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AMERICA, BRITISH—-AMERICANISMS.
3. Governments of South America.
Area in
Governments. Square | Population. Capitals.
Miles.
Venezuela, Republic, 416,600| 1,336,000|Caraccas.
Ecuador, do. . 325,000 665,000|Quito.
Bolivia, do, 374,480/ 1,650,000{Chuquisaca.
Peru, do. . 580,000 2,400,000|Lima.
Chili, do. 170,000{ 1,439,120|Santiago.
Granadian Confederatn,| 380,000 2,363,000|Sta¥é de Bog.
Argentine Confederation| 927,000 874,000/ Parana.
Buenos Ayres, Republic, 60,000 350,000/ BuenosAyres.
ruguay, Th rienta x :
Ulll{lg;ugl,ic Oi’o“‘nm 120,000 250,000{Montevideo.
Paraguay, Republic, . 74,000 600,000{ Asungion.
Brazil, Empire of, . 2,300,000, 7,677,800|Rio deJaneiro
Guiana (British), . 76,000 127,695 Georgetown.
Guiana (Dutch), . 38,500 64,270\ Paramaribo.
Guiana (French), . 21,500 30,000|Cayenne.
Patagonia, . . 380,000 120,000
Falkland Islands, . 16,000 500{Port Louis.
Total, . . 6,259,080 19,967,385
Grand total of America, {14,130,208] 59,411,700
AMERICA, BriTisa. From the small beginnings
specified in the general article above, British A.,
in the proper sense of the words, is now, in mere
extent, at least equal to the American republic, and
vastly superior to any other state in the western
hemisphere—occupying, as it does, a breadth of
about 90° of long., and stretching, with more or less
interruption, over a length of 120°. Besides touch-
ing, actually or virtually, every considerable power
on the continent, England, in the new world as in
the old, commands nearly every turning-point in
navigation and commerce. In co-operation with
Ireland, Newfoundland is ready to link together the
two continents by a submarine telegraph. Again,
with the gulf and river of St Lawrence as its main
artery, British A., in its ordinary acceptation, com-
prising Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward
Island, and the Canadas, has received from nature
an advantage in respect of the western trade, which
even the energy of Pennsylvania and New York
cannot counterbalance ; Halifax, the Bermudas, and
the Bahamas, are so many guardians of the gulf-
stream, freighted, as it is, with the exports of half
a continent. Jamaica forms the first link of a
chain which girds the Caribbean sea; Trinidad fronts
the Orinoco, which is connected by the Cassiquiare
with the Amazon ; Western Guiana, also, as already
mentioned under another head, finds, up the Esse-
quibo, its own communication with the ¢King of
Waters ;’ and, lastly, at least on the Atlantic side, the
Falklands, with their Port Egmont, flank alike the
river Plate and the Strait of Magellan. Round, again,
in the Pacific, British A. exerts an influence which,
if absolutely less, is perhaps relatively greater. At
the upper extremity of a coast, which, in spite of
some splendid exceptions, is, as a whole, singularly
deficient in harbours, New Columbia, with its breast-
work of islands from Vancouver’s upwards, and its
succession of indentations or arms of the sea, bids
fair, more especially with its inexhaustible supplies
of magnificent timber, to become a congenial base
of operations for sustaining the maritime greatness
of Britain.
AMERICA, RussiaAN.—Russian A. is the remotest
portion of the new world, being bounded, on the
side of British A., above, between the two bordering
oceans, by the meridian of 141° W., and below, down
to the parallel of 54° 40’ N., by a conventional line
to be drawn at a distance of 30 miles from the con-
tinental coast. It was discovered by a Russian expedi-
tion conducted by Behring (q. v.), which sailed from
Kamtchatka in 1741. It is little better than a vast
hunting-ground, having, in this aspect,‘been long held
by the Imperial Fur Company, which differs, however,
but l%iéle from the imperial government itself. Its
only town, or rather village, worthy of the name, is
New Archangel, on the island of Sitka. The most
noticeable points in geography are Cape Prince of
Wales, on Behring’s Strait; Kotzebue’s Sound above ;
and below, again, Norton Sound, Bristol Bay, penin-
sula of Alaska, Cook’s Inlet, and Mount St Elias.
AMERICA, SpaNisH.—Spanish A., shrunk, as it
is, into Porto Rico and Cuba, now belongs rather
to history than to geography. For many years it
embraced absolutely the entire continent, having
in 1580 absorbed Brazil, as Spain itself absorbed
Portugal, at a date prior to the intrusion of any
other Kuropean settlement. But, boundless as it
was, it contained, from the beginning, the seeds of
its ultimate and irremediable decay. The colonists,
as hunters after the precious metals, disdained that
steady industry, which, to their English competitors,
was a necessary of life ; while the mother country, by
rigorously excluding all but its own actual natives
from public employments, did nothing to prepare its
dependencies for the rational use of that independ-
ence which was sure at last to come. At the same
time, those very circumstances did tend to prolong
the subjection of Spanish A.; for the colonies found
their first motive for rebellion in their fidelity to
their sovereign, throwing off the yoke of Spain
primarily on account of Napoleon’s seizure of
Ferdinand VII. Similarly, Brazil, as the chosen
shelter of its sovereign from French domination,
remained faithful to the House of Braganza.
AMERICANISMS are words and phrases current;
in the United States of America, and not current in
England. These peculiarities are much more promi-
nent in conversation than in writing ; indeed, in the
American writers that are usually considered classi-
cal, it is difficult to detect anything of the kind.
The number of absolutely new words introduced
into the English language in America is remarkably
small. As an instance may be mentioned caucus,
for a secret political assembly. This is a corruption
of calk-house, a calker’s shed in Boston, where
the patriots before the revolution had usually
held their meetings. The term Yankee (an Indian
corruption of the French Anglais) is another. The
great body of A. consist in giving an unusual sense
to existing words : as clever, in the sense of amiable,
and smart for clever; wagon for a very light kind
of carriage ; book-store for bookseller’s shop ; wilted
for withered; creek for a small river, instead of a
small arm of the sea.
The several divisions of the Union have their
characteristic peculiarities. ~Thus, in the New
England States—Yankeeland proper—ugly is used
for ill-natured; friends for relations (so used also
in Scotland) ; and guess for a great variety of things
—to think, presume, suppose, &c. This use of guess
is confined to New England ; the inhabitants of New
York and of the Middle States generally employ
expect in the same way ; while those of the Southern
States reckon ; and those of the Western States
calculate. Several words current in the Middle
States are of Dutch origin, as logfer for a vaga-
bond, from the Dutch loopen, to run; and boss
for a head workman or employer. The Southern
States have fewer peculiarities than any of the
other divisions. In the Western States, again, there
is hardly any recognised standard of speech, and in
some districts ‘it would hardly be an exaggeration to
say that every prominent person has his own private
vocabulary.” The verb fo fix is made to do duty for
expressing every conceivable kind of action. The
vague use of this word is common all over the Union,
but in the West the abuse is carried to the extreme.
Help, in the sense of servant, is common to the
West and to New England, but is nearly unknown
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