contain caverns haunted by thousands of noc- 

 turnal birds ; and, what affects the imagination 

 more than all the wonders of the physical world, 

 we find beyond these mountains a people so 

 lately nomade, and still nearly in a state of 

 nature, savage without being barbarous, and 

 stupid rather from ignorance than long rude- 

 ness. This interesting meditation was blended 

 involuntarily with historical remembrances. It 

 was in the promontory of Paria that Columbus 

 first recognized the continent : there terminate 

 these valleys, alternately devastated by the war-, 

 like anthropophagical Carib, and by the com- 

 mercial and polished nations of Europe. At 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century, the un- 

 happy Indians of the coasts of Carupano, of 

 Macarapan, and of Caraccas, were treated in 

 the same manner as the inhabitants of the coast 

 of Guinea in our days. The soil of the islands 

 was cultivated, the vegetables of the ancient 

 continent were transplanted thither; but the 

 regular system of colonization remained long 

 unknown on the continent. If the Spaniards 

 visited it ? s shores, it was only to procure, either 

 by violence or exchange, slaves, pearls, grains 

 of gold, and dye-woods. The motives of this in- 

 satiable avarice seemed to be ennobled by the 

 pretence of an enthusiastic zeal for religion ; and 

 every age has its peculiar tint, and a character 

 appropriate to itself. 



