A PROVINCIAL government of Spanish America. At its first settlement it was usually denominated Terra Firma, at which time it included what is now the province of Caracas, and the provinces in the isthmus of Darien. Since it has been erected into a viceroyalty, it has been called sometimes the kingdom of Santa Fé, but more correctly, the new kingdom of Granada. The northern extremity of this kingdom is in the 12° of north latitude, and the southern 3° 30' south latitude. Its length is about 1070 English miles, and its mean breadth about 280 miles. On the eastern side the boundaries of Granada are the Portuguese provinces on the banks of the Maranon or River of Amazons, Spanish Guyana, and the province of Caracas. On the south it is bounded by the River Amazons, from its junction with the River Negro. Its western boundary is the Pacific Ocean from Golfo-Dolce, between Costarica and Veragua, where it joins Guatimala, to the port of Payta, which divides it from Peru. On the north it is bounded by the Carribean Sea, from Cape de la Vela to the River Culebras. The whole extent is about 64,500 square leagues.
No part of the globe furnishes a greater variety both of soil and climate, and in no other part can every production of every country be produced so well as in this viceroyalty. This arises from the great inequalities in the surface of the country, for it contains, within its limits, mountains, till lately supposed to be the highest in the world; and though it is now ascertained, that they are exceeded in height by those of Tartary, they may still be classed among the most singular productions of nature. As climate is regulated by elevation as much as by latitude, the inhabitants of New Granada may be said to live in the extremes of heat and cold, and in all the different degrees of temperature which are to be found between the two extremes of habitable countries. The situation of these mountains, their elevation, and their peculiar formation, as well as their productions, have received much light from the journeys of Baron Humboldt, whose patient and laborious investigations have been communicated to the public.
Although these stupendous chains of mountains extend through the whole of America, they attain their greatest elevation in the kingdom of New Granada, where the cone of Chimborazo reaches the height of 21,440 feet above the level of the sea. From the equator they insensibly decline in elevation, both towards the south and the north, till, in the latter direction, they dwindle into slight hills in the province of Choco. From the sources of the rivers St Juan and Atrato in that province, where the communication between the Carribean Sea and the Pacific Ocean may be most easily effected, the mountains begin again to raise themselves, and increase in elevation as the chain passes through the centre of the isthmus of Panama. They rise
still higher in the province of Veragua and Costarica, continue increasing through the viceroyalty of Guatimala, and then entering Mexico, branch off in various directions, which will be noticed under the article MEXICO. As these chains of mountains are extended to the south, they decline in height, in a similar manner, so that, gradually lessening, they almost wholly disappear in Terra Magellanica, the southernmost extremity of the Continent. There are three ridges or chains of mountains passing from north to south through New Granada. There are, indeed, projections from these of considerable extent and magnitude, which protrude into the surrounding country, and sometimes break the continuity of the valleys which separate the chains; but to have a clear conception of their configuration, it will be better to follow the mode of classification which is adopted by Humboldt. The westernmost chain of the Andes in New Granada runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean at the distance of 150 miles: it begins in the neighbourhood of Carthagena, to the westward of it, separates the River Cauca from the province of Choco, and proceeds to the southward till it unites with the other two branches in the province of Popayan, whence they proceed in a single ridge till they have passed the equator, when they divide again into two ridges in the province of Quito. It is in that district that the greatest elevations are found, in the cones of Chimborazo 21,440 feet, Cayambe-Urcu 19,386 feet, Antisana 19,146 feet, Cotopaxi 18,891 feet, and Ilinissa 17,240 feet. There the volcanoes are most numerous and striking, and there the inhabitants are most frequently exposed to the devastations of earthquakes. In passing between the province of Choco and the river Cauca, the Andes scarce ever reach beyond the height of 4500 feet.
The central ridge of the Andes begins at the Sierra-nevada in the province of Santa Marta, whose highest peak is 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, and, as the limit of perpetual snow in that latitude is about 15,000 feet, its top is to be seen constantly white, and exhibiting a beautiful contrast to the deep azure of the cloudless sky. In its progress it separates the River Cauca from the Magdalena, till, beyond the sources of both these rivers, it unites with the other parallel ridges. It is the highest of the three; some of its loftiest points enter the regions of eternal frost and snow; and such are its asperities and precipices, that no one has ever ventured to pass from the Cauca to the Magdalena over this cordillera. The eastern ridge separates the River Magdalena from the plains on which the River Meta rises. It begins near Cape de la Vela, passes through the province of Merida and Santa Fé, and unites with the other two branches in Popayan. It is less elevated than the central ridge, but considerably higher than the western. None of its highest peaks ascend to the limits of perpetual snow, nor are
estimated at more than 12,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Besides these chains of mountains which run from north to south, others run from west to east, and enter the province of Venezuela; one beginning near the River Atrato forms the sierras of Abibé and of Cauca, crosses the River Magdalena, forms a narrow chain on the coast to Cape de la Vela, where it separates into two ridges, and they continue through Caraccas and Cumana, till they terminate near the Gulf of Paria in the Atlantic Ocean.
Another part of the Andes, though but a small portion of them is within the new kingdom of Granada, may not be improperly noticed here. It is called the Cordillera of the cataracts of the Orinoco. It runs between the 3° and 6° of northern latitude, contains the sources of the great River Meta, of the Guaviare, and of the Zama, and occasions the tremendous cataracts of Maypuré and Aturé. As it bends towards the southward it increases in height, and becomes extended in breadth, stretching towards the boundaries of the Portuguese territories. It has not yet been traced in many of its directions. It borders the uninhabited country in which the unknown sources of the Orinoco are supposed to be situated. It then extends to the eastward, and soon bends to the southward, passing the lake Parimé, and the hill of Ucuuamo, which, being formed of shining yellow mica, gave birth to those fables of an El Dorado, or Golden Region, which misled the great Sir Walter Raleigh, and a crowd of inferior adventurers. The Rivers Demerara, Berbice, and others in English, Dutch, and French Guyana, are supposed to derive their waters from some of the branches of this Cordillera.
The stupendous mountains of New Granada, from the quantity of snow which the direct rays of the sun perpetually dissolve on the higher points, and from the vapours which are collected by the whole of them, form reservoirs, from which are supplied those astonishing rivers which water all the valleys and plains of this immense continent.
In treating of the rivers which issue from these mountains, we remark, first, the Purumayo and the Cageta in the south, which rise in the mountains of Pastos, and, passing over an extensive plain, unite with the river of Amazons, and which are capable of being navigated almost to their sources. In the same direction, the Guaviare, a branch of the Orinoco, and the great river Meta, have their origin. They spring from that mass of the Cordilleras which touches the provinces of Neyva or Timona; they unite their streams at Carichina, and, running through their whole extent, over a country perfectly level, are capable of being used for purposes of internal navigation; and will, at some future period, probably, afford an easy access to the cities of Popayan, Santa Fé, and Quito. The rivers Cauca and Magdalena both rise near each other in the province of Popayan, in the vicinity of the capital, from the mountains of Guanacas. These two rivers are separated from each other by the impassable chain of the central Andes, till they have passed the Sierra of Guamosco, a little to the south of Mompos, where the two streams unite, and run to the Carribean Sea. The two rivers
collect such vast quantities of water from the draining of the mountains which border them, whose streams run with a rapidity correspondent to the height from which they descend, and the valleys through which they pass are so confined, that the rapidity of their currents renders the upward navigation extremely difficult, while the descent is proportionally easy. From the city of Honda, the passage to Carthagena, or Santa Marta, may be made in eight or ten days, whilst it occupies more than thirty days, and requires the severe labour of numerous rowers, to return, in the most favourable seasons; but, when the waters are much swollen, as is the case at some seasons, it requires months to perform the voyage, and is attended with great danger and many inconveniences. The river Atrato, at the foot of the western Cordilleras, passes through one of the richest countries of the globe, both for its vegetable productions and for its mines of gold and of platina, which last mineral is exclusively found in the province of Choco, in which this river is placed. It is principally remarkable on account of the vicinity of its source to that of the river St Juan, which runs into the Pacific Ocean. The small rivulet St Pablo nearly unites them in the rainy season; and, to consummate the junction, a priest of one of the parishes has dug a small canal, by which the productions of the eastern have been carried to the western shores of America. By the narrow policy of Spain, both these rivers were forbidden to be navigated, because they were supposed favourable for contraband trade; and, though the restriction has been removed of late, the troubles which have agitated that country have prevented any great use being made of the channel of communication.
The other rivers whose copious streams water this favoured country are the Julia and the Catatumbo, which discharge themselves into the Gulf of Maracaibo; the Pedral or Sogamoso, and the Suarez, which run into the Magdalena and the Casanare; the Apure, and a multitude of smaller streams, which, in Europe, would be considered important rivers, that discharge their waters by the channel of the Meta into the Orinoco.
Europeans, accustomed to behold the constant succession of seasons, can scarcely believe that, in the midst of the torrid zone, which they suppose to be visited with the eternal ardours of a burning sun, all the fruits of our climate can be produced in their fullest perfection at all periods. The succession of flowers, of fruits, and of pastures, is constant; and, within the same horizon, they may be seen budding, flowering, and bearing ripened and unripened fruits at the same time. Even the same tree may be seen in flower, with green and with ripe fruits, without any sensible declension in its vegetative faculties being perceived to arise from this constant reproduction. Although vegetation is constant through the whole of the new kingdom, there is a considerable difference arising from the influence of climate, which is created by the various bendings and aspects of the mountains, by the height of the station, the winds which prevail, and other local circumstances. We may experience the temperatures of all the climates of the world within the compass of a few
leagues and their various productions may all be cultivated within the same limited space.
The parts of the country which are on the sea-coast experience great heat, but much tempered by the sea breezes in the day, and by the land winds at night, which latter, blowing from the cold and often snowy mountains, convey a coolness that is both refreshing to the senses, and salutary to the constitution. In the wet or warm season, at Carthagena, Santa Marta, and Maracaybo, Fahrenheit's thermometer varies from 85 to 90, and seldom rises higher than 94; and the degree of heat is nearly the same every where at the foot of the Cordilleras. In ascending the mountains, the thermometer gradually descends to the lowest point of congelation. A little below this point of congelation, nature seems to have lavished her bounties, by bestowing extensive plains of perpetual verdure, watered with innumerable rivulets, which descend from the snowy mountains most copiously at the warmest seasons, when they are most needed, and most beneficial.
The breadth of the Cordilleras is generally about 160 miles, and in no part much less than 100. There is, consequently, a sufficient portion of that moderate elevation and temperature which best comports with the subsistence and health of man. These positions are called by the inhabitants cold lands, to distinguish them from the tropical climates which are at the foot of the Cordilleras. The temperature varies but little. In a course of observations made daily for two years, at Santa Fé de Bogota, the thermometer never descended below 59, and never ascended more than three degrees above that point, in an apartment, the windows of which were always open. The greatest depression was in the months of June, July, and August, and the greatest elevation in January, February, and March. The city of Santa Fé is about 8700 feet above the level of the sea. The districts of Tunja, Pamplona, Merida, and Timana, are at nearly the same height; whilst Popayan is about two thousand feet lower. These are by far the most populous portions of New Granada, and what we remark of their productions will apply equally to all, with the exception of those parts which are at the foot of the mountains, in what is properly denominated by the inhabitants the hot countries.
From the equality of temperature, and from the abundant means of irrigation which the melted snow from the mountains produces, the vegetative power continues in equal operation during the whole year. As the leaves fall from the trees, new ones are constantly shooting forth, so that a superficial observer would suppose no change took place. The meadows are covered with an unvarying verdure, composed of grasses of great variety, and of odoriferous plants, which produce most rapid improvement in the cattle sent from the lower countries to be fattened on them.
The vegetable productions of the best peopled divisions of New Granada are similar to those of Europe. They have abundance of apples, pears, peaches, plums, figs, cherries, &c. and they are in bearing through the whole year. Wheat is both good and productive, and might be reaped in every month, but by a kind of understood agreement between the cultivators themselves, and between the masters and
servants, it is sowed but twice, and they have one wheat harvest in January and the second in August. Humboldt, after diligent inquiry into the increase of wheat in different countries, states it in France, Germany, and Poland, to be from 5 to 6 for 1; in Hungary, Croatia, and Sclavonia, 8 to 10 for 1; in La Plata 12 for 1; in Northern Mexico 16 for 1, in Equinoxial Mexico 24 for 1; and in the province of Pasto, in New Granada, he says they commonly produce 25, and, in fertile years, 35 for 1.
Barley is sowed in every month of the year. It is not used as food for man, but is grown near the cities, and cut in a green state for the horses of the richer class. None is suffered to stand till harvest, except sufficient to furnish seed for the green crops of the following year. The markets of the cities of Santa Fé, Quito, and Popayan, are furnished with varieties of fruits which can meet in no other countries. The apples and pears of Europe, cherries and strawberries, are to be seen with plantains, bananas, guavas, pine-apples, and the other productions of the tropical regions.
The potatoes, for which Europe is indebted to New Granada, are there of two species, though of the same genus. One, called Papas de Anno, is the same as has been transplanted and diffused through America and Europe, and which has numerous varieties. The other is called Papas de Criollas; they are more delicate of flavour, easier to be applied to various kinds of cookery, and so abundant in their increase as to obtain a general preference over every other vegetable as food for the inhabitants. These criollas are to be found in every altitude of the cold regions, even in those situations which are too cold for human existence. The seed from higher regions is necessary every year to renew them in the lower, when those produced there will not grow. The primitive stock maintains itself in the highest situations in all the openings of the woods: it is known as the Papa Silvestris, and is probably the origin of all the different species of that useful plant, which has become diffused throughout the world.
A most important vegetable production to the inhabitants of Santa Fé, is a root known there by the Indian name of Arracacha. It resembles somewhat the European celery, but grows to a much larger size, is of various colours, and branches out, in different directions, in shoots which, both in shape and size, resemble the horn of a large cow. Its flavour is pleasant, and it is accounted most nutritious, and is given to the sick and the convalescent on account of its lightness of digestion.
Olives, vines, oranges, and lemons, do not arrive at perfection on the elevated lands, and the inhabitants have no inducement to force them by artificial means, as they are abundantly and cheaply supplied from the warm regions which are within a few leagues of them. Such is the bounty of nature in dispensing her fruits, that little attention is given or required by man: the trees are never grafted nor the fields manured. Although Cocoa is very generally produced in every warm climate, yet from peculiarity of situation in the province of Goyaquil, one of the divisions of New Granada, it is raised with more facility, in greater quan-
few
unala. tities and of better quality than in any other part of the world. It delights in a moist soil, a warm climate, and requires shelter from the direct rays of the sun to bring it to full perfection. No other care is required in its cultivation, than to keep the ground clear of weeds, and to plant the shrub under the shade of some high trees. It usually grows from ten to sixteen feet in height, and occasionally attains to eighteen feet. It is divided into four or five branches as soon as it shoots up. The leaf is from four to six inches in length, and in breadth two-thirds the length, in colour like the orange, but somewhat lighter. The pods which contain the cocoa grow both from the stem and the branches, to about six inches in length, sometimes singly, but sometimes two in a cluster, when the smaller of the two does not ripen, the larger one appearing to extract the whole nutritive matter. The pod at first is of a deep green, but as it advances to maturity, gradually changes to a yellow colour. The pods are considered pleasant fruit, containing a substance of a viscid kind, in which the seeds are found. When first gathered, the seeds are very soft, being contained in a thin and transparent skin: they are dried in the sun, and in a short period become fit to be packed for the various markets which they are destined to supply. The cocoa trees yield two crops in each year, and both of equal goodness and abundance.
Ve able
In The most extraordinary production in the vicinity of the cocoa district is a species of grass called Gama-lote; its blade resembles barley, but is longer, broader, thicker, and rougher. It grows in many places, and attains the prodigious height of eight or nine feet. In the time of the inundations it is beaten down, and becomes rotten, but as soon as the water has subsided and it begin to get dry, the heat of the sun produces a quickness of vegetation unknown to any other tribe of vegetables. In a few days it shoots up to its natural growth, and then furnishes to the proprietors of cattle the most nutritious means for fattening them that is known in any part of the world. Among the curious productions of this favoured climate, one deserves notice on account of its singularity and utility. On a shrub called Ubillo, similar to the Uva-espina, small berries are produced of a blackish colour, and very abundant. From the juice of this berry, without any other operation than merely expressing it, an excellent ink is procured. On its first application to paper, it assumes a scarlet colour, but by a short exposure to the air it becomes a beautiful black. Its colour is so durable, that when the hands are stained with it, great pains and much time is required to remove the stain. The berry is sometimes dried and reduced to powder, which is converted into a very useful portable ink, by the addition of water alone. The government is so satisfied with the durable colour of this ink, that the Viceroy of Santa Fé has issued a decree, which is still in force, forbidding any other ink to be used in the public records but that which is prepared from this berry. A tree called Tibar has its wood of a deep mulberry colour; it is beautifully veined and almost incorruptible; it is used for furniture to some small extent, but if introduced in more
polished countries, would probably become an article of active commerce. A most valuable production is the plant called Trezlejon. It is about six feet in height, has no leaves except at the top, where they grow in a bunch, each leaf a foot and half broad, covered with white and soft cotton like down. It is a resinous plant, and a gum of delicate whiteness and great purity exudes from it. Those who travel in the mountainous countries use the down on the leaves to make beds; the leaves form coverings for their huts; the wood supplies them with fuel, and the gum is used for illumination in the churches, and on occasions of public festivals in the streets. The most important vegetable production of New Granada is the Cinchona, or Jesuits' Bark, a production which has conferred most extensive benefits on the whole human race. The tree from which the bark is produced is called, in Santa Fé, Palo de Calenturas by the Spaniards, and Cascara de Loxa by the Indians. It grows principally on the mountains which surround the city of Loxa, in the southernmost part of the viceroyalty; but became known in Europe by the name of Peruvian bark, from that province having, at the period of Pizarro's conquest, formed a recent addition to the empire of the Incas. The tree is of a moderate height; its trunk is short, and produces several branches; the leaves are smooth, entire, and thick, and in shape resemble the head of a lance; they are about two inches broad, and three long. The top of each branch of the tree bears flowers resembling those of the lavender plant. These flowers turn red, and are succeeded by russet grains, flat, and resembling small leaves. It is difficult to procure these seeds from the tree in a perfect state, because, as they ripen, they immediately fall, and leave the pods dry and empty. The Indians, who knew its virtues, kept this tree long secret from the Spaniards, who only introduced bark into Europe in 1640. The lady of the viceroy having been attacked by a violent fever, the corregidor of Loxa administered the powder, and performed a cure. As she first distributed it, it obtained thereby the name of the countess's powder. In 1649, the procurer-general of the Jesuits of America returned to Rome with a considerable quantity of the powder, which the members of the society dispensed, and cured fevers, as if by magic. Hence, in France it acquired the name of Poudre des peres, and in England of Jesuits' bark. It has been found in other mountains in the equinoctial regions; and the examinations of that able botanist, Dr Mutis of Santa Fé, have been directed with great ability and effect, to discriminate the various species, and to ascertain the efficient value of them.
The plains in the elevated parts of the viceroyalty are admirably calculated for the breeding and fattening of cattle, and the number of sheep and cows is very great. Many individual cultivators have flocks of twenty-five thousand sheep, others more, and even the poorest Indians have large flocks. The flesh is excellent, and the wool furnishes the inhabitants with warm clothing; but by the impolitic laws of Spain, which discourage manufactures in her colonies, no cloth is made; and therefore the domestic manufactures produce only blankets and coverlids, which are
afterwards appropriated to clothe the poorer classes. The ewes produce lambs twice in the year, at Christmas and at St John's tide, or the European mid-summer.
The black cattle are fattened on the elevated pastures in a very short period; they are brought from the extensive plains in the lower regions for that purpose, and improve rapidly by the change of climate; but whenever the contrary plan is adopted, and the cattle from the hills are sent to the low country, they become lean, sicken, and soon die, from the profuse perspiration which the change creates.
In the best inhabited parts of the viceroyalty, they are neither troubled with muskitos, jegos, or any venomous snakes. Hurricanes, tempests, and earthquakes are unknown near the capital; but the southern part of the country seems to be the theatre on which the latter exhibit their greatest force.
The temperate elevations are peculiarly healthy; the length of human life, and the increase of population consequent upon it, exceeds that in any other part of the Spanish dominions, and perhaps any other country in the globe. The most common disease is the dropsy, which afflicts all ages, but more especially advanced life. It is supposed to arise from that want of due perspiration, which is experienced in a climate of moderate temperature, and of unvaried uniformity. The common cure for this disease is a journey to the warm regions below them; if the removal is made by gradual descents from one warm situation to another, the patient does not suffer, but receives benefit, when thus removed even from extreme cold to extreme heat. Those who are most anxious to preserve their health change their residence from one climate to another annually.
What we have hitherto said relates to the most populous portions of the country, which are situated at the elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The country on the lower levels, such as Carthagena, Santa Marta, Rio de la Hacha, Maracaybo, Panama, and Choco, differ but little in soil, climate, and productions, from the islands in the West Indies, or from the Dutch, French, and English settlements in Guyana.
Those immense plains at the foot of the Cordilleras, which are crossed by the Meta, the Orinoco, and the numerous tributary streams which supply their waters, merit some notice. The whole country is a continued plain, covered with grasses, which grow to such a height and thickness as to be impassable, except on horseback. Travellers who cross them follow each other in single files, each keeping the same track; if they should deviate from it, they are exposed to the danger of losing themselves. These plains are stocked with unreclaimed sheep, horses, and cows in prodigious numbers, luxuriating on the spontaneous productions of the uncultivated and unexhausted soil. On these extensive districts, rich as they are in animal life, and in vegetative power, there are scarcely any owners of land; each takes what extent he pleases, and occupies it without interruption, and without any other measurement, than that of walking round a portion for eight, ten, or twelve days, ac-
cording to his desire, for more or less extensive tracts. Those who wish to establish a cattle farm, hacienda de ganado, begin by constructing, on the spot they select, a house, the materials for which the palm trees supply them with. A few friends are joined with them, well mounted, and a provision of dried meat is furnished, when they proceed in quest of the cattle to stock the farm. They are easily found, by beating about in the high grass which conceals them; they are driven to the new habitation, are there branded on the horn with a hot iron, or their ears slit in some peculiar manner, so as to be recognised as cattle that have an owner. If they find any previously marked, they are dismissed from the selection, but all the others are considered, when marked, as belonging to the new farm. They frequently select, when driven into a large court or inclosure, such of the cows as are with calf, and are the best, which serve as a breeding stock, and, slaughtering the others, either dry them for distant consumption, or for their own food. Many of these haciendas have belonging to them from 60,000 to 100,000 head of black cattle, all branded or ear-marked. It is found less difficult than would be previously supposed to collect these extensive herds. In the unreclaimed state they are not vicious, and, being very well fed, they are not disposed to roam far. They are more easily conducted when in herds than when solitary, and the natives have acquired wonderful dexterity in catching them. The stocking a new hacienda is a kind of holiday, which collects to the spot all the most robust and agile inhabitants of considerable districts; abundance of meat is to be obtained for killing it; the sport is to them highly exhilarating, and the feast is prolonged through many days, accompanied with all the demonstrations of rustic hilarity.
This low country is, however, generally unhealthy, from the great humidity of the climate, the extensive woods, and the periodical inundations. From the month of June to December, the rivers Magdalena, Orinoco, Meta, and others, overflow their banks, and compel the inhabitants to take refuge in their canoes, with which they are all abundantly provided. The humid effects of these inundations remain long after the waters have subsided, and the exhalation from the power of a vertical sun generates diseases, whose effects are exhibited in the pale yellow complexions, and thin bodies of the inhabitants. The females produce but few children, and those of sickly constitutions; and depopulation would ensue without recruits from the higher lands, who are induced to emigrate to the plains by the ease with which all that life absolutely requires can be obtained. It is clear, that not the heat but the humidity of the climate creates the numerous debilitating infirmities of these plains; for in Maracaybo, Santa Marta, Rio de la Hacha, and other places on the banks of the rivers, equally warm, but not subject to inundations, and their consequent humidity, the inhabitants are as healthy, and live as long, as in the more temperate climates, either of the new or the old world.
In these warm countries there are many tigers, resembling those of Africa and Asia in size, and somewhat in fierceness; but in the colour of their skin, and in the spots, are more like the leopards of
New Granada. the ancient continent. They seldom attack human beings, but destroy considerable numbers of horses, cows, and sheep, and especially the wild hogs, which wander in herds of three or four hundred in some districts, and whose flesh and blood the tigers prefer. Some of these tigers, on the sea coast and banks of the rivers where they are abundant, feed on tortoises, they turn them on their backs with much dexterity, and then gorge themselves by sucking their blood at their leisure. No other quadrupeds are known in Santa Fé of the ferocious tribes. There are a few bears in the mountainous parts. They are shy and timid animals, avoiding and never attacking either man or the other inhabitants of the forests.
Besides the animals we have noticed, and which are not indigenous, but derived from the races imported from Europe, there are immense quantities of wild pigs. They are of two species, one of which, contended by some to be of European origin, is gregarious, and resembles ours in shape, but is smaller, is of a chesnut colour, and finds abundant subsistence on the fruits and roots in the forests. The other species is certainly indigenous. It forms burrows in the earth, which are occupied by a single male and female. They never wander far from their dens; they bring forth fewer young than the others, are rather smaller in size, and their flesh is deemed a preferable food.
There are two species of deer, one which wanders in large herds in the woods; the other sedentary, living in retired spots in pairs: both are smaller than the domesticated deer of Europe, and the wandering race the smallest of the two. Another species of deer, without horns, is found on the banks of the Meta and the Orinoco, called Venados Pellones. They are timid and swift, and have not yet been accurately described. They live in the thickest of the woods the greater part of the day, and only come to the savannahs to feed in the morning and evening. The least noise makes them take to flight. They have been classed by some persons as a species of gazelle or antelope; but the only good naturalist that has traversed these plains could not approach near enough to describe them with any confidence in his observation.
Indigenous Animals. Without entering into a circumstantial detail of the indigenous quadrupeds of New Granada, which are well known, we enumerate only some of those whose imperfect description deserve to be rectified, which we are enabled to do from the manuscripts of Don Pedro Vargas, a natural historian of considerable knowledge.
The Danta, or great beast, is one of those animals which most abounds in the marshy meadows and low plains of Santa Fé. This animal, which Buffon describes under the pompous title of the Elephant of the New World, is easily domesticated, and lives in the houses with the familiarity of a dog. He knows those who benefit him, and demonstrates his gratitude by numerous unequivocal symptoms. "I have seen one," says the naturalist just mentioned, "which went loose about the house, absented himself for several days occasionally in the woods, and returned when he chose it without compulsion. When after a drought, in which he appeared heavy and torpid,
there was an appearance of rain, he seemed singularly enlivened and animated, and with evident delight ran about, turning up with his snout the straw and other light substances that lay about the farm-yard, in the same manner as the pigs did in similar circumstances."
The sloth, the ant-eater, and many other species of monkeys, as well as the armadillo, and a smaller kind called Cachicamos, are common in New Granada. With the exception of the sloth, all these animals are highly esteemed as food, as well by the whites as the Indians. Tortoises are bred in innumerable crowds in the river Orinoco, and, with their eggs, afford sustenance to the native Indians in that half of the year when the dry season permits their living on the banks of the Meta. On the river Orinoco, a little below its confluence with the Meta between Carichana and Caycara, there are some sandy shores, which the tortoises are fond of resorting to and there depositing their eggs. The inhabitants of the several places between that spot and Angostura regularly appoint a guard in the place to prevent the destruction of the eggs, which are thus protected, that they may make from them the oil which they use both for cookery and for lamps. The season of making this oil is the great jubilee of the inhabitants of these districts. In the months of April and March every year, all ages and both sexes are collected on these sands, where tents or temporary huts are erected to protect them from the rays of the sun. Some are employed in beating the eggs into great jars, others in purifying and boiling the oil; some seek amusement in the chase or in fishing; and each seems occupied with some favourite pursuit. The occupations of the day give place to the song and the dance at night. This kind of festival usually continues about three weeks, and is considered as the general annual fair of the country, where the traders and victuallers resort to exchange their provisions and goods for the oil, which is by their means diffused through the whole extent of the low country.
The Cabiai or river-hog is found in considerable numbers in all the rivulets and brooks. It is an amphibious animal, of delicious flavour when young, weighs about 150 lbs., is gregarious, and sometimes met with in large herds. It takes to the water for safety from its pursuers; but as it must frequently rise to the surface to breathe, it is easily taken by the natives, who are accustomed to, and fond of, the sport.
Alligators are very numerous in all the rivers of the plains, but more especially abound in the River Magdalena. One species of them grows to the length of 20 feet. The other kind is smaller, is seldom found in running streams, but inhabits lakes and stagnant waters; it will seldom attack a man unless provoked by excessive hunger, or in a situation in which it has no resource but fighting. A third kind is still more harmless, being quite tame, and it is not unfrequent to see persons bathing in the river with this species of alligator swimming near them.
The animal called by the Spanish Americans Manati, and by the French naturalists Lamantin, is
found in the lakes and rushy pools of the warm climate. It is said to feed only on grass, and its flesh is reported to be of most delicious flavour, equalling in tenderness that of a lamb or a sucking pig, and not unlike the latter in taste. They are very abundant in the lakes of Zapatosa, in the river Sinu, and in the various streams which contribute to the Orinoco. During the inundations these animals are spread over the whole country. As the inundations subside, the natives erect stockades at the passages by which the waters return to their regular channels, and take great quantities of them. Some of them are 800 pounds weight, and, when first produced, weigh about 30 pounds. The fishery for this amphibious animal is of vast importance to the inhabitants, who feed on its flesh, and convert its skin to several useful purposes, but especially to horse-whips, for which it is admirably adapted. It is well known that the ruder inhabitants of warm climates esteem the iguana a delicious food; its description is familiar, but there is a species in New Granada of a dark colour, with white spots, the size of a water-dog. These, unlike the others, never ascend the trees, but, in running about, make a rustling on the decayed leaves, and utter cries somewhat resembling those of a tiger, to the great alarm of those unaccustomed to the sound.
The birds of this region are very numerous, with plumage of the most brilliant and beautiful colours. The condour, or bustard of America, is a bird of great strength, sometimes eighteen feet from the extremity of wing to wing when extended. It is to be found in all the climates of South America, but makes its nest only in the high and cold regions, in the concavities of rocks covered with thorny plants, where it is inaccessible to man. It is fierce, and frequently commits depredations on the smaller kinds of animals. Migratory ducks, of very large size, and in innumerable flocks, make their appearance on the lakes in the months of January, February, and March. The natives who wish to take them float a great number of calabashes on the surface of the lakes they frequent, till the birds become familiarized to them. Men with calabashes on their heads, level with the water, then go into the pools, and the ducks permit their approach sufficiently near to seize them by the feet, and draw them under water. This they do without disturbing the flock, who are thus caught in very great numbers. The turbid state of the water in these pools is a very great assistant to the sportsmen in the taking this species of wild fowl. Another species of these ducks, migratory likewise, but in smaller numbers, is found of a beautiful rose colour, which are more highly valued as food by the natives than the others.
They have a bird which, for its curious instinct, deserves to be noticed. It is called the Trumpeter by the Spaniards, and Agami by the Indians. It is easily domesticated, and taught to act as a guide and protector of the other poultry. It will lead the turkeys, parrots, and other fowls, to the fields to feed in the morning, conduct them home in the evening, and during the day give notice of the approach of any noxious animal, by the peculiar sounds from which it has obtained its name.
New Granada, though inferior in the quantity of the precious metals yielded by its mines to Mexico and Peru, is known to abound with all the mineral wealth which those two countries possess. Gold and Silver Mines.
The mines have been found in the mountains of Guamo-co and Antioquia; but they are very slightly worked, and produce but little. The far greater part of the gold is obtained by washing the sand which is brought down by the torrents from the mountains. The washing places for gold (lavaderos) are to the westward of the central range of the Andes, in the provinces of Antioquia and Choco, in the valley of the river Cauca, and in the department of Barbacoa, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. All the gold found in the viceroyalty is directed to be coined either in the mint at Santa Fé, or in that of Popayan. On an average of seven years, the quantity coined in both places amounted to about 7700 marks annually, or 61,600 ounces, worth £240,000 Sterling. Of late years, the quantity has increased, and is stated to be nearly doubled. The province of Antioquia, whose entrance is impracticable for wheel carriages, and even for horses, contains very rich veins of gold, in micaceous slate, at Buritoca, San Pedro, and Armos; but, for want of hands, they are not yet worked. In the alluvial grounds of Santa Rosa, and in the valley of Orsos, the washing is performed by the labour of negro slaves; who, between the year 1770 and 1778, were increased from 1462 to 4896 individuals. None of the gold found in America is of the purest quality; that of Antioquia is of the fineness of 19 to 20 carats, of Barbacoas, 21½ carats, Inderperdu, 22 carats, and of Giron 23 carats. At Marmato, to the west of the river Cauca, a whitish gold is procured, which does not exceed 12 or 13 carats fine, and which is mixed with silver. It is the true electrum of the ancients. In Choco, the richest river in gold is the Andageda, which, with two other streams, forms the great river Atrato. All the ground between the Andageda, the San Juan, and the Tamana, is auriferous. The largest lump of gold ever found in Choco weighed 25 pounds. The negro, who discovered it, did not, as was usual, and therefore expected, obtain his manumission. The master presented it to the royal cabinet of Spain, expecting to be rewarded with a title of Castile, the great object of desire to all the rich Creoles. He was, however, disappointed, and with difficulty obtained payment of its value. There are no other bounds to the finding of gold in Choco than that arising from the scarcity of labourers, which may be attributed to the neglect of agriculture; for the roads are too bad to admit of much foreign intercourse, and the inhabitants too intent on finding gold to apply to other labour, which, with patience and perseverance, would be more surely, and more extensively beneficial to them. New Granada possesses several rich mines of silver, but they are not worked to any great extent. About sixteen years ago, some rich veins were discovered at Vega de Supia, between the Cerro de Tacon, and the Cerro de Marmato. The operations were stopped by a lawsuit between the different proprietors, at the very moment the mine began to be productive. The working of the mines of Santa Anna, near Mariquita, and those of Pamplona, which had been suspended, was resumed.
New Granada. a few years ago, and found to be very productive in silver ore, lying in beds of gneiss. The mine of Manta has been stopped by order of government, to prevent the ruin which threatened the numerous proprietors who were engaged in it. The expences were enormous, and though the ore contained six ounces of silver in each quintal, it afforded no prospect of reimbursing the expences of those who had embarked the capital in this hazardous enterprise.
P. 22. Platina is the exclusive production of New Granada; it is found only in the province of Choco, to the west of the Andes, and in the province of Barbacoa, between the 2d and 6th degree of north latitude. It is peculiar to one alluvial spot of ground, about six hundred square leagues. It is found in Lavaderos, principally at Condoto, Santa Reta, Santa Lucia, and the ravine of Iro, between the villages of Novita and Taddo.
Q. kilver. To a country abounding with silver mines, mercury is indispensable for working them to advantage. The impolicy of the court of Spain, which has placed mercury under a royal monopoly, has, of necessity, imposed great restrictions on the mines of America. The government supplies the wants of the miners from Almadon, in Spain, in some degree, but principally from the mines of Istria. There are, however, in New Granada, as well as in Peru and Mexico, mines of quicksilver, which, with due encouragement and protection, would be sufficient to render the American dominions of Spain independent of Europe for the supply of this important mineral. Sulphureted mercury is found in the province of Antioquia, in the valley of Santa Rosa, to the eastward of the river Cauca, in the central Cordillera, between Ibague and Carthago, and in the province of Quito, between the villages of Azogue and Cuenca. The celebrated Professor Mutis made the discovery of the Cinnabar in the mines of Quindiu. At his own expence, in 1786, he caused the miners of Sapo to examine that part of the granite mountains which extends southward from the Nevada de Tolima towards the river Saldana. The sulphureted mercury was found in round fragments, mixed with small grains of gold in the alluvial earth, with which the ravine at the foot of the table land of Ibague is filled. Near the village of Azogue, to the north-west of Cuenca, the mercury is found as in the department of Mount Tonnerre, in Frana, in a formation of quartzose freestone, with argillaceous cement. This freestone is near 1500 yards in thickness, and contains fossil wood and asphaltum. In the mountains of Guazon and Upar, to the north-east of Azogue, a vein of cinnabar traverses beds of clay filled with calcareous spar, and contained in freestone. This mine must have been formerly worked, as there are the remains of a gallery 130 yards in length. At five leagues distant from the city of Popayan, there is a ravine known by the name of the quicksilver ravine (quebrada de Azogue), from whence it is probable that mercury was formerly extracted, but at present no attempt at working it is made.
In Coal, In New Granada, there are considerable iron veins, but they are forbidden to be worked, lest they should injure the iron manufactures of the peninsula; hence, though their situation is well known, and the richness
of the ore ascertained, they have not been explored with that degree of diligence which the prospect of reaping benefit by their working would produce. Coal mines exist near the city of Santa Fé de Bogota, at the height of more than 8000 feet above the level of the sea; but, not being wanted for manufactories, wood being abundant, and the climate too warm to need fires in the apartments, they are not worked. There is also a most abundant mine of rock salt at Zepaquirá, and, it is said, in other parts; but the wants of the inhabitants being abundantly supplied with salt from the sea-coast, there has been no necessity for bringing the other into use.
It is generally supposed that the richest mines are unexplored, and even unknown to the Spaniards. A sensible resident in Choco, whose notes are before us, says, "I know that in Choco, the Indians have knowledge of several rich mines of gold, whose existence they obstinately conceal from the whites, because they say they reserve them for themselves or their heirs, when they shall be freed from the Spanish yoke, which they all believe will some day happen."
When this part of America was first visited by the Original Inhabitants, the natives were divided into various tribes, and lived in a state but little removed from the condition of the lowest savages. Some of the tribes had made more considerable advances, and were gradually subduing, and perhaps leading towards civilization, their ruder neighbours. Two states had risen to more eminence, and formed some kind of regular government. The Moscas or Muyscas had built their capital on the spot on which the present city of Santa Fé stands. Like most rude nations, their government was founded on superstition, and its origin supposed to be of divine institution. They had a prevalent tradition, that, at some remote period, a child of the sun, designated among them by the name of Bochica, had appeared, in some mysterious manner, and invested with supernatural power; that, in his contests with malignant beings, he had succeeded in rendering the plains habitable and fertile, and had recommended for their monarch Huncahua. This king mounted the throne; and, during a reign of two thousand years, extended his dominions, and introduced religion, and the arts of civilized life. The government was a theocracy; and the offices of king and high priest were united in him and his successors. The religion was of a sanguinary kind, and required the sacrifice of human victims. The first advances only had been made in knowledge; for, though they had a calendar which divided the year into weeks and months, they could only express numbers beyond ten by adding to them the word which signifies foot, and then counting the decimals by numbering the toes. They had attained the art of spinning cotton, and of weaving it, so as to form garments; and they had workmen who exercised some rude ingenuity in making ornaments of gold and silver. The mixed character of Monarch and High Priest, which was borne by their King, impressed a kind of awe on the inhabitants, which kept them in cheerful subjection. Their king never walked on foot, but was carried by men on a species of palan-
kin, in paths strewed with flowers, by his willing subjects, whose respect and dread made them consider it an act of impiety even to look on his countenance. When the Spaniards first discovered this country, it was designated by the natives with the name of Cundinamarca, and the civil and ecclesiastical government was vested in a chief called Bogota, who was engaged in war, as his predecessors had long been, with the Muzos or Musos, a nation whose traditions and superstitions differing, had caused perpetual animosity with the Muyscas. The tradition of the Musos, concerning the origin of their race, taught them, that, in a remote period, the shadow of a man, or a spirit called Ari, was accustomed to make faces of men and women in wood, and throw them into the river Magdalena, from whence they issued in the shape of human beings, and that, being taught by him to cultivate the soil, they had multiplied, and dispersed themselves, and thus peopled the whole country.
Whilst Benaleazar, who acted under the orders of Pizarro, was reducing the south, towards Quito, another of the Spanish commanders was accomplishing the same object in the north part of the country. Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada was sent in 1536 by Fernando de Lugo from Santa Marta to explore the countries bordering on the Magdalena. His greatest difficulties at first arose rather from the impenetrable thickets that opposed his passage, than from any warlike force which the savage natives, who were few in number, and of little bodily strength, could present. After ascending to the junction of four rivers, he formed an establishment, from whence, after a short interval, he continued his progress. As he advanced to the higher regions, he found the inhabitants more warlike, but much divided among themselves, whilst some, with great vehemence, opposed his passage; their enemies soon formed alliances with him, and afforded him every assistance in their power. Bogota, the greatest of the monarchs, was his most decided opponent, and collected all his force in the fertile plains of Santa Fé. A pitched battle, whose fate was not long doubtful, decided the future lot of the principal power, and by the fall of Bogota and his auxiliaries, the Spaniards and their allies were enabled to establish a durable dominion. The conquerors were rewarded with considerable booty in gold and emeralds, and if we may draw inferences from some facts narrated by their own historians, conducted themselves with both cruelty and fraud to the wretched inhabitants. Quesada lived to an extreme old age, and saw, before his death, the country he had conquered, flourishing in agriculture, in population, and in mines. Cities, towns, cathedrals, and churches were built, and the Catholic religion professed by the old as firmly as by the new inhabitants. He lived sixty years after he had completed the conquest, dying in 1597. During his long life the mixture of races had been completely effected, and those derived from the union of Spanish men with the Indian women, were making rapid advances towards an equality in numbers with the pure Indians.
As the tranquillity of the country became established, and the natives became reconciled to their
new master, the arts of life from Europe were introduced; and though, from the richness of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, there were few inducements to much exertion, yet a gradual increase has been going on in population; and having no wars, either external or internal, to rouse their energies, the quiet and peaceful country has enjoyed a degree of repose unknown in any other part of the globe. New Granada has exhibited none of those mixed scenes of glory and of suffering which other countries have displayed. During two centuries and a half the furious passions have not been displayed; the whole prospect has been calm, still, and quiet; amidst the indulgence of every degree of indolence, however, this country has been gradually progressive; it has increased in numbers with considerable rapidity; in knowledge and civilization with a slower pace; but in great powers of mind, if any progress has been made, it is scarcely perceptible. Two insurrections, indeed, have happened within our time, but the power of that soporific superstition which Spain has fostered in all her settlements, with most sedulous anxiety, lulled to rest the waves of tumult, and calmed the temporary rage of the population. The particulars of these partial risings, and the narrative of the more important events, which arose out of the occupation of Spain by the troops of Bonaparte, will, with more propriety, be related, after we have described the classes of the inhabitants, and the forms of government and law, by which, since their first establishment, they have been regulated.
All the various classes of inhabitants in the Spanish settlements, numerous as they are, and distinguished by jealousies greater in proportion to their proximity, are derived from the three races of Europeans, Indians, and Africans. Considerable numbers of each of these races have continued, ever since the first settlement of New Granada, without any mixture with the other classes. Many families of the European race, the descendants of the first conquerors, or the more early settlers, have continued, without any legitimate intercourse with the other races, to transmit through successive generations the pure Castilian blood. These have the rank, and frequently the titles of nobility; they are the proprietors of the most extensive estates, and sometimes of the most valuable mines. Their pride is excessive, and their power over the inferior casts is exercised with considerable rigour; notwithstanding the restraints placed on their authority by the mild laws which are framed in Europe. Those whites of ancient origin, but of American birth, are very rarely trusted with any high offices in the church, the state, or the navy. The few white inhabitants of European birth who are sent by the court of Madrid to America, are in almost exclusive possession of every office of emolument or authority. The ancient nobility of America view the officers who are sent from Spain with a mixture of envy, jealousy, hatred, and disdain, but ill suppressed by the fear of the superior power with which they are invested.
The fact cannot be disguised, that a long residence in a country where the principal labour is performed by slaves and inferior casts, has a ten-
dency to destroy those fine feelings of justice, and that warm sympathy with distress, which is created by the approximation towards equality, which prevails, in a greater or less degree, throughout Europe. The white natives of America have lost the idea that a slave is a man, and consider him as a thing, a subject of gain or of loss, rather than an object of sympathy and fellow-feeling. The Indians and Negroes, and all the mixed variety of intermediate races, are too sensible of the light in which they are regarded by their white fellow-countrymen to look up to them with any other feelings than that of dread and hatred. When they want protection from injury, or redress for their wrongs, they look up to the few Europeans who are settled there to administer the government, who have the power, and are supposed alone to have the inclination, to protect them. The natives of Europe are so few in number, and so conscious of their weakness, that they endeavour to secure the affections of the Indians and Negroes by such conduct as is most adapted for that purpose, as far as it does not interfere with the principal object of their desire, that of amassing wealth, with which to return and enjoy themselves in Europe. The policy of the Court of Spain towards its American subjects is not very dissimilar to that which prevailed in Europe during the existence of the feudal system; it was then the desire of the monarchs to lessen the power of the nobles by supporting the commons, and even the peasants, against them. The ancient white inhabitants of Spanish America are a species of nobles, and these appearing to support the Indians and the Negroes who are the commons and peasants of America, gives a firmness and authority to the Court of Madrid, which it could not have retained by any other system of proceeding.
Besides the unmixed race of native whites, there are great numbers of inhabitants descended from the European men and Indian women. The first and second generation of these are considered as a degraded cast; but in the course of a few generations, each increasing in the proportion of the white blood, they come to be considered as whites, and though they scarcely attain to the dignity of the pure European race, they assume a rank in proportion to their nearer approximation to that complexion. This description of persons increases more rapidly than any other cast. Every union with a white person elevates the offspring one step in society, and hence all the various tints are ambitious of contracting matrimony with those who are whiter than themselves. The intermediate casts, after several crosses, are generally, when speaking of the mass, confounded with the pure whites, and distinguished from the Europeans by the name of Creoles. It is under this denomination we shall speak of them in the future part of this article, as it will be a sufficient distinction between them and the other casts. The proportion of the numbers of the Creoles to the other inhabitants varies in the different settlements, but in the kingdom of New Granada they bear a larger proportion to the whole population than in any other country. In the whole of Spanish America they are estimated at one-fourth, but in this viceroyalty they are con-
sidered to be between one-third and two-fifths of the inhabitants. Their wealth far exceeds the proportion of their numbers; the land, the mines, the cattle, the utensils, and the arts of industry, are principally to be found in this class; the few manufactories that have been established are conducted by them, and the Indians are employed as their workmen. The oppressions they practise towards that unfortunate race are such as no laws have yet been able to relieve them from; every salutary regulation that could be devised in their behalf has been enacted, but the execution has been lamentably defective.
The Indian races are, by the laws of Spain, declared to be freemen, and the old practices, known by the name of repartimientos, by which, under the pretext of being protected by individual Spaniards, they were, in fact, reduced to the condition of slaves, has been long abolished. Many of the Indians reside in their own separate villages and towns. They are kept distinct whilst there from the white race, and ruled by their own hereditary chiefs. The government of Spain requires from each chief an annual tax of two dollars for every individual under his government, which he collects from his unfortunate dependants, often with great severity; though that severity has been attempted to be softened by the appointment of white corregidores, whose duty it is to protect the Indians from the oppressions of their native princes. This tribute from the Indians was intended to favour rather than oppress them, as, in consideration of it, they are exempted from all other imposts. In the Spanish dominions, a most impolitic tax, called Alcabala, originally imposed by the Moors when they ruled the peninsula, is universally levied. It is six per cent. upon all sales of property; but in consideration of this tribute, the Indians, in those places where they are ruled by their own chiefs, are exempted from this payment.
The chiefs who rule these Indian tribes are under the superintendence of the corregidores, who are considered as their guardians; and the people, in the eye of the law, considered as minors, in a state of pupilage. They can enter into no contracts, nor do any other act, without the direction of their chief, who avails himself of this condition of their being, to enrich himself from their scanty possessions, whenever he can blind or bribe the corregidor, by whom he is controlled. Whilst residing in their native villages, these Indians can contract no marriages with the whites. The only liberty they enjoy is the power of removing from their towns to the places where no chief rules. This they can do at their pleasure, and may then hire themselves as servants or labourers for their own account. In these changes of situation, they too often only remove from the slavery of their native chief to the worse slavery of their own vicious propensities. Like all uncivilized people, they are excessively addicted to the abuse of ardent spirits; the first money obtained by labour is generally applied to this pernicious gratification. The Creoles, who know their weakness, when they wish to engage them as workmen in mines or manufactories, gratify them with spirits, till they become indebted to them in such sums as give them a power to keep them at work on their own terms, under
pretence of extricating them from the debts they have contracted. As in these situations they have no natural protector, either in their own chief or their corregidor, as they had in their native villages, they become the prey of the Creoles, who know they are not able to procure redress from the ordinary courts of law, which are both tedious and expensive. In spite of the benevolent attention which the court of Spain has constantly given to the situation of the Indians, the lot of the general mass, though in law they are freemen, is certainly much worse than that of the Negro slaves in the Spanish dominions, or even of the slaves in the English, Dutch, and French colonies, where they are treated with more harshness than by the Spaniards.
New Granada has partaken less of the iniquity of the African slave trade, than any other division of the western world, except Mexico. In the interior, the most populous part of the country, there are few or no negro slaves. What do exist are in the towns on the coast, or in the plantations in the lower and warmer climates, where the tropical productions are cultivated. Of late years, very few have been imported; and those who were formerly brought into the country have so mixed with the other races, from the natural desire of bettering the condition of their offspring, that the number of mulattoes, quaderoons, quinteroons, and other mixtures of whites and negroes, far outnumber the unmixed blacks, and the Zambos, the race between the Negro and the Indian, are supposed fully to equal them.
We have before remarked, that the condition of the negro slaves in the Spanish colonies is preferable to that of the same class in the other European establishments. Their state, indeed, more nearly approximates to that of apprenticeship for life, than what may be properly termed slavery. They are considered by the law as persons capable of holding property, and enjoying other rights. Ill treatment from the master, or any member of his family, entitles them to manumission, without price, however highly they may be valued. When, by their economy in the time allotted them to labour for themselves, they have saved a stated sum, they may redeem themselves, though the price the master may have paid for them, or can sell them for, should ever so far exceed that amount. They are allowed two days in each week to work for themselves; when, by the labour of those days, they have saved sufficient, they may at the fixed price purchase another day, and so proceed till they have obtained their freedom. A slave may purchase the freedom of his child at a very low sum. By these regulations the number of slaves is considerably lessened, and the lot of those who are not redeemed is considerably softened. These humane regulations have been framed in Spain. They have been opposed or censured by the Creoles, and can only be put into practice by the European Spaniards, who, by acting the part of protectors to this race, acquire their confidence, and incur the animosity of their masters.
Both the Indian and negro population are carefully imbued with the doctrines of the Catholic religion. The missionaries are numerous, sober, and diligent; and, if the ceremonies of the church
have no great tendency to enlighten the minds, or amend the morals, of these casts, it cannot be doubted that, by the example of more cleanliness, industry, and freedom, they must produce some good; and, perhaps the practice of auricular confession, which, in polished society, and with civilized people, begets either hypocrisy or mental debility, may, with those rude people, be made the instrument of correcting some of their grosser vices. Though the missions are scattered over the whole country, the number of priests, including both regular and secular, is far less than in the Catholic countries of Europe. The best benefices are generally filled by European Spaniards; though there have been instances of Creoles and Indians being promoted to the Episcopal chair. A great degree of animosity and jealousy subsists between the Indian and the Negro races. The latter, but more especially their descendants, the Mulattoes, view the former with contempt and disdain; and the poor timid Indians hate, but cannot despise, the Negroes and Mulattoes, whose activity and exertion is greater, and who appear to have naturally minds less degraded.
Within the kingdom of New Granada there are several tribes of Indians who are in a state of savage barbarity, or at least who have never yet been subdued by the Spaniards, among whom they are known by the description of Indios bravos. In the mountainous parts of the province of Santa Marta, one nation subsists called Goahiros. Their stations are between the entrance to the Gulf of Maracaybo and Rio de la Hacha, and extend near one hundred miles on the coast of the Carribean Sea. Their numbers have been calculated at thirty thousand souls. Their chief resides in a fortified town, on a hill called La Teta, some miles from the shore. They are constantly at war with the Spaniards, and are reported to receive muskets and ammunition from contraband traders who approach to their coasts from Jamaica and Curaçoa, and trade with them under the severest caution, from the apprehension of becoming the victims of their treachery, whilst engaged in this commerce. They sometimes traffic with the Spaniards of Rio de la Hacha, principally for spirituous liquors, in exchange for which they give dye-woods, horses, oxen, and mules, and sometimes pearls. It is said that this nation has subdued another tribe of Indians in their vicinity, called the Cocinas; and, after the conquest, distributed the prisoners among their own nation, where they have since continued in the condition of slaves.
In reciting the territorial divisions of the kingdom of New Granada, it will be better to take them according to their local position than to their importance; and therefore we begin with the northern provinces. Three provinces in the isthmus of Darien form part of the viceroyalty of New Granada; and are generally distinguished by the name of the provinces of Terra Firma. One of these, though subject to the viceroy of New Granada, is not in South America; but in North America; and therefore, in strictness, ought to form a part of the Presidency of Guatemala. Veragua, the northernmost part of New Granada, and the southernmost province of North Ame-
rica, was first attempted to be settled by Columbus, in 1503; but the hostility of the natives prevented his accomplishing his design. Several successive attempts were subsequently made, and even as late as the year 1760, the whole of the mountainous district, which is by far the largest part of the province, was not subdued. The towns, or, as they designate them, the cities, built by the Spaniards, are, St Jago de Vergara, Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, and Santiago de Angel. These are all in a warm, moist, and unhealthy climate, and the inhabitants are mostly Creoles or Indians. Having no sea-port, and no river navigable for any but the smallest boats, they have little commerce. The roads, too, through the whole province, are so bad as to forbid much intercourse. The industry of the inhabitants is principally applied to the production of articles for their home consumption; and these are easily procured in that fruitful soil. Maize, rice, sugar, and all tropical fruits, are abundant; and black cattle and horses are to be found in great numbers, with scarcely any who think them worth owning. Gold and silver mines exist in this province; but they are very partially worked. They are situated on mountains, from whence there being no roads, and having no water, the ore must be brought on men's backs, by which the expense becomes so great, that they scarcely can obtain their expenses.
Panama is a province on a well known isthmus of that name, and has been long considered the most important province of Spain. A branch of the Andes runs through its whole length, the higher summits of which are cold and barren, but the intervening valleys, as well as the low ground, on the Caribbean and Pacific seas, are rich and fertile, but on the eastern side generally unhealthy. From the centre of the ridge of the mountains of Panama the Southern or Pacific Ocean was first discovered by Balboa in 1513, and the province still continues the most easy point of communication between Europe and Peru. This route is accomplished by ascending the river Chagre from its mouth, near which is fort San Lorenzo, to the small town of Cruces, where the river ceases to be navigable. There is then an ascent by a road, practicable only for horses and mules, to the top of the Andes; an ascent so difficult that some cannon designed for Panama having been carried there, were found impossible to be removed. The distance from Cruces to the city of Panama is only five leagues, but from the acclivities, and the badness of the road, it requires twelve hours to perform it. The rapidity of the river Chagre is also a serious impediment, when it is full of water, so that this short journey frequently occupies five or six days.
Panama, the capital city, is on the shore of the South Sea, is the residence of the Intendant of the province, the seat of a royal audiencia, and the See of a Bishop. It is estimated to contain about 16,000 inhabitants, a greater proportion of whom are negroes than is usually found in New Granada. It is about a league from the shore, and has no harbour; but the island of Perico affords both secure shelter and excellent anchorage for vessels of the largest size. It is slightly fortified, and might be easily taken by
any power that possessed naval superiority on the Pacific Ocean. The trade of Panama is at present inconsiderable. The treasure from Peru, in indeed in some degree conveyed through it, but the facility with which voyages round Cape Horn are made, and the freedom of trade which the court of Spain extended in 1786, have reduced its commerce very considerably. It has a fishery for pearls, which is principally carried on by negro slaves. Portobello is the next place of importance, but, though dignified with the name of a city, it has scarcely any permanent inhabitants. It possesses one of the finest and best defended harbours in the western hemisphere; but, from the intense heat of the climate, and the excessive rains, it is so unhealthy as to destroy life in an unexampled degree. It is said that no person born there ever lived to 20 years of age; and this conviction is so strong, that the wives of such officers as are stationed there remove to more healthy situations to bring forth their children. When the commerce of the South Sea was conducted through the isthmus, the fair of Portobello was a great commercial mart; and this led to the attack by Admiral Vernon, whose success, though exaggerated at the time, was neither in the transaction nor its consequences worthy of notice.
The only other place of importance in this province is Nata, or St Jago de Nata. It is about 50 miles south-west of Panama, on the western side of the Andes, on a spacious bay in the Pacific. It is a large town, depending almost wholly for its prosperity on the fertility of the fields which surround it, and which are highly productive in sugar, cocoa, and indigo, whilst the mountainous districts in its vicinity abound with cattle of every description. Its inhabitants are wholly either Creoles or Indians, and their intermixtures, with scarcely a single person of the African race.
The third province of Terra Firma, Darien, can scarcely be said to belong to Spain; for the Indios-bravos, notwithstanding repeated attempts, both by missionaries and by arms, to reduce them, have maintained their independence, and destroyed the settlements that have been attempted to be formed. These Indians are the descendants of those tribes who, during the existence of the buccaneers, gave to those freebooters every assistance they required, conducted them from one sea to the other, through ways now never attempted, and were the principal means of the success which attended their excursions. Their animosity to the Spaniards and their reclaimed Indians is still cherished; and the humidity, and consequent unhealthiness of the climate, is the powerful weapon which has defended their erratic independence. This province is principally interesting from the river Atrato running through it, by which only a ready communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean can be opened and maintained. If vessels ascended this river, and a canal were cut from it to the river St Juan, which is a short distance, and through a level country, a junction of the two seas might be effected. In this province the Scottish colony, projected in the year 1695, made an abortive attempt to establish itself,—an attempt which, though it ended in disappointment and ruin
to the parties who embarked in it, displayed considerable expansion of intellect in the projection, but not accompanied with that accurate calculation of obstacles which is indispensably necessary in expeditions of such magnitude.
The province of Carthage is the most important of the maritime districts of New Granada. On the sea coast, where the city of Carthage, the capital of the province, stands, the climate is universally warm, and in most situations humid. Where the latter quality is found, the unhealthiness is most distinctly exhibited in the shallow countenances and attenuated muscles of the inhabitants, who are subject to malignant fevers of the most debilitating species, and whose lives, short as they usually are, are periods of sickness and debility. Notwithstanding the perpetual recruits which its population has been receiving both from Europe and from Africa, it has not perceptibly increased for the last century. The principal inducement to the first settlement at Carthage was the security of the harbour and the strength of the military position. The fertility of the soil was soon ascertained, and in spite of its unhealthiness the country became settled, and has since, by repeated emigrations, been maintained in a flourishing condition. All the tropical productions are cultivated with success. Sugar, cotton, coffee, cocoa, and indigo, are common, and in their cultivation employ considerable numbers of negro slaves, who are, indeed, more numerous in and about Carthage than in any other part of the viceroyalty. The city of Carthage is the grand emporium of the central commerce of the whole of New Granada. Whatever of the luxuries of Europe are consumed in the centre of the kingdom must pass through this its only port, and though, from the difficulties of the communication, and the abundant supply of all indispensable articles which the interior furnishes, their wants are small when compared with the population, yet the transit to a whole kingdom passing through one port, must make that port the mart for considerable commerce. The interior of New Granada furnishes but few articles for exportation, but what few it does furnish can only pass through the single port of Carthage. The number of rich merchants thus induced to settle in it is considerable, and the fortunes amassed are large; but it is observed that none of these capitals remain long stationary,—the possessors generally return to Europe to enjoy them, or remove to the more elevated and healthy situations, where they establish their families in climates favourable to longevity, and enjoyment. Before the introduction of what is called, though erroneously, free commerce, the trade of the city of Carthage was much more considerable than it has since been. It was the port at which the galleons rendezvoused previous to their departure from Europe, and thus became a great mart to which the merchants from Lima, Guyaquil, Popayan, Quito, and Santa Fé, repaired, and met those of Europe. From thence the commodities of the old were distributed over the new world, and the precious metals shipped to be conveyed to Europe. The deposit of European goods in Carthage is rendered very hazardous by the numerous insects, who, with remark-
able voracity, destroy every thing which comes within their reach, especially all kinds of silks, cloths of linen, woollen, or cotton. One of these insects is called the Comegan, a kind of moth or maggot, but so expeditious in its depredations, that it soon reduces to dust the contents of any bale or other package on which it fastens itself. Without altering the form, it frequently perforates the covering, and with great dexterity consumes the contents, so that, when opened, it is found to contain only small shreds and dust. The strictest attention is necessary to preserve the goods from such accidents, because the insect is so small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye, and yet so active as to destroy all the goods in a warehouse sometimes in a single night. The most effectual precaution is to place the packages in situations where they do not touch the walls of the apartment, and to raise them above the floor on stands, whose feet are placed in naphtha or tar, which these insects cannot pass over. Carthage is strongly fortified, but military events have shown that it is far from impregnable. The principal defence of the harbours is derived from the numerous shoals at its entrance; but such obstacles are easily vanquished by the skill of able pilots, who are easily instructed, or soon instruct themselves, as our naval experience in many instances will prove. The streets of the city are broad and well paved, the houses mostly of stone, with virandas and lattices. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral with several churches and convents. The inhabitants are estimated at 24,000. The greater part are of Indian origin; the next in number are the Negroes and Mulattoes; and the white inhabitants, including both Europeans and Creoles, are a very small portion. From the security of its harbour, and its supposed importance, this city has been exposed to successive attacks, and, notwithstanding its strength, each of them has been successful.
The province of Carthage contains no towns of much note besides the capital. The greater part of the population is scattered on distant plantations on the plains, or in small settlements on the hills, where they are occupied in breeding cattle. The most considerable town is Mompox, situated about 110 miles south of the capital, in a very healthy country, about twenty-five miles above the junction of the rivers Magdalena and Cauca. A custom-house is established there, where the dues are paid on all goods transmitted from the city of Carthage to the interior of the viceroyalty. The inundations at Mompox are considerable in the rainy season, the waters rising from twelve to fourteen feet above their usual level. This has induced the erection of an elevated quay, on which the custom-house stands, and is both an ornamental and useful work.
The other towns, Tolu, St Sebastian, Barancas, Santa Maria, Zamba, and Gumaco, are very inconsiderable, are mostly inhabited by Indian families, who, without commerce, and with little intercourse with the rest of the world, or with each other, subsist on the productions of the fertile soil that surrounds them.
The province of Santa Marta has, by its salubrity, Santa beauty, and fertility, obtained in New Granada the Marta.
New Granada. title of the Pearl of America. It is about 300 miles in length and 200 in breadth. The greater part of the interior consists of mountains gradually rising in elevation till they ascend above the limits of perpetual congelation. The valleys between these mountains are refreshed with the perpetual streams that descend and the cool breezes that blow from them, so that an everlasting spring is enjoyed by the inhabitants. The air, unlike that of Carthage, has not that degree of humidity which generates fevers and leprosy, or that tends to shorten life, nor are they plagued with that innumerable phalanx of scorpions and noxious insects which form the misery of the inhabitants of the adjoining province. This province was one of the earliest settlements formed on the coast of the Carribean Sea. Its founder was Alonzo de Ojeda, and his authority included Darien, Carthage, Santa Marta, and Maracaybo, which were united under one government, and then called New Andalusia. The principal city, of the same name as the province, enjoys an excellent harbour, and is fortified with considerable attention. It is the see of a bishop, has a cathedral, several parish churches, and some convents. The inhabitants are estimated at 7000 souls, who are mostly Indians or mixtures of Creoles and Indians, but there are few whites, and of them very few are natives of Europe. The trade of the port has declined considerably of late years, the greater part of it as well as that of the other port, Rio de la Hacha, having transferred itself to Carthage. The river Magdalena is the most important feature of the province. Numerous tributary streams descend with rapidity from the mountains, which increase its volume. In their course they have worn ravines so deep, and with banks so precipitous as to render them impassable. In order to cross these ravines, temporary bridges are formed of a most peculiar construction. They stretch over the stream two cables twisted from the flexible roots of trees; they are laid parallel to each other, and stretched, by means of a windlass, as tight as their great thickness and weight will permit; over these two parallel cables, bushes, and rushes are laid to form the flooring of the bridge; two other ropes a little above these distended cables are fixed, and form a kind of balustrade. The great weight of the cables causes them to drop in the centre, and thus form a concave semicircle. When the river is wide and the wind high, this bridge is much agitated, and swings backwards and forwards, to the no small alarm, and sometimes to the not slight danger of the passengers.
Another kind of contrivance for passing these rapid streams is frequently adopted by passengers. Three or four thongs of leather are twisted into a species of rope, and fastened on the higher and lower banks of the river, forming an angle of descent of fifteen or sixteen degrees. The passenger is suspended in a kind of basket, with a grove through which the rope passes, and when loosened from the higher bank descends to the lower across the stream, with such rapidity, that the friction causes sparks of fire to be elicited from the leather rope, and sometimes in such quantities, as to endanger the eyes of the passenger. The Indians, who act as guides over these precipices, recommend those who are thus con-
ducted to keep their eyes shut during the flight, for such it may be called, over the precipice. These kind of machines are constructed near to each other, where the unequal elevation of the banks will admit of them; one is for going, and the other for returning from one part of the country to another. The mouth of the River Magdalena forms a Delta, which is overflowed in January and February. On this land the deposit of slime which is left creates a degree of fertility, equal to what is known in any part of the world. The productions of the valleys of Santa Marta are all the tropical fruits, especially cocoa, which is supposed to be better than in any other part of the Spanish dominions on the eastern side of America. The hills abound with cattle, many of which are slaughtered for the sake of the hides and tallow, which form a considerable part of the export commerce of the province. The whole number of inhabitants is estimated at about 280,000 souls, the far greater part of whom are Indians, though some negroes and mulattoes are found in the plantations of sugar and coffee in the lower parts of the country. The town of Rio de la Hacha is next in importance to the capital, and has the advantages of a good harbour, and a river navigable for small craft. The other towns are Cordova, Puebla-neuva, Teneriffe, Ocasia, Puebla de la Reys, and Tamalameque, none of which are considerable, or have any productions that deserve to be particularly noticed.
Merida. The province of Merida to the eastward of Santa Marta, and bordering on Maracaybo, is principally composed of a chain of the Andes, whose highest elevation is 15,000 feet, and is consequently within the line of perpetual snow. On account of the inequality of its surface, the climate partakes of every degree of variation from the extreme of heat to that of cold. The far greater part of the province is uninhabited, and the whole population is not estimated to exceed 70,000 souls. Plantations of sugar, coffee, and cocoa, are found in the lower levels, but their principal productions are raised at the elevation of from 5000 to 8000 feet, and consist of excellent wheat, beans, peas, potatoes, and maize. The cattle are abundant, and their hides and tallow form branches of commerce. Some of the most copious rivers of South America have their sources in this province, especially the Apure, which, after watering very extensive plains with the others, contribute to swell the stream of the Orinoco. Merida, the capital city, is estimated to contain from 10,000 to 12,000 souls: a great proportion of them are white Creoles, some few European Spaniards, and the rest mestizoes or descendants of whites and Indians. Besides its agriculture, which is the most considerable pursuit, it has some manufactories of cotton cloth. It is a bishop's see, and has a college or seminary for the education of the clergy. The other towns are Pamplona (near which are some mines of gold), San Christoval, and La Grita, which are scarcely deserving of any notice.
Antioquia. The province of Antioquia equals any of the provinces of New Granada in the elevation of its mountains, of which it almost wholly consists; but at the heights below the limits of congelation, some plains
are found which unite fertility and salubrity in the highest degree. The dew is not hurtful, and the climate so mild and equable, that the inhabitants can always sleep in the open air. It is rich in minerals, but from the paucity of inhabitants, and the want of capital, the mines are not worked to any considerable extent. What silver is produced in New Granada is chiefly from the mines of Vega de Supia in this province. Quicksilver is produced at Santa Rosa; gold in Buricota, San Pedro, and Arenas; and more than 8000 negro slaves are employed in the small villages on the banks of the Cauca in washing the sand for gold dust. The capital town, Santa Fé Antioquia, contains but few inhabitants, though it is placed in a most healthy and fruitful spot. The rest of the population is scattered over an extensive surface, far removed from each other, and have but little intercourse with the rest of even their own province.
Choco is as thinly inhabited as any part of Spanish America, though occupying a considerable extent of coast on the Pacific Ocean, and extending from thence to the foot of the western ridge of the Andes. It contains no town whose name has reached to Europe. The heat of the climate is excessive, and its humidity makes it unhealthy. Its productions are those common to tropical regions. Choco is principally to be noticed as the country in which platina is exclusively found; it is to be met with in alluvial lands in small grains, in a district between the second and sixth degree of north latitude. No mines of it have yet been discovered; but it is highly probable, that, at some future period, when the country is more completely explored, such mines will be found, and render that valuable metal more abundant than it is at present. Gold is procured by washing the sand of the rivers at the foot of the Andes; it is usually in grains. This province has so little connection with the rest of the world, that what is not produced within it, such as iron and wheaten flour, are sold at most enormous prices. The increase of navigation on the river Atrato, which, till recently, was forbidden, will throw much light on the condition of this province, and perhaps raise it to considerable distinction. We have before noticed, that this province forms the easiest communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and a ravine, called Raspadura, is said to have a communication through it, by which the river St Juan, which runs to the South Sea, is already in some degree united to the Atrato.
The province of Santa Fé is in every respect the most important of this viceroyalty. The whole of it is situated in the finest possible climate; a perpetual verdure covers the earth and the trees; its fertility is excelled by no soil on the globe, and it is thickly peopled. Those who have visited it have compared it to the most beautiful and most populous parts of England in the months of May and June. Wheat, barley, potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, and, in fact, all the fruits of the temperate zone, are produced with little labour, and in great abundance, at the elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea, whilst on the less elevated spots the choice fruits of the tropics are to be found. The plain of
Santa Fé is an extensive district, which surrounds the capital, and furnishes its markets with every agricultural production that is valuable to the comforts of human beings. It is surrounded with mountains, but none so lofty as to be perpetually frozen. These supply rivulets, which water the plain in every direction; and the soil is evidently alluvial, collected when the plain was a lake, which its appearance plainly proves to have been formerly the case, and which the traditions of the natives strongly corroborate. By some extraordinary convulsion of nature, the barrier of mountains must have burst; and that passage formed, by which the river that now precipitates itself by the fall of Tequendama in its descent has drained this vast plain. Few features of nature are more grand than the cataract of the river Funza, or Bogota, called by the inhabitants the Salta of Tequendama. The river, gentle and transparent, glides slowly along the plain, collecting in its course the tributary rivulets, which have descended from the hills, and fertilized the plain. It is about 140 feet in breadth near the point from whence it vanishes. It becomes suddenly contracted to the breadth of thirty feet, at the entrance of the fissure by which it escapes, and then with violent noise and agitation suddenly precipitates itself into the plain below. The descent is 600 feet, and it plunges into a dark gulf whose bottom is always invisible. It again emerges, and forms the river Meta, which runs to the Orinoco. Though at the beginning of its descent it appears a sheet of water, in the course of its fall it is broken into small particles, and alights at the bottom in the form of an everlasting shower of thick rain, whose drops obscure the prospects, and darken the lands on which they fall. The vapours which are evolved and scattered by the fall of this vast body of waters, fertilize the surrounding lands in a most extraordinary degree, so that the wheat grown at the farm of Canos, where the descent begins, is considered the best in quality, and the most abundant in produce, of any within this fertile viceroyalty. The river at one bound leaps from a temperate to a torrid region; at the top are seen the oak and elm trees of Europe, at the bottom the sugar cane, the palm tree, and the bannanas of the West Indies.
The natural bridges of Icononzo are most extraordinary exhibitions of the effects of the greater convulsions of nature. The small torrent called Rio de la summa Paz falls from the eastern chain of the Andes, and would be impassable but for these natural bridges. A crevice, probably formed by an earthquake, receives this torrent in the valley of Pandi; and within the crevice are formed two beautiful cascades; over the top of the upper cascade, the enormous rocks have been so thrown together, as to support each other on the principle of the arch. This arch, thus formed by nature, is forty-eight feet in length, forty-two feet in breadth, its thickness, in the centre, is seven feet. This bridge is about three hundred and twenty feet above the torrent, and the water, in the stream, is about twenty feet deep. About sixty feet below this, another similar bridge has been formed much resembling it; three enormous masses of rock have fallen so as to support each other; that in the centre forms the key of this
natural arch. The torrent appears to flow through a dark natural cavern, where arises a melancholy noise, caused by the flight of numberless birds which haunt the crevice, and appear like bats of a most unusual size. Thousands of them are seen flying over the surface of the water, and they appear as large as a fowl. It is not possible to take them on account of the depth of the fissure, and they can only be examined by throwing down torches to illuminate the sides of the crevice.
The city of Santa Fé de Bogota is the capital of the province of Santa Fé, as well as of the viceroyalty of New Granada. It is on the plain before noticed, 8700 feet above the level of the sea. The thermometer sometimes, though but rarely, descends to the freezing point, and the temperature is, in general, remarkably equable. It is a handsome well built city. It contains four squares, which are connected by wide and regular streets; two small rivers run through it, over which five handsome bridges are constructed. The public buildings are sumptuous, particularly the cathedral and the palace of the viceroy. It contains several handsome churches, eight convents, four nunneries, a royal mint, a hospital, and a university, in which several of the professors, as well as their pupils, have acquired considerable celebrity. The inhabitants are estimated at 35,000; they are, in general, in a state of mediocrity, possessing lands in the province, and some are occupied in the more common manufactures, but it is not a place of extensive trade. The country around the capital is thickly studded with farms and cottages, the industry of the inhabitants is considerable, and it is principally exercised in agriculture, by which they obtain abundant crops of every species of grain, and usually have two harvests in the year. Next to Santa Fé de Bogota, the most considerable town is Honda, which is on the banks of the river Magdalena, and is the principal port. Vessels of larger size can reach this town, than are capable of ascending higher, though the river is navigable for smaller boats to a considerable distance upwards. This place, from being the point where an alteration in the size of the vessels becomes necessary, has become an entrepot, where goods are deposited, and is the residence of some opulent merchants.
Mariquita is dignified with the name of a city, has a cathedral and a bishop. It was, when the gold mines of Bocanime and San Juan de Cordova, and the silver mines of Loxas and Frias, were extensively worked, a place of more importance than it now is, but the declension of the mines has caused the declension of the city, and the inhabitants are not now more than 1500.
San Gil is a flourishing town, principally inhabited by Creoles, but the district around it has villages wholly peopled with Indians. Socorro is another town at a short distance from San Gil; the circumstances of both are the same; they are in a healthy climate, and the population has rapidly increased. They, however, deserve notice, principally from having been the seats of the insurrections which broke out in 1781 and in 1797. The inhabitants of these districts, in the first mentioned pe-
riod, rose to resist a new militia law, which was very unpopular throughout the viceroyalty. They were in confederacy with some inhabitants of the capital, who, at the same time, discovered strong revolutionary symptoms, and assembled in great crowds. As the inhabitants of Gil and Socorro advanced towards the capital, and expected its support, the Archbishop, preceded by the host, addressed the populace, and, by the influence of religion, dispersed them. Thus the people of the provinces, disappointed in their expectation of support, were compelled to retrace their steps. They were followed by some troops, who attacked and defeated them. A few were punished, and the insurrection was quelled. In 1797, similar demonstrations were exhibited by the people of Gil and Socorro, on account of new regulations in the law for the extension of the monopoly of tobacco. The plan was better projected, and was rather combined with the new principles of government which had recently been developed in France, and which some of the younger men had imbibed. It was, however, counteracted by the vigilance of the viceroy, and, without any serious tumult, was suppressed. The revolutionary leaders were either imprisoned or made their escape; of the latter many repaired to France, some to the United States of America, and some to England, and from thence were afterwards collected by General Miranda, the subordinate agent employed by him to revolutionize Spanish America. They composed a part of the force with which he landed at Coro, in his ill-timed and unfortunate expedition. The population of these towns has exhibited an increase equal to what has been remarked in the most rapidly rising districts of the United States of America, having doubled twice between the year 1781 and 1811.
The other towns are, Velen, Mazo, Leiva, Villa de Purificacion, Tocaima, and Tunja, all of which, though rapidly increasing, are of less account than the villages filled with agricultural inhabitants, which cover the better portions of this province.
The province of Popayan was very early settled, Popayan, and the descendants of the first settlers have remained fixed there. The proportion of noble families is greater than in any other part of America. Though many of these are reduced to poverty, they have not relaxed that pride which was the distinguishing characteristic of the old Castilians. The privilege of wearing a sword is one of which they are extremely tenacious; and it is not even now unusual to see in Popayan the proprietor of an hereditary estate, derived from the first conquerors, but diminished to a fraction by the misconduct of its successive owners, employed in cultivating his own field, with a sword at his side, as evidence to every passenger of the nobility of his origin. The province of Popayan is both healthy and fertile; and though it has no access to the sea, no intercourse with Europe, and very little external commerce, it has increased in population with a rapidity unexampled, except in the United States. The climate is mild and equable, storms are of short duration, and earthquakes are less known than in other portions of the presidency of Quito, of which this province makes a part. Such is its ex-
cellency, that, "As good as the sky, the soil, and the bread of Popayan," has become a proverb in the kingdom of New Granada. Wheat, maize, and barley, are abundantly produced; and, in some of the deeper valleys, sugar and coffee, whilst the numerous herds of cattle furnish a cheap provision, and supply abundance of hides and tallow for domestic consumption, as well as for the neighbouring provinces. One vegetable production of considerable importance is grown extensively in this province. The Coca or Coca grows on a weak stem; like the vine, it requires support from some more sturdy plant, around which it twines itself. Its leaf, the valuable part, is an inch and half in length, and is chewed in the same manner as the inhabitants of India use the betel. A small portion of calcareous earth is rolled in the leaf of the Coca, and, carried in the mouth; it produces heat, and excites a copious flowing of saliva, which is swallowed, and thus assuages the excessive thirst which the inhabitants endure in passing the lofty and arid mountains. The natives attribute to it the most nutritive and invigorating qualities; and affirm that they can labour with no other sustenance during several successive days. Whatever may be its qualities, the estimation of it may be inferred from its having been, even before the establishment of Europeans, an article of considerable commerce. It is carried to all the mining districts, and the masters provide themselves with a considerable store of it, without which they could procure no labourers; nor, as they affirm, would the labourers have sufficient strength to execute their severe work, without its invigorating use. In some of the southern districts, a gum exudes from the trees, called mopa-mopa, from which a varnish is made, transparent, and so durable as to be indestructible by boiling water, or even the strongest acids. It is applied to cabinet ware, and the superior kinds of furniture, and gives to them a beauty superior to any which India or China can produce. The roads in this province are generally bad; but the intercourse between Santa Fé and Popayan is carried on by means of so singular a nature, that, without the recent visit, and the detailed description, of that excellent traveller, Baron Humboldt, it would scarcely be credible. It is necessary to cross the central ridge of mountains, by a pass called Garito de Paramo. This pass is 11,500 feet above the level of the sea, and is consequently above the line of perpetual congelation. The mules which convey goods, and even passengers, over this ridge, are frequently destroyed by the severity of the cold; and the road, for leagues, is covered so thick with their bones and frozen carcasses, that it is difficult to avoid treading on them. The road, or rather track, passes through an uninhabited forest, which occupies, in the most favourable weather, ten or twelve days to pass it. No habitation is to be seen, nor any provisions to be found; so that the traveller is compelled to carry at least a month's subsistence, to provide against the impediments which the sudden showers or swellings of the streams may oppose to him, and which often protract his journey till his food is exhausted. The path through the upper part of the pass is not more than two feet in breadth. It is a kind of deep gully, at
whose bottom is a thick and tenacious mud. It is so deep, that, from that circumstance, and the great number of vegetable substances which cover the top, it is almost totally dark. Some of these natural ravines are more than a mile and a half in length. The oxen and mules have the greatest difficulty in forcing their way through the deep mud. Few greater embarrassments can occur than arise from the meeting of travellers in these horrible crevices. Sometimes the sludge is so deep as to cover the backs of the animals; and, in some cases, they are even obliged to drive in the oxen, and to make a kind of bridge of their suffocated carcasses. The roots of the bamboos, which are studded with hard and short prickles, and project into the path, contribute no inconsiderable share of the miseries of these dreadful passes. In this journey, especially, the better class of people are carried on the backs of men, harnessed and accoutred for the purpose. Besides their human load, these men carry a roll of leaves of the Vijao, of which to construct the nightly habitations of the party. These leaves are two feet in length, and a foot and half in breadth; and, being covered with a down, from which the rain runs off, they make good temporary roofs to the huts, whose sides are formed at the resting place by cutting a few trees, and inclining them to each other. The common price for the conveyance of the living load through this pass of horrors, which occupies from twelve to twenty days, is from ten to fourteen dollars, which, notwithstanding the cheapness of provisions, seems to be a very slight recompence for the labour and danger. There is, however, another pass, less terrific, though the danger from cold is greater. It goes by the sources of the Cauca and the Magdalena, between two summits called Coconoco and Houila, whence, if the carrier of goods is nearly benighted, he deposits his goods, and descends, lest he should be frozen to death, by the excessive severity of the cold.
The city of Popayan is large and well built, the streets are broad, and cross each other at right angles. The public buildings are numerous and handsome; it is a bishop's see, and contains, besides a magnificent cathedral, several parish churches, four convents, two monasteries, and an hospital. It had formerly a college under the direction of the Jesuits, but now governed by the secular clergy; the number, as well as the talents of the professors, has declined since the expulsion of the order; inferior studies only are prosecuted, and inferior degrees only conferred. Those who wish to attain higher distinction in the learned professions now study and graduate at the universities of Quito or Santa Fé. There is a mint here for coining gold and silver, but the produce of the mines is so small, that the expence of the establishment of the mint nearly equals the amount of the royal fifth. The inhabitants are estimated at 25,000, the far greater proportion of whom are either white Creoles, or mixtures derived from the European and African races, with but little of Indian blood. There are more than sixty noble families here, who have remained uncontaminated by alliance with the inferior colours, as they affirm, and on which they pride themselves excessively; though
others assert, that few of these families are exempt from the Indian colour. It is, however, an aristocracy of a peculiar kind, and perhaps partakes less of the benefits of that institution, than is derived from it in our own and some other countries. Though the city of Popayan contains but few Indians, yet in the whole province they far outnumber all the other races together. Whole villages, very populous, contain no inhabitants besides them; and in the mines, that labour, which, at an early period, was performed by negroes, has devolved on them; whilst the Africans, from the paucity of late recruits, have gradually mixed with the other races, and become extinguished in the casts of mulattos, quadrans, quinteroons, and similar denominations. The river Molino rises in a mountain near the city, and passes through it; sometimes it overflows its banks, but generally for a short period; it has two handsome stone bridges built over it. Its water is considered as highly salubrious, possessing some medical virtues, and being also pleasant to the taste.
The next town in population after the capital is St Juan de Pasto, a bishop's see, and chief town of a district, to which it gives name. It contains 8000 inhabitants, mostly Creoles and Indians. The other towns are Carthage, Ibague, near which is the quicksilver mine, Cali, Timana, Neyva, La Plata, and Mercaderes; nothing remarkable distinguishes them except the rapid increase of their population; but even in this respect they are excelled by the numerous small villages, where the enjoyment of ease, and plenty, a fine climate, and moderate labour, unite in producing a vast increase of the numbers of the people.
San Juan de Llanos is the eastward province of the viceroyalty, and one of the most extensive. It consists principally of plains, whose limits have not been defined, and scarcely ever explored. It is the country in which those great rivers rise, which contribute to form the immense river Orinoco. The Meta, Vechada, Casanare, and Guaviare, issue from the Cordilleras in the eastern division of this province. The climate is generally warm; the inhabitants are few, and those mostly Indians, who, in spite of the numerous missions established among them, care little for the religion or the laws of the Spaniards, but employ themselves in hunting the cattle, which, in herds without number, cover the plains. There are but two towns, dignified indeed with the title of cities, in this extensive province; San Juan, and San Joseph, the former containing about 1000, the latter 500 inhabitants. Colonies or missions were founded by the Jesuits, who certainly possessed, in an extraordinary degree, the power of conciliating the savage inhabitants, and civilizing them up to a certain point. With the dispersion of these missionaries, and the transfer of their undertakings to other orders of ecclesiastics, the civilization of the Indians here, as in other parts of America, has declined, and they are now little, if at all, removed from their pristine barbarism. The geography of this province was totally unknown in Europe before the recent travels of Humboldt, who has surveyed and mapped it with great accuracy.
Tacames, or Atacames, is a province on the Pacific Ocean, lately erected into a government; it is a narrow stripe of land, bounded to the eastward by the Andes. The productions and climate are those of the tropical regions. Its inhabitants are very few, mostly of the Indian race, though some Spanish noble families have extensive possessions. Maldonado, head of one of the principal of these families, opened a road from the river of Emeralds, which bounded his possessions, to the city of Quito, for which he was rewarded by receiving the appointment of governor of this district, which was erected into an intendency for that purpose. The river of Emeralds was, however, forbidden to be navigated, from the facilities which it was supposed to furnish to the contraband traders; and the province, which, whilst Maldonado lived, was rapidly increasing in wealth and population, has retroceded and become insignificant. The principal place is San Mateo the capital, which does not contain 500 inhabitants, and the other towns, Tumaco, Tola, and La Cauca, are still more inconsiderable. The other places scarcely deserve the name even of villages, but are either plantations or fishing stations.
The province of Quito has been generally placed in the kingdom of Peru, but ever since the year 1718 it has formed part of the kingdom of New Granada, and, indeed, must be considered one of its most important divisions. It is a country very various in its climate, soil, productions, and aspect; and besides Chimborazo, it includes, within its limits, all the loftiest mountains of America. The whole of Quito, sometimes called a kingdom, but more correctly a presidency, is governed by an officer under the orders of the viceroy of New Granada. The seat of his government is the city of Quito, built as early as the year 1534, on the scite of an ancient town, in one of those beautiful plains, which, in the torrid zone, are to be found on the top of the lofty mountains. These plains possess fertility, beauty, mildness, and salubrity, and produce, almost spontaneously, every thing that mankind can want. This is eminently the case of Quito and the district that surrounds it; but it has natural horrors, which, if not familiarized, would be sufficient to destroy all enjoyment. In every hill that surrounds them, its inhabitants may justly dread that a volcano will burst forth; and every day they live, they may be alarmed with the apprehension, that an earthquake may swallow them up, or bring an inundation that shall drown them. Amidst all these surrounding threats of destruction, however, and the experience of past events to alarm them, the inhabitants are the most gay, lively, dissipated, and luxurious of any people in the American continent. The population is estimated at 70,000; many are of high rank, and enjoy great wealth: the descendants of the first adventurers affected this place, and established their families in it; and their descendants, ennobled by the Court of Madrid, shine in all the gaudy finery, which wealth, without taste, can display. About one-sixth of the inhabitants are whites, but mostly Creoles; one-third are a mixture of whites and Indians, one-third are unmixed Indians, and the other sixth various casts between Indians, negroes, mu-
lattos, zambos, all of whom very proudly boast their nearer affinity to the white race, than that of the colour, but one degree farther removed from that distinction. There is a university in which the higher ranks are instructed, and, though the bigotry and superstition which prevails through Spain and her dominions fetters the mind, and prevents it from expanding to any great extent; yet the system is at least not worse than that which prevails in the country from which the government sprung, and far better than would have been enjoyed, if America had never been visited by the natives of Europe. Classical knowledge is pursued with that languid pace, which is to be expected, where every thing is measured by its relation to the degrading superstition that prevails. The exact sciences, notwithstanding their tendency to produce doubts respecting many dogmas, appear to have met with fewer obstructions; and hence mathematics have been prosecuted more ardently and more successfully than any other branch of learning. More progress has, however, been made in botany than in any other study; and the priests, who do not fear that the pursuit will stagger their faith, have pursued it with avidity and with considerable success. What is called philosophy in a Spanish university is beneath contempt, but the divinity is a study of a still lower cast, consisting of such inquiries and speculations as are revolting to common sense, and not unfrequently to common decency; for the immaculate conception is there as in Spain a test of orthodoxy, and scrupulously investigated. The universities of Quito, for there are two, have produced no scholar whose name has reached Europe, except Don Pedro Maldonado, whom we have before noticed as the governor of Tacames. He was a profound mathematician; he had pursued with avidity the study of physics; and would have been a blessing to his country, could he have resided there free from the fetters of the priests.
The city of Quito is in a narrow gorge, where two beautiful plains are connected together between high mountains. This necessarily destroys the symmetry of the form of the city, contracting it by the mountains in some parts, whilst it is extended in undue proportion in others. The high mountain Pichinca adjoins the city, and, indeed, a part of the city may be said to be built on its lower side. It rises about 6000 feet above the level parts of the city, and 16,000 above the level of the sea. Its extreme summit is covered with eternal snow, and supplies rivulets by its melting, which water the plain, and dispenses to the inhabitants the luxury of ice in the warmest seasons. In ancient times it was a tremendous volcano, but its eruptions have ceased, and it now discharges neither fire nor smoke, but at frequent periods rumbling noises issue from the crater, which call to mind the devastations its fiery streams formerly occasioned, and give to the inhabitants notes of fearful alarm. The principal square of Quito is a magnificent pile of building; the whole of one side of it is filled with the cathedral church, the other by the episcopal palace. The other two sides opposite to each other are occupied by the Caza de Cabildo, or town hall, and by the hall of the royal
audience, public buildings thus forming the whole, with a beautiful fountain in the centre. There are two other squares, and the streets are numerous and wide, but, from the acclivity of the ground on which they stand, very irregular. This irregularity prevents the use of carriages, and the people of rank are carried in sedan chairs. Besides the cathedral, which is most sumptuously ornamented and adorned with images, covered with jewels, altars of pure silver, and candelabras of gold, there are seven parochial churches, various chapels, eight convents, five nunneries, and two hospitals, which are magnificent buildings, and give an appearance of grandeur to the whole city. There are no theatres, but the inhabitants are indulged with numerous processions, which are intended to be of a religious nature, and were introduced under the pretence of appeasing the Deity, and thus restraining the force of that elementary war which, from their volcanic position, they have reason to dread. These processions, accompanied with all the parade that rich dresses, gilded images, and gold and silver church furniture, can afford, pass through the streets, whose inhabitants decorate their houses by exhibiting their most costly ornaments and dresses, whilst thousands of Indians join the procession, and accompany it with their native music and dancing, to the delight of the silly and the contempt of the wiser part of the citizens. There is little commerce in the city; the numerous offices of government, the courts of law, and especially the church, furnish callings to those who have what is there considered a liberal education, and trade is too degrading for such persons. There are some manufactories, however, both of cotton and of baize, but they are of considerable extent, and conducted without either spirit or skill. The workmen in jewellery are considerable, and the number of silversmiths is great in proportion to the population, as every man, above the vulgar, is furnished with silver forks, plates, spoons, and other domestic utensils, and decorates his horses with silver bits, buckles, and stirrups.
The fertility of the surrounding district equals, if it does not exceed, the best portions of Santa Fé, and may be traced to the same causes,—the alluvial and volcanic nature of the soil, the facility of irrigation, and the equable temperature of the climate. The progress of vegetation is constant and uniform through the whole year. Whilst some plants are fading, others of the same kind are springing up, and whilst some flowers are losing their beauty, others are beginning to bloom; when the fruits have gained maturity, and the leaves begin to change their colour fresh leaves, blossoms, and fruits, are seen in their several gradations, on the same tree. The same circumstances are exhibited in the several grains: as sowing and reaping are carried on at the same time. The corn recently sown is springing up, that which has been longer sown is in the blade, that longer is in blossom, and some fit for the sickle, thus exhibiting, on the declivities of the mountains, all the beauties of the four European seasons within one view.
The breeding and fattening of cattle is conducted with equal facility, and the beef and mutton brought to the market of Quito is very good. The produce
of the dairy is equal to that of the best parts of Europe; butter is abundant, and the quantity of cheese, made beyond what the wants of the inhabitants require, is so considerable as to form one of the chief branches of their commerce with the warmer districts. Though thus favoured with all the productions of the temperate zone, Quito is far from being destitute of the fruits of the tropical climates; in the valleys oranges, limes, and lemons, grow abundantly; and the plantains, bananas, sugar-canes, melons, and guavas, are cultivated with very great success and little labour. They make from the maize, by fermentation, a species of beer of an intoxicating quality, to whose excessive use the Indians are addicted, whilst the sugar-cane produces, by distillation, an inferior kind of rum, which is too abundantly consumed by the higher classes, who prefer it to the wines of Peru. The mineral riches of the province of Quito are but small, few mines are worked, and those have only commenced lately, and give no favourable prospect of success. Some mercury has been found, and from the name Azogue, being that of a village near Cuenca, it is supposed a mine of that mineral in former times was worked there. Quito is celebrated for having been the spot chosen by the corps of Spanish and French mathematicians, who were occupied in measuring a degree of the meridian in 1736, and the three following years. The sufferings they endured in the progress of the operation were severe, and might have been avoided by executing the experiment on some of the level and extensive plains to the eastward of the Cordilleras.
Within the presidency of Quito are several considerable towns and populous villages. San Miguel de Ibarra, which stands on a high cultivated plain, contains a population of 10,000 persons. It is somewhat warmer than Quito, which causes the productions to approach nearer to those of the tropics; it contains a church, a college, and a nunnery. The most striking natural curiosity is the valley or fissure of Chota, 4900 feet in depth, always covered with luxuriant vegetation. Olabalo is thirty miles north of Quito, and somewhat colder. The population amounts to 15,000, mostly white Creoles; but the populous villages that surround it are chiefly peopled by Indians. In some of these villages are numerous tumuli, the burying places of the ancient inhabitants. These have sometimes been perforated for the hidden treasure they were supposed to contain, and, though the reward has usually been inadequate to the labour, they have discovered, among bones and skeletons, idols of gold and jewels, drinking vessels of earthenware, tools of copper or stone, with mirrors of obsidian and polished flint. Latacunga contains about 12,000 inhabitants, and, though it has been the frequent victim of the convulsions of nature, it has always risen from its ruins, and soon assumed a flourishing appearance. Being in a colder climate than Quito, the character of its productions are conformable. Large quantities of cheese, butter, and salted pork, are sent from hence to Guyaquil, and cloth and baize are manufactured to a moderate extent. Riobamba has been rebuilt since the tremendous catastrophe of 1797, in what is considered a more secure spot; and its population
has so increased, as now to amount to 20,000 persons. It contains two churches, four convents, two nunneries, and a hospital, and carries on a considerable traffic with Guyaquil, for wheat, maize, and salted meat. Hambato, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, has suffered much from the convulsions of its neighbouring volcano; but, like Riobamba and Latacunga, has soon recovered, been rebuilt, and quickly peopled. In proceeding southward from Quito, the plains about Hambato and Latacunga are the first places in which the Llamas or Peruvian beasts of burden are found. These animals, whose native place is the high mountains, cannot endure a warm climate; and as some deep and warm valleys intervene betwixt this district and Quito, which they would never voluntarily pass, they are never seen in a wild state to the north of it. In Riobamba they are the common beasts of burden, and so general, that few even of the Indians are without one or two to carry his baggage and goods, when he has occasion to travel from one place to another.
The next portion of the presidency of Quito to be noticed is the city of Guyaquil, and the district that surrounds it. The city is the most important commercial place in the Pacific Ocean in the whole of South America, and more ships are probably loaded there for Europe than in all the ports of Peru and Chili. It is in latitude south, and west longitude. The river, of the same name as the city, is navigable for small vessels as high as Babahoya, but ships of more than 250 tons burden cannot even ascend to the city, but must have their cargoes sent down by balsas, a species of raft of singular construction, which are peculiar to this part of the South Sea. These balsas are constructed of very light logs of wood, the number of which is uneven, and the centre one longer than the others; these are lashed parallel to each other by strong ropes of bejuco, but not so close as absolutely to prevent all access of the water between the logs; by means of sliding-keels, which descend or ascend as the direction of the balsa may require, they are enabled to turn to windward, to bear up, lie to, or to steer large as well as any vessels whatever. Such is the buoyancy of the trees from which the logs are framed, that they rise and fall with the waves, and scarcely ever damage the cargo by admitting water between the opening of the logs. These balsas are evidently of Indian contrivance, and better adapted to the peculiarities of the navigation of this coast and river, than any vessels that the Europeans have invented. The country on each side of the river Guyaquil is subject to considerable inundations, which, though they render the soil fertile, tend to make the country extremely unhealthy, and to crowd it with the insects, reptiles, and amphibious animals most noxious to man. Fevers and leprosy prevail extensively, the rivers swarm with alligators, the air is filled with musquitos, and the land pestered with snakes of all descriptions. In spite of all these impediments to enjoyment, the attraction of wealth has drawn to this district a considerable population, who overlook its infelicities in the pursuit of the riches they seek. The principal article of export is cocoa, which amounts to about 45,000 quintals annually, though of late years the
cultivation and consequent exportation of it has very considerably increased. The imports, consisting principally of articles of luxury from Europe, have usually amounted to double the exports, and the balance has been paid in the precious metals obtained by exchange from the mining districts. It has been declared to be a royal dock, but few ships of war have been yet constructed, though the size and qualities of the numerous trees which grow would be most admirably adapted for that purpose. There are many trees of a kind resembling the teak of India, and, like it, neither subject to be injured by worms or the rot. The city of Guyaquil itself contains about 24,000 inhabitants, but the district around it is very populous, containing towns such as Baba, Daule, and others, of from 4000 to 5000 inhabitants, and thickly established villages, which are filled with a Negro and Indian population. The buildings are mostly of wood whitened with calcareous earth, and hence it has been subject to great conflagrations; but the new houses being forbidden to be covered with thatch or shingles, they have not of late suffered from that calamity. The streets are broad, well paved, and the houses have piazzas, which afford to the passengers shade from the vertical sun. The public buildings are very splendid, consisting of two churches, three convents, a hospital, and a college, which was founded by the Jesuits. The town-hall is the best of the public erections, being established within a recent period. The city of Cuenca contains 20,000 inhabitants, and the fruitful plain on which it stands maintains an equal population; being higher than Guyaquil, it is not subject to many of those circumstances which produce discomfort; it is tolerably healthy, and has few venomous reptiles or insects. Its productions partake rather of the nature of the tropical than the temperate zone, and it has some manufactories of cotton and woollens. It contains three churches, four convents, two nunneries, and had formerly a college of the Jesuits. The population is mostly of Indian origin, with a mixture of European blood, but there are few if any natives of Europe established in it. Loxa or Loja is a city of 10,000 inhabitants, among whom are some noble families. It is somewhat more elevated than Cuenca, and is still more healthy; it is principally to be noticed from its being the district in which the greatest quantity and the best kind of the bark is found. The Indians cut down the trees, strip off the bark, and, after drying it in the sun, pack and prepare it for exportation. The cochineal insect is found in the district of Loxa, but as the inhabitants take little pains to propagate or preserve them, the quantity collected is barely sufficient for the consumption of the dyers of Cuenca, and none is exported.
The province of Jaen de Bracamoros is to the southward of Quito, and eastward of Peru. Its capital, Jaen, contains about 4000 inhabitants, mostly a mixture of Europeans and Indians; in the rest of the province, there are few of any other than the unmixed Indians, some of whom are in subjection to Spain, but more are in their savage state. It is principally to be regarded as the district through which, when South America shall be fully peopled, a connection between the eastern and western side
of the Continent may be maintained. In the present state, when the greater part of the natives live a migratory life, the scarcity of a fixed supply of provisions forbids extensive intercourse, but as all the rivers of Jaen run into the Lauricocha, or by other channels to the Maranon, it is the most easy passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. The communication is now carried on by the post down these streams. The carrier of the letters securing them on his head, plunges into the stream, which carries him along, whilst he occasionally rests himself on a tree, of the bombon species, which he carries with him, and which is lighter than cork. In this way he passes the rapids, and finding such provisions as the huts of the natives afford, or as the chace may yield, he carries the correspondence with safety and dispatch. The climate of Jaen is generally unhealthy, and from the nature of the population and their wandering life, there can be no productions to create commerce, though tobacco, if it were cultivated to the extent it might be, would enrich the province vastly.
The two provinces of Maynas and Quixos may be described at the same time; they are both at the eastern foot of the Andes, and, without defined limits, stretch across the Continent till they unite with the Portuguese dominions in Brasil. The wandering tribes, that are scattered over these immense plains, have never been subjected to European dominion, and have no disposition to be reconciled to it, notwithstanding the efforts of numerous missionaries have been directed to that object. The tributary streams of the Maranon, or river of Amazons, intersect these provinces in every direction. Streams with which the mightiest rivers of Europe will bear no comparison, unite together at various positions, till they at length form that vast magazine of water, which empties itself into the Atlantic Ocean under the Equinoctial Line. It is now clearly ascertained that in one branch of the Rio Negro there is a junction between the Orinoco and the Amazons. This river rises a little to the north of the Coqueta, and, after a very long course, divides into two rivers, one of which runs to the Orinoco, the other to the Maranon, thus providing an internal navigation to be used at some future period when the provinces of Caraccas and of Guyana shall be more fully peopled.
The river Maranon is the most remarkable object in these provinces. On every side during its protracted course it receives numerous tributary streams, which, in the quantity of water they contribute, far surpass any of the rivers of Europe. The most remarkable of these are the Lauricocha, the Beni, the Madera, and the Negro, which join it in this province; and the Apurimac, which, near the city of Arequipa, almost at its source, raises itself to the importance of a great river. Its waters run the space of 4500 miles, and it is supposed that ships of 400 or 500 tons burden might navigate it for that distance. It passes through the Andes, in 13° 10' south latitude. The pongo, or strait through which this river passes, is one of the most singular natural curiosities of the district. It is suddenly contracted from 1600 to 600 feet in breadth, and rushes with tremendous force, between stupendous
perpendicular rocks, which form a crevice eight miles in length. When M. Condamine passed this fissure, he was carried with an impetuosity that terrified him, till he suddenly emerged into an open and extensive lake, from whence, owing to the force of the current, the possibility of his return was prevented. The breadth and depth of this vast river are every where correspondent to its length. At Coari, where it is one mile and a half in breadth, Condamine could find no bottom with a line of 100 fathoms. At the straits of Pauxis, 200 leagues from its mouth, the tide is perceptible by the rising of the river; but such is the quantity of water that rushes to the sea, and such the impetuosity of its course, that no salt water enters the river; and, on the contrary, the fresh water enters the ocean in such a volume as to displace the salt water, and it has been taken up in a drinkable state at 250 miles from the shore. By an estimate, founded on the actual measurement which Condamine made for more than 1800 miles of its course, it will appear, that, in the 4500 miles which it runs, its whole descent is about 290 feet, and that the descent from the part in which the tides are first visible is 90 feet to the sea. It is subject to most extensive floods, which inundate the country to a considerable distance from its banks during the periodical rainy seasons; but the fertility communicated by it more than compensates the temporary inconvenience.
These two provinces can scarcely be said to possess any towns; for in Borja, the capital of the one, there are few inhabitants, though it is the residence of the governor; and Archidona, the capital of the other, has not more than 700 inhabitants. There are, however, a considerable number of missions scattered over the face of the country, whose names are to be found in the maps, but whose residents are fluctuating and never numerous.
It is not easy to attain accuracy in calculating the population of a country, in which are such numerous tribes of wild and uncivilized or half civilized Indians. The only estimate that can approximate to accuracy is founded on the ecclesiastical returns of the numbers that come to confession; and the result of that estimate gives to the whole viceroyalty of New Granada a population of 2,200,000 souls.
It is scarcely possible to convey correct ideas on the subject of the late wars which have raged in New Granada, and in the other parts of the Spanish transatlantic dominions, without slightly viewing the causes which produced them. These provinces had long enjoyed tranquillity. The orders of the council of the Indies had been obeyed without hesitation, and without examination. They had suffered many privations from the wars in which the mother country was involved, but they had borne them with patience, and with unwavering loyalty. When Bonaparte, having kidnapped the royal family of Spain, appointed his brother to the throne, one of his first measures was to fill the council of Indies with his creatures, and issue orders to the different governments in America, announcing the change of family, confirming in their offices all the men who filled them, and announcing flattering promises of his care
and attention to the well-being of the provinces. Before, however, the French vessels, destined to the different quarters with these dispatches, could be ready to sail, the spontaneous movement of the whole kingdom of Spain gave a different aspect to the state of affairs. Reports from all quarters reached various parts of America, and conveyed information of the opposition which universally prevailed to the measures of the imperial despot. In some parts the impulse was immediately communicated from the people to those who governed, and Ferdinand was proclaimed king amidst universal acclamations. In some parts those who were in possession of power hesitated what part to take, but they, too, were soon compelled to yield to the general wish. From the first arrival of the European intelligence, a marked difference was to be seen between the animated frenzy with which the Creoles proclaimed Ferdinand, and reprobated the French, and the cold and dubious manner in which the European Spaniards uttered the same language.
The viceroys and the other officers of government who had been appointed from Spain, though they all viewed the French domination with abhorrence, were apprehensive that, if the peninsula was subjected to the Corsican dynasty, and the intercourse with the colonies should be interrupted, their offices, if not abolished, would become less lucrative, and less authoritative; and that, at all events, they should be prevented from returning to Spain, to enjoy those large fortunes which they had acquired, or which they anticipated. The Cabildos of the corporations, composed principally of native Americans, felt that America was every thing to them. They had no thoughts of residing in Spain; and though they might not wish to have their parent state subdued by a foreign conqueror, yet, when placed in the alternative of either submitting to France, or breaking all the links that connected them with Spain, they could not hesitate to embrace the latter, which they did not consider as a good, but the least of two evils.
The views of the different parties were known to each other, though all united in vows of fidelity to Spain, of allegiance to the imprisoned monarch, and especially of eternal attachment to the religion they professed. The Negroes and Indians remained quiescent. They were told, that the French would rob them of their religion; and, as the value they set on that was equal to their ignorance of its nature and foundation, they were ready to receive every impression unfavourable to that nation, and to unite as far as they were able in opposing all change.
From the end of the year 1808, till the beginning of 1810, the Central Junta held rule. It was, however, found to be unfit for the government of the peninsula, and utterly incapable of directing the more distant affairs of the colonies. They knew some heats existed there, if not discontents; and, instead of a practical investigation, to which, indeed, they were incompetent, they issued abstract declarations of equality, which were of no other use but to be brought forward at a future time, in opposition to themselves or their successors; or as furnishing stimulants to the Negroes and Indians to rise against both the Europeans and the Creoles. This declara-
tion of equality, whatever was meant by it by the Junta, was by no means acceptable in America. The Spaniards and the Creoles, though most virulently opposed to each other, were equally opposed to a decree which, if interpreted according to the letter, gave equal rights and equal power to the degraded castes as to their own class. Even those of the mixed races, who approached nearest to the whites, felt indignant that those a little darker than themselves should be advanced to an equal rank.
Whilst these feelings were rankling in the minds of all parties in America, when no authority from Europe expressed any opinion, but a wish for remittances, and when no party in America was sufficiently cool to suggest practical remedies, the intelligence arrived that all was lost in Spain, that the French had overrun the whole Peninsula, and all authorities there had at length submitted. Such were the exaggerated reports which generally prevailed, and remained long uncontradicted by any authority. The port of Cadiz, the only one remaining to the fragment of the government, was shut, to prevent premature intelligence; and, from this precaution, every report reached America with additions of disasters, acquired at every stage in its circuitous route. It is not, then, wonderful that, throughout America, the impression became general that they must henceforward depend on themselves alone, and endeavour to adopt such measures as should most effectually prevent them from falling under the dominion of the French ruler of Spain.
In Mexico and in Peru, the Europeans were sufficiently powerful, or had sufficient influence, to cause a suspension of independent measures; but, in every other part, assemblies actuated by fear, by fury, and by love of novelty, met and tumultuously chose delegates, who assumed the sovereign power, but exercised it in the name of Ferdinand. When these assemblies met, they had no previously settled principles, and no practical plans. They soon became involved in difficulties, and different parties had recourse to arms. The opinions and feelings of some towns in each province differed from others; and military invasions of each other were adopted, to settle the points in dispute. The whole of the provinces were in arms, and had assumed a semi-independence, before a new body in Cadiz was announced to them as the acknowledged legal government of the small portion of Spain which yet remained unsubdued by the French.
Previously to the entering of the French troops into Andalusia, and the dispersion of the Central Junta, the heats which prevailed in South America had been smothered; but the intelligence of that transaction caused the flame instantly to burst forth, and with perhaps more fervour, from having been long suppressed. This irruption took place in January 1810. Caraccas, as the nearest place to Europe, first received the intelligence. It had been almost the only portion of South America which had held much communication with England, and with the United States of America. It had, from that communication, imbibed a more free spirit, and had among its inhabitants more men who had speculated on political subjects. In April 1810, the occupation
of Andalusia was known in Caraccas, and immediately turbulent assemblages were convened in the capital, who, with little care in the selection, appointed a junta to "preserve," as they stated, "the province for their king, to protect the Catholic faith, to repel all the projects of the French Emperor, and to preserve an asylum for such Spaniards as should prefer freedom in America to the slavery and irreligion which France dispersed in Europe." This Junta was composed almost wholly of Creoles; and, as soon as they were installed, and in possession of undefined power, they seized the viceroy and the judges of the royal audience; and, without trial, and with little ceremony, transported them to the United States. With a haste characteristic of such assemblies, they instantly decreed the abolition of the most efficient taxes, and thus destroyed the whole revenue, whilst they increased the expenditure, by arming the population, and left themselves no resource but confiscation and proscription, to which they speedily had recourse. Though the Junta of the capital thus assumed sovereign and independent power, and acted upon that assumption as far as they could in their decrees, yet several of the provinces refused to submit to the overbearing authority of the capital. Cumaná, the second city in wealth and population, chose a Junta for itself, and refused to act with the capital, except upon terms of equality; whilst Maracaibo, Valencia, and Coro, absolutely refused to join them, and resolved to maintain their connection and dependance with the regency and Cortes at Cadiz. Armies were formed, and marched to attack those who were unwilling to enter into a revolution. The measures of the Junta of Caraccas being taken with more violence than judgment, all failed, and their armies were defeated and dispersed. Whilst the turbulent spirits of the city of Caraccas were thus plunging the province into all the miseries of a civil war, they took great pains to excite similar movements in New Granada. The inhabitants of that country were less disposed to insurrection; and it was not till three months after the revolution in Caraccas, that any similar movement took place in Santa Fé de Bogotá, the capital of New Granada. In July, a public meeting appointed a Junta of its most respectable Creole inhabitants. This body, when they met, acknowledged the authority of the regency of Cadiz, chose the Viceroy as the president of their body, and confirmed the authority of the Audience, and the other magistrates. After a short time, however, the turbulent people, instigated by the emissaries from Caraccas, caused a commotion. The pretence for this was, that a plot was discovered for the destruction of liberty. The populace overawed the newly-installed Junta, who, with little inquiry, and no trials, decreed the banishment of the Viceroy, the Audience, and the other magistrates. The authority of the regency of Cadiz was then disavowed, and the various provinces of the viceroyalty were invited to send deputies to the capital, to unite in a general system. Tunja, Pamplona, Casanare, Choco, Antioquia, Socorro Nueva, and Mariquita, joined in the project, and sent their deputies, whilst Santa Marta positively refused. Popayan, torn by internal factions, yielded a qualified consent; and several towns, es-
pecially San Gil, Carthagena, Giron, and Mompox, formed petty states in their respective districts, independent alike of Spain and of the junta of the capital. An insurrection had broken out in Quito. Some troops from Lima had suppressed it; but, as the inhabitants were averse to the superiority of Lima, the viceroy acquiesced in the establishment of a junta, which acknowledged obedience to the regency of Cadiz, and preserved the tranquillity of that important portion of the country, whilst the more northern parts were suffering all the horrors which a revolution can inflict, when a rude and ferocious populace are the principal actors. Quito was not doomed, like Caraccas and Santa Fé, to have all its magistrates transported by the decision of the populace; and, therefore, a degree of order has been continued, which now gives it a prosperity, far superior to that of the districts which were at once deprived of all the authorities to which they had been accustomed to look up.
A civil war commenced to subdue those places which aimed at independence, or, according to their own language, resolved on a government of federative republics. After much savage warfare, these federalists were subdued, and a congress was assembled. Disputes arose among the members about their nomination, and, with a few impracticable decrees, they soon separated, without allaying the ferment, or suspending the general hostilities, that covered the face of the country.
The separation of the first congress took place within six months of the commencement of the insurrection, in December 1810, or January 1811, and left the whole country suffering under internal hostilities of the most ferocious description.
During the year 1811, Tacón, the Spanish governor of Popayan, maintained a feeble resistance; but at length he liberated and organized the negro slaves, and, at the head of these black royalists, annoyed the republicans on the side of Pastos, whilst the people of Maracaybo, and of Santa Marta, continued their opposition in two other quarters. This opposition of the royalists occasioned, however, but trifling evils, when compared with the sufferings which the different parties of the republicans inflicted on each other.
Another congress was assembled, consisting of the representatives of Pamplona, Tunja, Neyva, Carthagena, and Antioquia, whilst an assembly, under the title of Colegio Electoral Constituyente, sat, deputed by the province of Santa Fé, now called by them Cundinamarca. Each of these bodies formed projects of constitutions, but neither would accept that framed by the other. It would be tiresome to give even the briefest abstract of the projects and the arguments of the parties, which are, however, recorded in most voluminous state papers. The congress of Cundinamarca, from fear of the populace of its capital, removed its sittings to Tunja. Whilst there, they chose for their president one Narino, who had been a spectator of the French Revolution, and who had returned to his native province full of the projects and language to which it gave birth. Having the command of the troops, he proceeded to disperse the congress; but the division dispatched for that purpose refused to act, and, suddenly changing
sides, declared for the congress. Narino had still a considerable force which was attached to him; more than equal, indeed, to the part that had deserted him. The congress vested the command of the army, which opposed Narino, in Baraya, the officer employed to dissolve them, and who was accused of having been withdrawn from his obedience to Narino by a considerable bribe.
A civil war now spread over the country. Narino was twice defeated; and, in consequence of it, the army under Baraya was enabled to besiege Santa Fé, the capital, which was possessed by the partizans of Narino. That chief proposed to surrender upon terms which the besiegers refused. It was attempted to be stormed; but the besiegers were repulsed with such loss, that their army was dispersed, only a small division making good its retreat to Tunja.
Whilst these events were passing in the centre of the viceroyalty, the southern part became equally agitated. The city of Quito had a junta, and, as we have before stated, acknowledged the authority of the regency of Cadiz. From the turbulent state of the populace, it could, however, scarcely keep the full exercise of authority. The royalist province of Cuenca, which adjoined it, had organized a military force. The regency at Cadiz had nominated a new governor of Quito, who was escorted to his government by a body of troops from Lima. The junta of Quito, though willing to receive a governor from Cadiz, would not permit him to enter with the royal troops, and formed an army to oppose him. The troops from Cuenca, and those from Lima, after some opposition, took Quito, and installed the new governor. He immediately commenced operations against the republicans. Upon this, the congress and Narino suddenly adjusted their disputes, and he was placed in the command of the united army to oppose the royalists from the south. Narino, at the head of 8000 men, engaged the royal army, commanded by Samano, and defeated it; but it rallied, was reinforced, and fought two other battles with similar success. By these events Narino became master of Popayan, and began to organize something like a government. The royalists were dispersed, rather than destroyed, and, retiring to the impregnable mountains of Pastos, maintained an incursive and predatory warfare. Narino followed them to their fortresses, and carried the strong position, called Alto de Juanamba, but with prodigious loss. He advanced to attack the town of Pastos; but a report, in the moment of commencing the assault, that he was taken prisoner, having spread among his troops, it produced confusion. The royalists suddenly became the assailants, and dispersed the irregular troops he commanded. He was made a prisoner, and with him the hopes of success to the southward of Popayan terminated. His life was spared; he was conducted to Quito, thence to Lima, and has since been transferred to Spain, where he is said to be chained for life in one of the dungeons in the vicinity of Cadiz. The event that terminated his career happened in June 1814.
We have already stated that Carthagena had, when the disturbances first began, declined joining the party that had predominated in the capital. The
province of Carthageña contains a population of 220,000 souls, of whom about 24,000 reside in the city of that name. In August 1810 a junta was convoked, consisting, as in most other places, principally of members of the Cabildo. The authority of the regency of Cadiz was acknowledged in their decrees, but they refused to receive a governor appointed by that body, and thus became embarked in the revolution. Early in 1811, like the other communities, they began to arm the population. The junta, in February of that year, was debating on some regulations of the armed force, when the troops revolted, and dissolved the assembly. A new assembly was more indulgent to the soldiery; and, because the town of Mompor did not acquiesce in their measures, and wished to be represented in the congress previous to their obeying it, it was attacked, taken, and the principal inhabitants imprisoned or banished. In November 1811 an insurrection compelled the congress to declare all connection between the province and Spain to be terminated, and demanded a republican constitution. War was carried on with Santa Marta on one side; a state neither of peace nor of war existed with Santa Fé, and the government of Spain, in denouncing them as rebels, had interdicted all their commerce. The sufferings of the province were great, and their apprehensions increased, first, by the disputes between Narino and the congress of Santa Fé, and afterwards, by the defeats which were experienced when those opponents united against the royalists. By a convulsive effort they conquered Santa Marta; but the atrocities practised by their troops excited the inhabitants to rise upon them, and drive them out; and receiving reinforcements from Portobello, Havana, and Maracaybo, they were enabled to repel several subsequent attacks. The whole of the year 1813 was occupied by these successive events, during which a constitution had been formed, which, however, was never so far put in execution as to protect the inhabitants from the tyranny of the mob of the capital. The government, having no revenue, and confiscations having ceased to be productive, issued paper money, which soon became of no value, and, with no authority to enforce obedience, remained for two years in a state of stubborn helplessness, till they were roused from their lethargy by an attack made on them from Santa Fé, whose army had crossed the province and invested the city, when a formidable force from Spain, in 1815, appeared on the coast.
We must now return to the province of Caraccas, whose revolutionary progress was proceeding with great rapidity. As soon as every vestige of dependance upon Spain was destroyed, attempts were made to reduce the neighbouring provinces to the authority of their congress. A fresh attack upon the city and district of Coro was made by an army of 3000 men, but it failed in its objects, and returned in a state of great disorganization. General Miranda made his appearance on the stage of his native country, from which he had been absent more than thirty years. On his arrival, by the assistance of Espejo, he established a club under the title of Sociedad Patriótica, which first directed, and then overturned, the junta. It assumed extravagant authority, issued its decisions in the most peremptory tone, instituted nocturnal
searches, secret trials, and summary executions. Under pretences of plots against liberty, the richest inhabitants were either put to death or banished, and their effects confiscated to the public. The city of Valencia had refused obedience to the decrees of the capital. Miranda was dispatched with a force to subdue it. The first effort failed, but being reinforced, he at length captured that city, and with four thousand men made an unsuccessful attempt upon Coro. The year 1811 was occupied by these operations, and by the attempt to form a constitution. They had possession of the whole country except Coro with its district, and the fortress of Porto Cavallo on the sea coast. No enemy had attacked, or were prepared to attack them; their own internal dissensions were, however, more disastrous than the most ferocious foreign foe. The revenue was destroyed, confiscations could be no longer practised, the paper money they had issued was no longer of any value, a maximum that had been laid on provisions had produced scarcity, and no authority was obeyed but that called the voice of the people. A negotiation had been opened with New Granada, with the project of uniting, under one federal government, those two provinces, which were each so disunited internally, that neither could depend on its inhabitants complying with any stipulations that might be mutually settled between them. The clergy had first joined the insurrection. As long as the object was to prevent the provinces from becoming subject to France, and by that subjection to risk the loss of their religion, and the emoluments by which it was supported, the body of the priests, both secular and regular, favoured the cause of the junta. In a short period the wealth of the church was deemed a fair auxiliary to the wants of the state, and toleration to other faiths than the Catholic was projected. The clergy became alarmed at the innovations, and with a bigotry, which was assisted by the practice of auricular confession, instilled into the population unfavourable views of the designs of the ruling party.
In this state of affairs, on the 26th March 1812, the anniversary of the day on which the revolution had commenced, the province was visited with a tremendous earthquake. In its progress many cities were destroyed, and the loss of human lives, especially of the public functionaries and the military, was augmented from its occurring on a religious festival, when the greater part of them were in the churches employed in the celebration of the rites appropriate to the day. The depots of arms and of ammunition, as well as the barracks, were thrown down, and the instruments of war buried in the ruins. The priests represented this calamity as a demonstration, that the Deity was opposed to the revolution; and they were favoured in their interpretation of the event, by the circumstance of the greatest suffering being experienced in those places which had been most fervent in the revolt; whilst Coro, Valencia, and other places which had opposed it, had either wholly escaped, or been slightly injured by the visitation. The Spanish General Monteverde had been sent from Cadiz with a commission, but without troops; he, however, collected a handful of men; terror disarmed the few troops under Miranda, who refused
to fight, and the royalists, joined by the independents, who eagerly flocked to support the cause which was represented as favoured by Heaven, soon obtained possession of the whole country, which, by August 1812, was reduced to submission. The cruelties exercised by the royalists, under the plea of retaliation, were excessive; and the versatile populace of the large towns, after a year of quiet endurance, discovered dispositions to renew the revolt. The first ebullition of popular fury was displayed at Cumana, the second city in Venezuela. An insurrection burst forth, which drew towards it Monteverde with his troops. He was unsuccessful, and retired to bring up reinforcements. He made a second attempt, but with a worse result. He was not only repulsed, but subsequently defeated, and thus, in the beginning of 1813, the royalists were expelled from the eastern division of the country.
Whilst this operation was proceeding in the province of Cumana, a most formidable enemy to Spain made his appearance on the theatre of war. Don Simon Bolívar, a native of Caraccas, was deputed, at the commencement of the revolution, to apply to the British government for assistance; he returned from his mission whilst Miranda ruled in Venezuela, and, from disgust at that officer, had been a spectator rather than an actor in the commotions of his country. After the earthquake, he was appointed commandant of Puerto Cavallo, and upon the surrender of that fortress to the royalists, he apparently submitted to Monteverde. He repaired to Curaçoa, where he formed a connection with Brion, a native of that island, which has since led to an important alliance, and procured him maritime co-operation. Bolívar passed to Carthageña, and was employed by the republicans of that city in their operations against Santa Marta and the other royalist provinces. Whilst the Congress of New Granada was sitting at Tunja, Bolívar applied to them for some troops to assist in rescuing Venezuela from the hands of the Spaniards. They committed six hundred men to his command, and with them he began his operations from the westward, at the time the revolt broke out at Cumana. The conduct of both parties had been sanguinary beyond the ordinary limits of modern warfare; but, from this period, it exhibited a ferocity unexampled in recent periods. No quarter was given on either side in battle, and the prisoners taken in small parties or in towns were uniformly put to death. Bolívar advanced with his battalion from Tunja, and having surprised a detachment of the royalists at Cucuta, was joined by large parties of migratory horsemen from the province of Barinas. He made a rapid progress; the Spaniards either flying before him, or being defeated when their inferior number presented any resistance. At length a considerable body of horse, who had been engaged by Monteverde in the royalist cause, suddenly abandoned him and joined the invaders. Bolívar continued to press on, every place in his progress favouring his enterprise till he reached the capital. When near the city of Caraccas, the Spanish officer who commanded there, offered to evacuate, if suffered quietly to repair to La Guyra, which port was held by the royalists.
Thus the whole of Venezuela was again in the
hands of the patriots at the end of August 1813, except the two ports of La Guyra and Puerto Cavallo, the latter of which was besieged, but resisted, and formed a rallying point, from whence Monteverde made furious and most successful sallies, till the besieging army was compelled to retreat. For some time after this siege was raised the warlike operations languished, and a political farce was acted by Bolívar. When the Congress of New Granada placed some troops under the command of that chief, it was with a positive injunction to place the power he might acquire in the hands of the Republican Assembly of Caraccas. He called an assembly all nominated by himself; and when convoked, in January 1814, one of his partisans addressed the members, stating the necessity of placing the supreme power in the hands of Bolívar as long as hostilities with Spain should continue. None durst, or at least none did object to this proposal. He was declared sole Dictator of Venezuela, until the union could be effected with New Granada, when both were to be joined in one republican government, and his authority was then to cease, and, in the mean time, he was to bear the title of Libertador de Venezuela. He was scarcely installed in the dictatorship, when a more formidable attack than had before been made drove him from his government. Some royalist natives arranged the plan, and executed it with but feeble if any assistance from the European government. Boves, Rosette, and Yanez, three men of colour, gathered some recruits as they advanced from the side of the Orinoco, by proclaiming freedom to those slaves who would join the royal standard. Puy and Palomo, of the mixed castes, also adopted the same plan on the side of Barinas. These chiefs, as they advanced towards the centre of the country from opposite points, increased in numbers, and carried devastation wherever they came. The republicans were unable to resist them. As the royalist banditti gained the district called Los Llanos or the plains, which is covered with innumerable horses, they were enabled to mount their men, and prevent Bolívar from obtaining horses for his cavalry.
By an opportune movement of the republicans in Cumana, and a victory over Cagigal, the Spanish general who had succeeded Monteverde, Bolívar became somewhat less embarrassed, and attempted some offensive operations. With little judgment, he divided his army into three bodies, destined for different attacks on the royalists. The division he commanded in person engaged with Boves, and, after a most sanguinary conflict near Cura, was completely routed. The second division, commanded by Narino, was opposed to the regular troops under Cagigal, and compelled to retire to Cumana. The third division, under Urdaneta, when apprised of the ill success of the other two, retired towards Santa Fé with the few men that had not deserted during his retreat. Bolívar, after his defeat and the dispersion of his troops, made his escape to Carthageña, and from thence proceeded to Tunja, where the Congress of New Granada held their sessions. After his departure all Venezuela became the prey of the conquerors, and those made prisoners were executed with the same unrelenting severity as Bolívar had practised on those that fell into his power.
When Bolívar reached Tunja, the congress was engaged in hostilities with its own refractory capital, the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá. The command of an army was offered to him; he marched at its head, and succeeded in reducing the citizens to submission. He was then commissioned to join with the republicans of Carthago, and reduce to the authority of the congress the royalist province of Santa Marta. The president of Carthago refused, as he declared, on account of the sanguinary conduct of Bolívar, and his ambitious views, to co-operate with him, and thus hostilities were again kindled between the two provinces. Bolívar entered the province of Carthago, and advanced to besiege the capital, hoping to reduce it, and compel it to submit to the congress. At this period, intelligence arrived that the forces from Spain had reached the shores of America. Bolívar quickly accommodated his disputes with the republicans in Carthago, entered with his forces into the city, and resolved to contribute with them to its defence.
We have now brought down the transactions of these different communities to the same period,—the time when the forces from Spain first reached these shores in the middle of the year 1815. Before the narrative proceeds, it may not be improper to remark, that the scenes of confusion, the exhibitions of cruelty, and waste of human life, which we have avoided drawing in their deepest colours, arose solely from internal causes. Not a battalion from Spain had arrived. No external hostilities were even threatened; the vengeful feelings of rude and uncultivated men were stimulated by representations of the happiness to be derived from the various systems of government which different parties patronized, and they were alone sufficient to produce all the atrocities that were exhibited. The reader would sicken at the recital of the bloody documents from which this narrative has been framed; but as some specimen ought to be shown of the temper of the contending parties, we relate two transactions, which are too well authenticated to admit of a doubt, and the actors in which were not Spaniards but Americans, prompted by direful hatred, or political fury. Puy, a royalist chief, was at Barinas, where had been brought five hundred and seventy-four persons of the opposite party, who were to be detained for examination. A report reached Barinas that the republicans, with superior numbers, were at hand, the execution of these prisoners began, and five hundred had been dispatched, when one of Puy's aid-de-camps reported that the enemy would be instantly upon them. "Have we not time," demanded the chief, "to execute the remaining seventy-four prisoners?" "No," replied the officer, the retreat began, and thus these were saved. The apologist for Bolívar, in a narrative drawn up to exculpate him, says, "The massacre of three of the inhabitants of Ocumare in the church, created indignation in the mind of Bolívar, who, thirsting with revenge, though overpowered with care, did not know on which side to turn his attention. In one of those agonizing moments, in which his soul was first swayed by fear, then worked up to anger, he gave orders for the execution of the prisoners, and, shocking to relate, eight hundred were killed on this occasion."
When the royalist commandant at Puerto Cavallo heard of these executions, he put to death all his prisoners, amounting to several hundreds.
When Ferdinand was restored to his throne, the knowledge of that event produced a calm through out the American dominions. It was, however, but of short duration; those who held the power were unwilling to relinquish it at the call of the people, in whose name they pretended to rule. It was necessary to temporise, and they stated that deputies should be sent to Madrid to secure a general amnesty, and to reconcile them to their liberated monarch. At the same time, other deputies were sent to England, with offers of exclusive commerce for a term of years, upon condition of supporting their resistance; and others were sent to the United States of America and to France with similar proposals. Spain was in too exhausted a state to send numerous armies, even if she had not been induced to suspend her armaments, from the assurances of fidelity and submission which the deputies were instructed to make. At length, however, a force under Morillo sailed and arrived, whilst hostilities were raging, with the greatest fury, between the different parties of Americans. The first important operation was the siege of Carthago, within which Bolívar and his forces were inclosed. That chief escaped with a portion of his troops, and abandoned the city to its fate. A protracted siege, with far more than its usual share of horrors, was at length followed by the surrender. The Spaniards entered it on the 6th December 1815.
Morillo, after the capture of Carthago, made preparations to scatter the congress, occupy the capital, and tranquillize the country. Mompo, an important town on the river Magdalena, had been taken by the royalists from Santa Marta; this facilitated the operations of the Spanish general, who, with little loss, reached that place in March 1816. The congress of New Granada collected all their forces to oppose the regular troops, who, elated with success in their first operation, defeated a more numerous army, which fought with desperation at Cachiri. After this defeat, it rallied and fought another battle, with rather more success, at Remedios, but it was unable to withstand regular troops, and at length dispersed, when Morillo finished the war by the capture of Santa Fé de Bogotá, which he entered in June 1816. The congress had dispersed, some of the members were taken, several of them executed, with but little formality of trial, and some escaped to the English islands and the United States of America. Though the Spaniards caused several executions of the leading political men in Santa Fé, there was none of that indiscriminate slaughter and general pillage which the city had experienced when captured before by Bolívar. Tranquillity had been restored so far, that neither juntas nor armies existed; but bands of robbers ravaged the country, too powerful to be kept in awe by the regular magistracy, though too weak to make opposition to the regular forces. Morillo, on his way to Carthago, had captured the Island of Margarita, which is a strong post, and enjoys the benefit of an excellent harbour, easy to be defended. After he left that place, the inhabitants, under Arismendi, threw
New Granada. off the yoke of Spain, asserted their independence, and strengthened the fortifications. Bolívar had saved the wreck of his army, and after recruiting them at Aux Cayes, in the Island of St Domingo, repaired with his forces to the asylum which Arismendi had provided, and was there soon joined by Brion with some vessels that he had procured.
After making some demonstrations on the coast of Caraccas and New Granada, without producing any impression, these two officers, with a land and sea force, at length sailed for Guyana, and entered the river Orinoco; and another chief having taken Old Guyana, a fortress which commands a narrow part of the river below the capital Angostura, they were enabled to besiege and capture that place. From the superior force of small craft on the river, and from the possession of Old Guyana, their position there was perfectly secure from all attempts of the Spanish forces. In this place, Bolívar began to increase and organize his forces, whilst his colleague Brion made many successful cruizes, and captured some valuable Spanish vessels.
The population of the country is too thin to afford many recruits, though some joined the insurgent standard from the southern part of the province of Caraccas. Their principal support was there derived from those numerous military men who had been deprived of occupation by the peace in England, France, and Germany. Agents from the South Americans were fixed in many parts, who gave great promises of encouragement to such as would volunteer their services. Many were induced to repair to the standard of Bolívar, by which, in the beginning of 1817, he was enabled to commence his operations, by ascending the river Apure, designing to attack the capital of Caraccas from the plains or Llanos that bound it on the south. In three or four months he had advanced towards Caloboza, when the army of Morillo were on the opposite side of the country. He was so far successful as to secure that place, but before he could reach the defiles which lead to the Caraccas, they were occupied by Spanish regular troops, which prevented his progress.
The greater part of the year was occupied both by the Spaniards and the Americans in strengthening the two opposing armies. The campaign of 1818 was opened by Bolívar, who again attempted to force the passes that communicated with Caraccas, but the Spanish army was so much increased at that point, that they not only resisted, but, after a weak attempt on his part, which was repulsed, became the assailants. Several battles were fought, in which, if they were not decisive, the Spaniards seemed to have the advantage; at length a battle near Ortin determined the fate of the campaign, and compelled Bolívar to abandon Caloboza, and descend the river to his former asylum at Angostura. There he was joined by various parties of Europeans, who were at length organized and prepared for the grand expedition. Though the party that rallied round Bolívar were designated the Venezuelan Republic, yet for two years they had not been able to gain one foot of ter-
ritory in that country, unless the Island of Margarita could be called a part of it. As the attack on that country seemed hopeless, he directed his attention to the province of New Granada. His river craft was much superior to any that the Spaniards could bring to oppose it. He had been strengthened by numerous recruits from Europe, who, however mutinous and predatory, were endowed with high spirit and much courage, and they constituted the most important part of his forces. The navigation from the Orinoco and up the river Meta is a tremendous operation, but it was attempted and succeeded. The forces that Bolívar had collected at Angostura were embarked in various small craft; after ascending the river to the junction of the Meta, and mounting that stream, they had scarcely any opposition to apprehend from armed force, for the Spaniards were waiting their approach on the Llanos that separate Guyana from Caraccas. The few troops near Santa Fé de Bogota were insufficient to impede the progress of the insurgents even at the passes through that ridge of mountains in which the Meta has its source. The capital of New Granada fell into the power of the invading force, but no accounts have reached Europe of the particulars of that event, which occurred in August 1819, nor of any subsequent transactions.
Whilst Bolívar was carrying on his operations in the interior, expeditions against several points on the coast were conducted by persons from Europe, who professed to act under the authority of the Venezuelan Republic, or the Republic of New Granada.
Macgregor, who had been a Lieutenant in the British army, and had served in 1815 under Bolívar, collected a force with which he surprised Portobello, but was in his turn surprised, and, though he himself escaped with part of his forces, a large part of them were sacrificed. He afterwards, when recruited by fresh arrivals from Europe, made an unsuccessful attempt upon Rio de la Hacha. The repulse produced commotions among his forces, and they are now nearly dispersed.
Another expedition, fitted out in Europe, under an Englishman of the name of English, under Venezuelan colours, was directed against Cumana. It captured the open town of Barcelona on the coast, and proceeded to that city, but the attempt was repelled with considerable loss on the part of the assailants.
One thing seems certain, that the inhabitants of the country take no interest in the contest, nor have done so, since the commencement of the year 1816. Since that period, the insurgents have almost wholly relied on the efforts of the numerous Europeans that have joined their standard. Whether this quiescent state of the natives has arisen from disgust to the cause or indifference to it, from the fear of the vengeance of the Spanish troops, or from the total deficiency of all weapons but those furnished from Europe, it is as difficult to determine as it is to foresee what will be the final issue of the contest.
(w. w.)