LONDON. 
Lower Beira took the road by the fide of Cartel Branco 
to the Spanifh border, merely for the purpofe of efcorting 
a courier and obtaining information ; as appeared from 
the (hort time in which they returned to the pofitions at 
the bridges of the Zezere and the fort of Punhete. There 
was a vvhole'divifion of French troops under the orders 
of general Clarapede, appointed for efcorting couriers be¬ 
tween Ciudad Rodrigo and Santarem. When general 
Foix was fent, in November, by Mafiena to Paris, he was 
efcorted by 2000 men. On his return to the French po¬ 
rtion at Salamanca, with difpatches for Maffena, January 
*3, 1811, he was efcorted by near 3000 men. The fuc- 
cefs of patriotic fkirtnifhing in Arragon, forced Bonaparte 
to fend 4.000 gens-d’armes into that province from France. 
Thefe are a few of the examples of the activity and en- 
terprife of the Guerillas. But, after all, the Guerillas 
were liable to be cut off in detail, or t'ifperfed ; while the 
French, by feizing the fortreffes, ports, cities, and towns, 
and the roads from one city or town to another, proceeded 
by fure fteps to the conqueft of the whole country ; of a 
large portion of which, at the end of 1810, they had un¬ 
controlled, though very unquiet, poffertion. 
The convulfions which had rent the bofom of the mo¬ 
ther-country, were felt acrofs the Atlantic in the new world. 
—The Spanish provinces of America, by their geographi¬ 
cal pofition and immense extent, feeifi deftined by the 
hand of nature to form five great independent ftates: 
Mexico, Terra Firrna, Paraguay, Peru, and Chili. The 
Spanifh Americans were an opprefled and infulted people. 
Their grievances were snany and various. But the prin¬ 
cipal of them may be reduced to two heads: reftriciions 
on commerce, and even on the free cultivation of the 
foil ; and an exelufion from all places of profit, truft, and 
power, in the administration of the provinces. The mo¬ 
nopolization of cosrsmerce w : as as detrimental to the in¬ 
habitants of Old Spain in general as to the eolonifts, and 
benefited only the merchants of Cadiz, the emporium in 
■which that trade centered. The colonies that fuffered 
mod from the monopolization of comsnerce were thofe of 
Caraccas, Buenos Ayres, and the gs’eat ifland of Cuba. 
The centi'al junta, willing to unite all hands and hearts 
in fupport of the totterissg and falling monarchy, had de¬ 
clared the ultra-marine poffefTions to be integral parts of 
the Spanifh empire, and their rights to reprefentation m 
the general congi'efs. Bist all the pi'ovifory governments 
that l'ucceeded each other, though they recognized their 
rights in theory, continued to trample on them in practice. 
At no former period was thei'e greater peculation in the 
American colonies of Spain, or gi'eater defpotifm or info- 
lence in all the political departments, from the higbert to 
the loweit—none in which men were in lefs danger of 
being called to account for adds of rapacity and oppreffson. 
Crowds of needy adventurers were fent to America, to re¬ 
pair their fortunes, ruined by the convulfions of the mo¬ 
ther-country. They filled all the public places, which the 
natives conlidered as their natural heritage; nor had the 
injuftice and outrages which they had fuffered themfelves, 
taught them moderation and equity in their own conduift 
towards others. 
Such was the adlual government, and fuch the condi¬ 
tion of the people, when intelligence was received of the 
irruption of the French into Andalufia, and the difper- 
fion of the central junta, loaded with execrations and 
the contempt of the people. On the declaration of war 
by France againrt the mother-country, the eolonifts raa- 
nifelted the greateft ardour in the common catife of the 
Spaniards, by their ready obedience to the provifory go¬ 
vernments in Old Spain, and by the liberality of their 
contributions. But, when every fhip that arrived from 
Europe was fraught with news of frefh defeats and difaf- 
ters, and accufations of treafon, they became more fparing 
of their contributions, and lefs and lefs difpofed to place 
their confidence in the temporary authorities. They re¬ 
collected that in the greater part of the Spanifh provinces 
in America, and in thofe of Europe, without exception, 
231 
it was not the nobility and prime gentry that firft took 
the alarm, and fet themfelves to oppofe and confound the 
defigns of France, but the people. A general perfualion 
prevailed, that the perfons in poffertion of the various de¬ 
partments of government, almott all of them natives of 
Spain, were more anxious to keep up their connections- 
with the mother-country, into whatfoever hands the fu- 
preme authority might pafs, than to repel foreign aggref- 
fion and ufurpation. There feemed, however, to be at 
firft a tacit agreement or underftanding among all the Spa- 
nifli provinces of America, that, for the fake of avoiding 
the horrors of anarchy, it would be prudent to recognize 
the authority of the metropolis, fo long as there fhould 
be any appearance of a fixed government to rule the mo¬ 
narchy in the name of Ferdinand VII. 
The authority of the central junta, and the regency ap¬ 
pointed at Cadiz, was firft difowned in Terra Firma. On 
the news of the reduction of Seville, and the dilperfion 
of thejunta, the minds of all clalfes were greatly agitated. 
The general alarm of the detefted and dreaded domination 
of France was aggravated. " But they who were diftreffed 
by the reltriCtions impofed by the mother-country on 
trade, were not difpleafed at a conjuncture that might 
enable them to take the redrefs of their grievances into 
their own hands; The unpopular magiitracy of Caraccas 
was deferted by the military, who fell in with the general 
voice of the people; and a provifory junta was formed for 
Carrying on the government of the province in the pre- 
fent uniettled ftate of affairs, without diffolving the con¬ 
nection, but on the principle of fraternization, friendfhip, 
and unity, with the mother-country. Similar revolutions 
took place immediately afterwards, and almoft fimultane- 
oufly, in other provinces, and in the fame fpirit. Caraccas, 
Cumana, Barinas, Margarita, Barcelona, Merida, and 
Truxillo, were united as federative governments, in what 
was called the “ American Confederation of Venezuela,” 
April 19, 1810. 
The principal promoters and leaders in this revolution 
looked forward with ardent expectation to ultimate inde¬ 
pendence, though they concealed themfelves at firft under 
the wings of the general partifans of Ferdinand VII. 
They made warm profeilions of attachment to the mo¬ 
ther-country, and, in common with the reft of their coun¬ 
trymen, fwore allegiance to Ferdinand, as their legitimate 
fovereign ; though the new juntas did not acknowledge, 
or pay any deference or regard to, the regency at Cadiz. 
This moderation of conduct, though prudent in itfelf, 
would not perhaps have been obierved in preference to 
the'folicitations of prelent interefts and paflions, if it had 
not been preferibed by an indifpenfable regard to the ge¬ 
neral Sentiments and inclinations of the provinces. But 
this ftream was foon unfortunately turned into a different, 
and fomewhat oppoiite, direction. 
The council of regency, awakened to a fenfe of their 
public duty, by the well-founded and firm remonllrances 
of the ifland of Cuba, parted a decree, May 17, permit¬ 
ting the colonies to trade with foreign nations in all the 
articles of their own produft, for which there was not a 
vent in Old Spain. This decree, morally juft, and poli¬ 
tically wife and neceffary, did not fuit the interefts, and 
was offenfive in the higheft degree to the merchants of 
Cadiz, on whom the regency were in a great meafure de¬ 
pendant for the means of continuing their new, feeble, and 
(lippery, government. This decree was therefore revoked 
on the 17th of June. And the regency had even the ri¬ 
diculous folly to pretend, that it was not authentic, but 
an impofition on the public ; as if they would have fuf¬ 
fered a forgery to be in circulation, and have the force of 
a law, for the fpace of fix weeks, in the very place where 
the regency refided, without contradifling and protefting 
againlt it! It was impollible that the Spanifh Americans 
fhould relpeft a provifory government fb pitifully mean, 
cunning, and fraudulent. 
While the imprefiion made on the minds of the Ame¬ 
ricans, by the revocation or diiavowal of the decree in 
3 favour 
