SANTA MARTHA. 59 



hundreds, and the once flourishing com- 

 merce of the place has been annihilated. 



I dined with Mr. Fairbank, the princi- 

 pal merchant then in the place, from whom 

 I heard many particulars of the ravages 

 committed by the Indians, the traces of 

 which I beheld in half-destroyed doors, 

 wainscots and beams, and felt in the total 

 want of most of the usual accommodations 

 of civilized life. Those marauders had 

 drunk all the spirits in his cellars ; but his 

 vi7i de Bordeaux and Champagne being too 

 delicate for their unsophisticated palates, 

 they had amused themselves by smashing a 

 portion of the bottles to atoms, and with the 

 remainder of the wine, on account of the 

 scarcity of water, they had boiled their 

 meat in large kettles suspended over bon- 

 fires made of the furniture of the propri- 

 etors, before the doors of their houses. 



