715 



colonies*, " by the course of the Oroonoko, and 

 the innumerable rivers which run into it " We 

 mentioned above, that Girolamo Benzoni pre- 

 dicted in 1545 the revolutions of the island of 

 St. Domingo, u which must soon become the 

 property of the Blacks." Here, in a work pub- 

 lished in 1596, a plan of campaign is traced, 

 the merit of which has been justified by recent 

 events. 



The town of Angostura in the early years of 

 it's foundation had no direct communication with 

 the metropolis. The inhabitants were contented 

 with carrying on a trifling contraband trade in 

 dried meat and tobacco with the West India 

 islands, and with the Dutch colony of Essequi- 

 bo, by the Rio Carony. Neither wine, oil, nor 

 flour, three articles of importation the most 

 sought after, was received directly from Spain. 



* The Discoverie of the Empire of Guiana. Lond. 1596, p. 

 28, 95, and 100. In speaking of the defence of the mouth 

 of the Oroonokoj Raleigh observes judiciously, and with 

 great knowledge of the locality, " This country is besides so 

 defensible, that if two fortes be builded in one of the pro-^ 

 vinces which I have seen, the flood settelli in so neere the 

 bank, where the channel also lyeth, that no shippe can passe 

 up, but within a pickes length of the artilleries first of the 

 one, and afterwardes of the other." He then adds, in that 

 style of exaggeration, which appeared to him necessary in 

 order to make his projects of conquest relished, " The two 

 fortes will be a sufficient guarde both of the empire of Inga, 

 and to an hundred other several kingdomes, lying within the 

 said river, even to the citie of Quito in Peru." 



