuable; for fishing is there a very good employment, and engages many of the natives of the Northern States.  As these fishermen get accustomed to a sea-faring life, and inured to fatigue, they soon become excellent sailors, and furnish men for the navy.

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The whale fishery is also a valuable pursuit, but it requires uncommon bravery and skill.—­In the United States there are numerous schools and academies, wherein the children are educated free.

The rich people in America are free from haughtiness, awkwardness, or formality, but they do not display the elegance and refinement of the higher classes in England or France.  As for the common people, they are serious, shrewd, and industrious; but often seem rude and uncourtly to strangers, for they wish to show their independance by an annoying surliness of behaviour.  A great number of turnpike roads, railways, canals, and bridges, have been formed, and improve the country very much, as you may imagine.

The Americans make works in iron and wood, articles of machinery and of husbandry, tanned leather, and dressed skins.  They are famous for ship-building.

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Peru, which is in South America, is a very fine country, and produces many useful things, such as tobacco, pepper, jalap, Peruvian bark, and indigo.

There are numerous valuable gold and silver mines, which make the inhabitants so rich, that at one time, long since, they paved several streets with ingots of silver, in proof of their wealth.  There are whale fisheries on the coasts.  Only one specimen of industry has been sent from Peru!

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Mexico is another portion of South America.  Its products are numerous, but the country suffers much for want of water, though the dew falls heavily every night.  The soil is rich, and well cultivated, although not so carefully as with us.  Indian corn is the principal food of the natives, and is cultivated so generally, that when the crop fails, there is a year of famine.  A drink is also made from it, called chicha.  Sweet potatoes, yams, and quantities of red pepper, together with vegetables, and fruits, and tobacco, are grown.  A kind of plant, called a cacao, is so highly prized that the grains are used for money.

For want of streams, of which the country is sadly deficient, the mills are mostly worked by animals, and are very inferior; and the machinery is so bad, that the cotton is separated from the seed by the hands of workpeople.  The principal manufactures are cigars, cottons, soap, tanned leather, gunpowder, pottery, and hats.

The rich people use a number of silver vessels, and a quantity of plate, on account of the want of manufactures of china and glass, so that the trade of a silversmith is rather good.  Boots, saddles, and coaches, are well made:  but the furniture, which is mostly of pine and cedar, is coarsely and clumsily put together.