431 



hold their colonies, the agitations that take 

 place are not the less communicated from one 

 to the other. The elements of discord are every 

 where the same ; and, as if by instinct, a con- 

 cert is established between men of the same 

 colour, although separated by difference of lan- 

 guage, and inhabiting opposite coasts. That 

 American Mediterranean, formed by the shores 

 of Venezuela, New Grenada, Mexico, the Unit- 

 ed States # , and the West India Islands, may 

 count upon it's borders near a million and a 

 half of free and enslaved Blacks ; but so un- 

 equally distributed, that there are very few to 

 the south, and scarcely any in the region of 

 the west. Their great accumulation is on the 

 northern and eastern coasts. This may be said 

 to be the African part of the interior basin. 

 It is natural, that the commotions, which since 

 1792 have manifested themselves in St. Do- 

 mingo, should have been propagated to the 

 coasts of Venezuela. So long as Spain possess- 

 ed those fine colonies in tranquillity, the little 

 resistance of the slaves was entirely repressed : 

 but when a struggle of another kind, that for 

 independence, began, the Blacks by their rae- 



* The produce of the states at the back of the Alleghany 

 mountains is exported by the Missisippi j and the possession 

 of Florida is so strongly desired by the Anglo-Americans, 

 only with a viow of occupying a greater extent of coast on the 

 interior sea. 



