IMPRISONMENT OF THE PATRIOTS. 339 



vocabulary ; nothing was dreamed of but to 

 inspire terror, and to inflict vengeance ; as 

 if common sense would not have taught 

 them that terror would recoil upon itself, 

 and that vengeance would beget vengeance. 

 The horrible idea was conceived of exter- 

 minating the inhabitants of Venezuela, in 

 order to terrify the population of the rest 

 of Spanish America ; every gaol was filled 

 with patriots, and when no more room was 

 to be found for incarcerating the victims 

 of Spanish tyranny, many other buildings 

 were converted into prisons expressly for 

 that purpose. 



These measures, the dictates of tyranny 

 and vengeance, might however have been 

 disavowed by the government at home, 

 who might thus have set itself right in 

 the eyes of the Spanish Americans, and 

 have then pursued a course of mildness 

 and conciliation. But, no: miserable in- 



