moe Journal of an Officer serving in Columbia. 
naval stores of all kinds, preserves, 
gold and silver lace, (a cargo having 
arrived for the use of the clergy in the 
interior,) jewellery and trinkets, pienty 
of provisions, turtle in great abun- 
dance; as for turtle, eighty pounds 
weight may be had for a dollar. Here 
we could trace, in every blood-stained 
wall, the tragical vestiges of the Poyais 
or Bucecaneer’s campaign, and the man- 
gled bones of his betrayed com- 
panions. 
The town of Riodela Hachais how 
mostly rebuilt. In the midst is a very 
fine square, where two regiments may 
be manceuvred; also a modern-built 
and commodious church and steeple. 
The natives are principally people of 
col ur; lazy, indolent, superstitious, 
and cruel, as appears from the manner 
of putting M‘Gregor’s people to death, 
after surrendering themselves pri- 
soners.—Here is an excellent mart for 
light, clothing, calicoes, hats, shoes, 
small cheese, machinery, cutlery, grist- 
mills, old muskets, ammunition, pow- 
der; shot, culinary utensils, planters 
and artizans tools, and filtering stones, 
—as the water here is so brackish and 
unwholesome, thatit must be filtered. 
Every thing in Spanish America 
was arranged for the comfort and ac- 
commodation of the rich and powerful, 
namely, the Spanish grandees, the 
clergy, &c. and no regard was paid to 
the comfort, or even the life, of slaves 
or citizens of inferior stations. A 
grandee at his pleasure might deprive 
any of the latter of property, liberty, 
and even life, with impunity; and a 
clergyman might do the same: but 
the day of oppression is gone by, and 
slavery atan end. A man of colour 
may look at his whiter lord without 
certain punishment: liberty has levelled 
all distinctions, unless what superior 
endowments and intellect bestow. 
Considering the natural gloominess 
and formal stateliness of the Spaniards 
and their offspring, I have been often 
surprised at their fondness for festivity 
and dancing, and glow- worm spright- 
liness,—as the night seems to illume 
them like the fire-fly or glow-worm, 
and makes them forget their crusty 
and formal stateliness.in their lewd 
fandangoes, midnight revels, and inde- 
cent boleros. You are surprised to 
see the gloomy fanatic, offering up his 
idolatrous orisons at the shrine of his 
wooden Madona, or other saint, in the 
course of the day, with seeming fer- 
vency and devotion, his thoughts bent 
[Aug. 1, 
on futurity, as soon as night approaches 
mingling in the lewd. revel, gayest of 
the_gay, obscenest of the obscene. 
Leaving Rio dela Hacha, we march- 
ed for Moreno, a small town in the in- 
terior, about twenty miles from the 
sea-coast, through parched plains. of 
an immense space and distance; ll 
the herbage is burnt up by the heat of 
the sun, presenting to the eye, as far 
as it can see, a dreary desert of most 
unfavourable aspect, without tree, 
rock, or animal, to arrest the view, 
unless the ant-bear, who sometimes 
comes to storm the castles or garrisons 
of these industrious insects. Here you 
may trace a path or road four inches 
wide, and sometimes three miles in 
length, cleared by those indefatigable 
insects, without a single particle to 
obstruct their marching or counter- 
marching to the guavoes and tamarind 
trees, on the blossoms and fruit of 
which they subsist, in lieu of corn, and 
are constantly passing and re-passing, 
even by night,—a good lesson to the 
indolent natives: they are as large as 
beetles in this country, and are very 
troublesome. to soldiers who are 
obliged to bivouac on the ground, as 
their bite is very pungent and sore; 
ticks also are more troublesome than 
the English bug, and will cling to 
ou. 
? We now arrived at El Cruz, an 
Indian village or little settlement, 
consisting of a few huts, built of the 
sedgy leaves of the cocoa-nut tree: as 
to the few inbabitants that remained, 
we could easily judge of their absolute 
poverty, by their nakedness and want 
of domestic comforts, having but an 
earthen jar to keep water, a few cala- 
bashes, and one or two logs of wood to 
sit on; no hammock or bed to lie on, 
but a little thin mat, without any 
covering: this mat they weave from 
the bark of the saugra tree, on which 
the stinging wasp builds her nest; 
three arrows, lances, bows, and cow- 
skin nooses, to catch all kinds of cat- 
tle ; also three bridles, which they take 
great pains to decorate. 
Leaving these abodes of wretched- 
ness and poverty, but seeming con- 
tent, we pursued our march along 
roads, through a thick forest, kuee-deep 
in quick-sand, and half famished for 
want of water, not being able to pro- 
cure any for fifteen miles. We had to 
march under a tropical sun, almost 
smothered from the intolerable effluvia 
emitted by the stinkards, or opossums, 
over 
