VENEZUELA. 



niilies Indian corn, indigo, tobacco, cotton, fugar and coffee. 

 Its vanilla, produced from a ca'eeping plant, which, like the 

 wild vine and ivy, entwines round the trees, is obtained in great 

 plenty. Wild cochineal is alfo the produft of this country, 

 and with due cultivation, it might be made to furnifh a 

 variety of woods, barks, and plants for the dyer ; and alfo 

 gums, refins of balfam and medicinal oils; its farfaparilla 

 is faid to exceed the confumption of the whole of Europe ; 

 faflafras and liquorice abound ; fquills are plentiful ; fo are 

 likewifeftorax,cania, aloes, &c. The horned cattle, afford- 

 ing the article of exportation (hides), the horfes, mules, 

 (heep, and deer, arc here very numerous. It abounds in all 

 kinds of game, and its rivers and lakes fupply plenty of 

 filh. 



In order to give a brief account of the revolution that has 

 lately taken place in this province, and in other parts of 

 Spanifh America, we (liall trace the origin and progrefs of 

 the Spanifh eftablifhments in this part of the woi-ld. Terra 

 Firma was difcovered by Chriflopher Columbus in i^gSjin 

 his third voyage from Spain to America. After having dif- 

 covered the gulf of Paria, he coafted along Terra Firma as 

 far weft as theTeftigo iflands, from which point he failed with 

 a fair wind to St. Domingo. Ojeda obtained permiflion from 

 the Spanifh government to purfuethe difcovery ; and having 

 arrived at the territory of Maracapna, in the year 1499, he 

 followed the coalt as far as Cape de la Vela, entering feveral 

 ports in order to colleft more minute information. From 

 Cape de la Vela he failed for St. Domingo, according to 

 Oviedo and Robertfon ; but according to Charlevoix, he 

 returned before that to Maracapna, a village upon the coaft 

 ■of Cumana, and there had a brig built. Not long after, the 

 account which Columbus had given to the Spanifli govern- 

 ment attrafted to Terra Firma another veffel from Spain, 

 -whofe real objeA was commerce, but which concealed its 

 defign under a permiflion from the king to profecute the 

 difcovery of the country. This veffel, commanded by Chrif- 

 topher Gnerra, touched on the coaft of Paria, at Margaretta, 

 Cubacrua and Cumanagola, now called Barcelona. In tliefe 

 places, in exchange for trinkets, he obtained a great quantity 

 of pearls, gold, Brazil wood, &c. of which he formed a very 

 rich cargo. Guerra purfued his courfe along the coaft to 

 the weftward, and landed only at Coro, where he found, to 

 his great aftonifhment, fome Indians, as much difpofed to 

 take away from him whatever he had got, as thofe on the 

 eaftern coaft had been to give them to him. He had too 

 much to lofe to run the riflv of a war, by which neither glory 

 nor emolument was to be acquired. He, itherefore, wifely 

 took the refolution of returning to Spain, in order to place 

 his riches out of the reach of danger. 



The report of his arrival and fortune fpread over the whole 

 kingdom, and immediately from every part expeditions were 

 fitted out for Terra Firma. At the fame time, Charles V. 

 gave permiflion to make flaves of the Indians who fhonld 

 impede or embarrafs the conquefl ; a grant fo much the 

 more deplorable to humanity, as it ftrongly excited the ava- 

 rice of thofe in whofe breafts money ufurped the place of 

 every other confideration. It is eafy to imagine, that upon 

 thofe coafts, where pillage had nothing to fear either horn. 

 the vigilance of the magittrate, or the fword of juftice, there 

 muft have been eftabhfTied a nefarious commerce which had 

 no other objcd than infatiable avarice, no other refult but 

 rapacity, tyranny, and ferocity. The crimes committed by 

 that fwarm of robbers, who contended with one another for 

 fuperiority in feats of plunder, were fo great and fo nume- 

 rous, that the cries of the vidiras reached the audience of 

 St. Domingo, who are entitled to our applaufe for having 

 immediately taken meafures to make it appear to the inha- 



bitants of the new world, whom they wifhed to lead rather 

 than to drive into obedience, that the enormities of that fcum 

 of the Spanifh nation were not properly chargeable on the 

 nation itfelf. The audience fent thither, in quality of com- 

 miffary and governor, a man of very great merit, named 

 John Ampues, who arrived on the Coriana coaft in 1527, 

 with fixty men. His mildnefs, affabihty, and knowledge 

 foon gained the confidence of the caciq\ie of the Coriana 

 nation ; and a folemn treaty confirmed the union and alli- 

 ance which they formed, and the cacique took the oath of 

 allegiance and vaffalage to the Spanifh monarch. On the 

 26th of July, 1527, Ampues laid the foundation of Coro. 

 Thus the province of Venezuela had the pleafing profpeft 

 of arriving, without commotion, to a degree of profperity 

 which would crown the happinefs of its inhabitants. How- 

 ever, the commercial houle of the Welfers, eflablifhed at 

 Augfburg, being confiderably in advance to Charles V., the 

 emperor fubmitted to the demand which they made of grant- 

 ing to them, under the title of an hereditary lief of the crown, 

 the province of Venezuela, from Cape de la Vela as far as 

 Maracapna, with the right of extending indefinitely towards 

 the fouth. But the province having fuffered much from the 

 monopoly and tyranny of the agents of the Welfers, the 

 treaty \vith them was refcinded, and the emperor appointed 

 as governor the licentiate John Peres de Tolofa, who, accord- 

 ing to Oviedo, had likewife the title of captain-general. 

 This new reform produced a favourable change in the fyftem 

 and mode of conqueft ; and it was an eftablifhed point, that 

 inflead of committing devaftation, the conquerors Ihould 

 form fettlements ; and inftead of plundering, refpeft pro- 

 perty. Laws, which had been enafted in 1526, 1540, 

 1542, 1550, and 1552, were put into execution. Thefe 

 laws declare the Indians to be free, not even excepting thofe 

 who fliould be taken prifoners in the aft of bearing ai^ns. 

 As foon as an Indian nation was fubjefted to the Spaniards, 

 a convenient fcite was chofen on which to build a town, for 

 the better fecurity of the conqueft. One hundred Spaniards 

 formed the population of the new city, to which a cabildo 

 was attached. They afterwards divided the city in portions 

 among the new inhabitants, according to their rank and 

 merit ; and after having made an enumeration of the In- 

 dians, they Ihared them among the Spaniards, who thus ac- 

 quired over them a right, not of property, but of fuper- 

 intendance. This is what is called " repartimientos de 

 Indios," the dividing of the Indians. This meafure was 

 followed by more fixed regulations, under the name of " en- 

 comiendas ;" the efFeft of which was to place under the im- 

 mediate fuperintendance and authority of a Spaniard, exem- 

 plary for his morals, the Indians who lived within a limited 

 extent of gro.und, correfpondlng to that of the communes in 

 France. In return for thefe attentions, the Indians were to 

 pay the commilfioned fuperintendants of the encomiendas, 

 who were called encomenderos, a yearly tribute in labour, 

 fruits, or money. When this tribute was once paid, the 

 Indians were exempted from every other perfonal fervice. 

 It appears that, according to the folemn and fpecial contract 

 entered into between the kings of Spain and the difcoverers, 

 conquerors, and fettlers in Spanifh America, pohtically di- 

 vided by the Spanifh government, and comprehending the 

 viceroyalties of New Spain or Mexico, Santa Fe de Bo- 

 gota or New Grenada, Peru, Buenos Ayres, or the pro- 

 vinces of Rio de la Plata, and the captain-generalfliips of 

 Guatimala, Venezuela, and Chili ; thefe laft were to remain 

 lords of the country, on the bafis of feudal vaffalage, under 

 the names of " encomenderos." Such, however, was the 

 inhuman condndl of the firft of thefe towards the natives, 

 that Charles V. and his fuccefTors were under the necellity 



of 



