GENERAL HISTORY. 



[157 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Spanish America. — Carthagena. — Caracca. — Isle of Margarita. — Buenos 

 Ayres. — Its Army defeated in Peru. — Its Fleet under Brown in the 

 Pacific. — Its Declaration of Independence. — Bolivar. — Army from 

 Brazil takes possession of Montevideo. — Mexico. — Venezuela. — British 

 West India Islands. — Jamaica. — Insurrection in Barbadoes. — Alarm in 

 the other Colonies. — Proceedings in St. Vincent, Demarara, Barbadoes' 

 General Assembly, Dombuca, Jamaica. 



^1~^HE condition oi Spanish Ame- 

 \ rica is still as unsettled as 

 ever ; and %\'hilst the weakness 

 of the mother coimitry prevents 

 any vigorous efforts for recover- 

 ing its authority over its revolted 

 colonies, their intestine divisions 

 and want of conceit have disabled 

 them from adopting- measures 

 which could establish their inde- 

 pendence upon a firm footmg. In 

 the meantime the war, preserving 

 its character of ferocity, has 

 dwindled into petty and desultory 

 actions, the relations of which 

 are obscuied by all the contradic- 

 tions and exaggerations of narra- 

 tives apjiearing througii the me- 

 dium of party. A few facts, l>ow- 

 ever, may be collected, which 

 will afford an idea of the general 

 state of affairs in this part of the 

 world. 



Carthagena, which had long 

 been under sieges by the royalist 

 Geneial Moriilo, was at length 

 reduced to such distress by famine, 

 that it was evacuated on Decem- 

 lier Gth, 1815, by the garrison, 

 who, after spiking- the guns, em- 

 barked in thirteen vessels, and 

 foicii»g their way through the 



enemy's gun-boats, made for Au\. 

 Cayes. Several Britisii subjects 

 were arrested on the entrance of 

 the .Spaniards, and marched into 

 the interior. Moriilo afterwards 

 undertook an expedition against 

 Santa Fe, the capital of New 

 Granada, which was evacuated by 

 the insurgents without resistance, 

 and all that part of the province 

 was restored to the i-oyal autho- 

 rity. That General then declared 

 in a state of blockade, ail the 

 ports from Santa Alartha to the 

 river Atrato, except the two poits 

 of Santa oNiartha and Portobeiio. A 

 proclamation publislied at the 

 Cariiccas by the captain- general 

 Mo.xo relative to tlie blockade of 

 the island of jMaigarita, affords 

 a striking instance of tiie fero- 

 cious spirit with whicli this v^ar 

 was waged. Every Spanisii vessel 

 encountered in carrying men, 

 arms, ammunition, and naval 

 stores, ti) the insurgents in Mar- 

 garita siiall be confiscated, the 

 master ;-ind otlier princijials hung- 

 up at tlie yard arm, and of the 

 sailors, if not found so culpable 

 as the others, one out of live to 

 undergo the same fate : the same 



also 



