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might enrich themselves bj smuggHng. The privates were ill-dis- 

 ciphned, badly dressed, and badly paid. The effective force which 

 the crown of Spain maintained in these possessions was one 

 regiment of the line, which was to consist of 1200 men, but was 

 reduced to less than half ; one regiment of dragoons amounting to 

 600, two of cavalry called blandengues, 600 each, and one or two 

 companies of artillery. With the exception of the blandengues, all 

 the troops were originally sent from the Peninsula, but not having 

 for the last twenty years been recruited from thence, their ranks 

 were gradually filled by natives. By eminence they were called 

 veterans, but they have been of late disbanded, and their officers 

 have passed to the command of the new corps which were formed 

 on the English invasion. The force of these corps may be estimated 

 at nine thousand men. 



The sixth class is the clergy, in number about a thousand. The 

 seculars are distinguished by their learning, honour, and probity from 

 the friars, who are in general so grossly ignorant and superstitious, 

 that they render no real service to the public in any way, but 

 rather tend to disturb the minds of the honest and well-dis- 

 posed. 



Every observation I was able to make gave me a favourable 

 idea of the general character of the people ; they are tractable, 

 prudent, and generous ; and doubtless, had they been under a 

 milder and more beneficent government than that of the Spaniards, 

 they might have become a model to other colonies ; but it is la- 

 mentable to add, that in points of morality they cannot be consi- 

 dered as much superior to the other inhabitants of America. This 

 is attributable to the want of a proper system of education for 

 youth, to the pernicious example afforded by the vices of the 

 Europeans^ and, in a word, to the prevalence of an intolerant system, 

 which, by aiming to make men what they cannot be, cause them to 

 become what they ought not to be. The excessive rigour exer- 

 cised by the ministers of worship as well as by the government, for 



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