24 



Jaen de Bracamoros # , may carry on a regular 

 correspondence with New Mexico, or the coasts 

 of California, at a distance equal to that from 

 Paris to Siam, or from Vienna to the Cape of 

 Good Hope. I n the same manner, a letter con- 

 fided to the post in a small town of Aragon ar- 

 rives at Chili, or in the missions of the Oroonoko, 

 provided the name of the corregimento, or dis- 

 trict that comprises the Indian village to which 

 the letter is addressed, be distinctly marked. It 

 is pleasing to recall to mind institutions, which 

 may be considered as among the greatest bene- 

 fits of modern civilization. The establishment 

 of maritime and inland posts has placed the 

 colonies in more intimate intercourse with each 

 other, and with the mother-country. The circu- 

 lation of ideas is become more expeditious ; the 

 complaints of the natives reach Europe with 

 more facility, and the supreme authority has 

 sometimes succeeded in repressing vexations, 

 which, from the distance of the place, would 

 have remained for ever unknown. 



The first secretary of state had recommended 

 us very particularly to the brigadier Don Raphael 

 Clavijo, who had lately been named director- 

 general of the maritime posts. This officer, dis- 

 tinguished for his talent in ship-building, was 

 employed in forming new dock-yards at Corun- 



* On the banks of the river of Amazons. 



