436 
A. MOSKTSTl REVOLUTION. 
to a place of proscription. This great distance of the coast 
from the scene of this revolution led the monies to hope that 
their crime would remain long unknown 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 invalidity of a first election may 
be proved, Eray Gutierez de Aguilera languished in his 
prison at Esmeralda, and fell dangerously ill from the double 
influence of the excessive heat, and the continual irritation of 
the mosquitos. Happily for the fallen power the monks did 
not remain united. A missionary of the Cassiquiare conceived 
serious alarms respecting the issue of this affair ; he dreaded 
being sent a prisoner to Cadiz, or, as they say in the colonies, 
having his name on the list (baxo partido de registro). Pear 
overcame his resolution, and he suddenly disappeared. 
Indians were placed on the watch at the mouth of the Ata- 
bapo, at the Great Cataracts, and wherever the fugitive was 
likely to pass on his way to the Lower Orinoco. Not- 
withstanding these precautions, he arrived at Angostura, 
and then reached the college of the missions of Piritu ; de- 
nounced his colleagues ; and was appointed, iu recompense 
of this information, to arrest those with whom he had con- 
spired against the president of the missions.* At Esme- 
ralda, where the political events that have agitated Europe 
for thirty years past have not yet been heard of, lively in- 
terest is still felt in an event which is called “ the sedition of 
the monks,” (el alboroto de lo_s frailes.) Iu this country, as 
in the East, no conception is formed of any other revolutions 
than those that are made by rulers themselves ; and we have 
just seen that the effects are not very alarming. 
If the villa of Esmeralda, with a population of twelve or 
fifteen families, be at present considered as a frightful place of 
abode, this must be attributed to the want of cultivation, the 
distance from every other inhabited country, and the exces- 
* Two of the missionaries, considered as the leaders of the insurrection, 
were embarked at Angostura, in order to be tried in Spain. The vessel 
in which they were conveyed became leaky, and put into Spanish Harbour 
in the island of Trinidad. The governor Chacon intereated himself in the 
fate of the monks ; they were pardoned a violent proceeding somewhat 
inconsistent with monastic discipline, and were again employed in the mis- 
sions. I was acquainted with them both during my abode in South America, 
