NOVITA. 



425 



supplied with water, which flows from the 

 hills from the constant falling of the rain, and 

 not from springs. A clear spot has been made 

 close to the river Tamina, and the ground 

 marked out on which a new Novita is to be 

 built ; and the change will materially benefit 

 the trade of the place. 



In the evening, thunder, lightning, and 

 heavy rain ; endeavoured to procure a book to 

 read, but in vain, although I was in the first 

 house in the place. The people are miserably 

 ignorant. The administrador told me that he 

 had never read the Bible or Testament, and 

 wished much to procure them in Spanish : I 

 trust the Society for promoting Christian 

 Knowledge will soon forward a good supply 

 to all parts of Colombia. Now we have a 

 consul-general in Bogota, I suppose we shall 

 have consuls at every one of the chief ports ; 

 and by sending Bibles to them, they can be 

 safely distributed to people who will preserve 

 them : but care must be taken not to let them 

 get into the hands of the priests, who would 

 speedily burn or destroy them, knowing well 

 that their despotic reign would be brief, if the 

 Bible were once universally read by the com- 



