CHAP. xxn. CONTRABAND TRADE. l6S 



of America. The traders from the interior of 

 New Granada, as far as Popayan and Quito, re- 

 paired to Carthagena, Santa Marta, and Rio de 

 la Hacha on the Atlantic for the European goods, 

 and to Panama and Guayaquil for the productions 

 of Asia, the greater part of which were exchanged 

 for silver or gold, of which a large portion had 

 never paid the .tax to the revenue. 



In the succeeding period an intercourse between 

 the Spanish main was constantly kept open with 

 the Dutch Islands of Cura9oa and St. Eustatia, 

 with Jamaica, and with the Danish island of St. 

 Thomas. Great quantities of silver and gold 

 were conveyed to those settlements in a form that 

 proved clearly their having never paid the duty. 



In the latter part of the century, during the 

 war, there was a very active trade with the Spanish 

 colonists along the whole coast of South America. 

 English and American vessels, under the pretext of 

 supplying negroes, conveyed large cargoes of British 

 manufactures to Buenos Ayres. Vessels under both 

 those flags, engaged in the southern whale fishery, 

 took incidental opportunities of selling those goods 

 which from the state of war could not be either 

 conveniently or advantageously supplied from Spain, 

 although they were most urgently required. Besides 

 these, many English vessels, so strongly armed as 

 to defy the Guarda Costas, frequented the shores 

 of Chili and Peru, and carried on what was profes- 



