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not always affected solely the lay brothers. 

 There happened in 1788 one of those monastic 

 revolutions, of which it is difficult to form a 

 conception in Europe, according to the ideas 

 that prevail of the peaceful state of the Christian 

 settlements in the New World. During a long 

 time the monks of the order of St. Francis, set- 

 tled in Guyana, had been desirous of forming a 

 separate republic, and rendering themselves in- 

 dependent of the college of Piritu at Nueva Bar^ 

 celona. Discontented with the election of Fray 

 Gutierez de Aguilera, chosen by a general 

 chapter, and confirmed by the king in the im- 

 portant office of president of the missions, five or 

 six monks of the Upper Oroonoko, the Cassi- 

 quiare, and the Rio Negro, assembled together 

 at San Fernando de Atabapo ; chose hastily a 

 new superior from their own body ; and caused 

 the old one, who, unfortunately for himself, had 

 come to visit those countries, to be seized. They 

 put him in irons, threw him into a boat, and 

 conducted him to Esmeralda, as to a place of 

 proscription. The great distance of the coast 

 from the theatre of this revolution led the monks 

 to hope, that their crime would remain long un- 

 known beyond the Great Cataracts. They 

 wished to gain time to intrigue, to negotiate, to 

 frame acts of accusation, and employ the little 

 artifices, by which, in every country, the invalid- 

 ity of a first election is proved. The ancient 



