SOUTH AMERICA. 



The commerce of the Band a Oriental, may almost 

 be said to be at an end. The Portuguese have pos- 

 session of all the ports where it was carried on, on this 

 side of the River la Plata. Besides holding this 

 place, Colonia, an inconsiderable village, was block- 

 aded, the island of Goritti was in their possession, 

 and several of their ships of war anchored in the har- 

 bor of Maldonado. The town of Maldonado, at the 

 distance of two or three miles from the beach, had 

 been abandoned by the Portuguese; and English or 

 American vessels were permitted to carry on a trade 

 with the inhabitants. The whole coast was, in fact, 

 under the control of the Portuguese, and was main- 

 tained by not less than eight or ten vessels of war. 

 The Banda Oriental does not even own a single ton 

 of shipping, and I question much whether iVrtigas has 

 half a dozen seamen in the whole extent of his go- 

 vernment. Since my return to this country, I saw in 

 the newspapers the names of several ports under his 

 jurisdiction; but I heard nothing of them while I was 

 there. Some trade up the Uruguay, is carried on in 

 small sloops, by individuals from Buenos Ayres, under 

 a kind of special license and favor from Artigas, and 

 winked at by the government of that place. They 

 ascend this river to the Rio Negro, which is mention- 

 ed as one of the ports of Artigas. It is probable, that 

 in the interior, there may be small craft and canoes, 

 but this is the extent of the Oriental navy. That these 

 people are capable of making a long and desperate 

 resistance, from the nature of the country, there can 

 be no doubt. Azara informs us, that the conquest of 

 the Charna Indians, who inhabited from Maldonado 

 to the Uruguay, cost the Spaniards more bloodshed 



