Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/52

42 ambition of individual adventurers conspires with that of the government, in the cultivation and population of these vast regions, and in the desire to approach more nearly by these means the more opulent and more desirable provinces of New Spain. But though the enterprise is seductive and flattering, it is certainly impracticable; for there is not sufficient population in the United States to realize it. And these establishments, too much scattered over these extensive regions, and separated from each other by immense distances, without a facility of communication, will always be insignificant or precarious, until the United States possess a superfluous population, which from their number, or the difficulty or scarcity of convenient subsistence on their native soil, shall separate and scatter themselves over the adjacent countries.

The pastures in almost all the States are abundant, and supply copious provision to a great number of cattle, sheep, horses, and swine. But these pastures are not very substantial; they spring up and grow generally in the most astonishing manner, without the help of art, but are inundated in the vallies and meadows by the rains of winter, and the melting of snow and ice, or the torrents from the mountains and hills. Hence, it results that the meats with which the publick are supplied, are of little substance, and excessively watery, and the same may be said of almost all the fruits of the