76 



countries, contributed to procure for him his 

 liberty. We had endeavoured to soften his 

 captivity by visiting him in his prison ; and 

 we had now the satisfaction of finding him in 

 the midst of his family. His physical com- 

 plaints had been aggravated by confinement ; 

 and he has sunk into the grave, without having 

 seen the light of those days of independance, 

 which his friend, don Joseph Espana, had pre- 

 dicted at the moment of his execution. "I 

 die," said this man formed for the accomplish- 

 ment of grand projects # , " I die an ignominious 

 death ; but my fellow citizens will soon piously 

 collect my ashes, and my name will reappear 

 with glory." These remarkable words were 

 uttered in the public square of Caraccas, on 

 the 8th of May, 1 799 ; they were repeated to 

 me the same year by persons, some of whom 

 abhorred the projects of Espana, as much as the 

 others deplored his fate. 



I have spoken above *\- of the importance 

 of the trade of Nueva Barcelona. This small 

 town, which in 1790 had scarcely ten thousand 

 inhabitants, and in 1800 more than sixteen 

 thousand, was founded J by a Catalonian con- 



* Essai Polit. sur la Nouv. Espagne, torn, ii, p. 819. See 

 also vol. iii, p. 414 of the present work, 

 t See above, vol. iii, p. 361. 



I Caulin, p. 173, 199, 207. What Mr. Depons relates 

 (vol. iii, p. 205,) of the origin of this town, is not altogether 

 conformable to history. 



