SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 385 



clesiastic party in the Spanish settlements here. I rejoice much 

 in the conquest of Buenos Ayres ; but I doubt whether that 

 conquest will prove to be so stable an acquisition as is expected, 

 for want of any previous precaution to conciliate the religious 

 portion of the people, which sways not only the great body 

 of the Spaniards, but also of the contiguous Indian nations. 

 Yet brilliant as the first seizure of Buenos Ayres may have 

 been ; and important as the emporium for all the produce 

 which descends the Plata may appear ; I am deliberately per- 

 suaded that Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, and all the de- 

 pendent provinces, would be well exchanged for the narrower 

 eastern bank of the Orinoko. 



The Orinoko is not subject, like the Plata, to those hurri- 

 canes from the Andes, which destroy, at a sweep, all the craft 

 of navigation. The wonderful quantity of cattle is alike re- 

 markable on the meadows of either river. The variety of ac- 

 cessible country, and the quantity of timbered shore, is greater 

 on the Orinoko. And the peculiarity, which this latter river 

 offers, during the season of inundation, of supplying a navigable 

 passage into the Maranyo, must give to it, for extent of inte- 

 rior communication, an advantage over the Plata. Its even- 

 tual importance, therefore, may rationally be expected to 

 transcend that of a river, which is not of greater dimensions, 

 which is no thoroughfare, and which does not open into a sea, 

 so dotted with islands, and encircled with havens. 



