380 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



Whenever this colonial equality, this communion of provin- 

 cial rights, shall be thoroughly conceded by parliament, there 

 are few portions of the inhabited earth, which will not have ac- 

 quired a strong interest in becoming attached to the British 

 empire. If, instead of employing the celebrated enthusiast of 

 liberty, general Miranda, to agitate the Caraccas, his know- 

 lege of the country, and his intelligence among the people, had 

 been called in merely to direct the conquest of the western 

 bank of the Orinoko, by a regular army, whose presence and 

 whose principles would have excited no apprehension of a ser- 

 vile war, and of a general insurrection of the working negroes, 

 that strip of country might lately have been added to, and con- 

 solidated with, our possessions in Guyana. 



The bocas of the Orinoko are well worth the soUicitude of 

 the British admiralty. They now pour out in time of war a 

 multitude of small privateers, picaroon boats, as we call them, 

 which take petty prizes to a vast amount collectively among 

 the West Indian shipping. These picaroon boats are not va- 

 luable enough to attract the notice of men of war; and our 

 mercantile capitals are otherwise engaged in the colonies, than 

 to be conveniently applicable for privateering. Prize-money, 

 it seems, is not thought worth dividing on board the British 

 fleets, unless when It amounts to a considerable sum. Hence 

 it happens that this petty predatory warfare proceeds unmo- 

 lested ; and the colony-craft, which conducts our coasting- 



