another for superiority in feats of plunder, were so great and so numerous, that the cries of the victims reached the audience of St. Domingo, who are entitled to our applause, for having immediately provided by the measures which they adopted, that to the inhabitants of the new world, whom they wished to lead rather than to drive into obedience, the enormities of that scum of the Spanish nation, might not appear chargeable to the nation itself. The audience. sent thither in quality of commissary and governor, a man of very great merit, named John Ampues, who arrived on the Coriana coast in 1527, with 60 But before I take a view of his administration, chronological order obliges me to make a digression in favour of Cumana.

men.

Origin of the Missionaries.

It is well known that Columbus, in order to recommend his project of discovery to the attention of the Spanish court, was obliged to have recourse to solicitation and perseverance; so difficult it was to persuade them that the regions which he announced were not altogether imaginary. Ferdinand himself thought that he consulted his dignity by declining to subscribe, as king of Arragon, the treaty that was concluded at St. Fee, the 1st of April 1492, between their majesties and Columbus. Isabella, being the only person who had suffered herself to be, I will not say, convinced, but dazzled, had likewise engaged to defray from her own private purse, the expenses of the expedition; and it is by virtue of that clause, that the ports of America were, for a long time, ex

clusively opened to the subjects of Castile, and shut to those of Arragon. It was It was by no means surprising, then, that no examination had been instituted respecting the rights which an European king might assert over America, when its very existence was still a subject of doubt and controversy; but ideas, opinions, projects, and measures, must have undergone a total revolution, after the event had proved the reality of what had hitherto been considered as visionary. Ferdinand and Isabella, unable to justify to the world the usurpation of countries discovered, and to be discovered, endeavoured to reconcile themselves, at least to their own conscience, by converting it into a right under the sanction of the visible head of the universal church. They engaged to propagate the faith amongst the inhabitants of the new world, and to make regions, till then unknown, a new domain of the christian religion. Alexander I. yielding, as some think, to these motives, or, as others, to political reasons, consecrated by a bull the demand of the Spanish monarchs. From that time these conquests were regarded rather as crusades, than military expeditions. The government ardently embraced a system, which they have never abandoned, not to employ force against the Indians till they exhausted every moral and persuasive means. It has always been the desire of the Spanish monarchs, that their conversion to christianity should precede their subjection to vassalage. In consequence of this plan, which has never been violated, but without the knowledge, and against the will of the king, Columbus, in his second voyage, carried with him two friars, in

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order to plant in the island of St. Domingo the first seeds of the faith. These ministers of the God of peace, and those that succeeded them, were rarely scconded, but very often thwarted by the civil and military authorities. Disagreeable witnesses of the misdemeanors of the Spaniards, whom the thirst of gold had attracted to the new world, they became objects of hatred to all who abused authority. Guilt, always bold, hastened to accuse timid innocence. The missionaries were often obliged to vindicate themselves against absurd accusations, the object of which was to prevent those which the friars might raise against their accusers.

Two Missionaries go to exercise their Ministry at Cumana.

All these obstacles suggested to Father Cordoue the idea of requesting permission of the king, which was granted, to go and preach the gospel in those parts of America, where the Spaniards might not yet have penetrated. He chose for this experiment the coast of Cumana. Unable to undertake the mission himself, he supplied his place by sending the fathers Francis Cordoue, his brother, and John Garces. The order of the king to the governor of the Spanish island expressly insisted upon his favouring the apostolic mission. Accordingly, its execution was attended to with promptness and punctuality.

These friars repaired in 1512 to the place of their destination, without any arms, but those of morality, without any safeguard, but that of providence. Under these happy auspices they commenced their apos

tolic labours. The Indians, naturally mild, at least much more so than those who were found in the western part of the same coast, beheld in these two friars beings of a divine nature, whose counsels they scrupulously observed, and whose desires they exccuted with submission. Every thing announced that this mission would be crowned with the happiest and most rapid success, when a disastrous event blasted at once those flattering expectations.

An infamous occurrence which occasions their being murdered.

One of those ships of St. Domingo, which were, for twelve years, committing every kind of robbery and piracy upon these coasts, landed at Cumana. The friars, thinking that this vessel was come in order to carry on fair trade, embraced this opportunity of forming a friendly intercourse between the Spaniards and Indians. They gave the most kind and honourable reception to the captain and crew, and hospitably entertained them, in celebration of this mutual profession of amity and friendship. The Indians, unwilling to disappoint the wishes of the missionaries, were lavish in bestowing upon the Spaniards marks of the most perfect cordiality. Under pretence of making a suitable return to these unequivocal demonstrations of sincere attachment, the Spaniards invited to dinner, on board their ship, the cacique, his spouse, and seventeen Indians, who gratefully accepted the invitation; but these unfortunate creatures were no sooner on board than the ship made sail for the island of St. Domingo. This act

of rapine, in which was combined whatever is most odious in perfidy, or most horrible in villainy, became the signal of an immediate revolt among the Indians, and of a decree of death against the poor friars. They reproached them, with apparent reason, with having been the cause, or, at least, the intermediate instruments of that detestable outrage. Nor is this to be wondered at; for how could savages be made to understand, that all the men of one nation, to which they are strangers, have not, like animals of the same species, the same habits, the same inclinations, the same blemishes, the same qualities, in short, a common uniform type. All that a remembrance of the great veneration with which they were lately regarded, could operate in their favour, was the respite of four moons, in order to procure from St. Domingo a return of the Indians that were carried off from CuTheir pardon depended upon the success of this negociation. They wrote to the audience in the strongest terms. All the friars of St. Domingo earnestly solicited for their being returned; but to no purpose. The members of the audience were themselves become accomplices of the crime, and it behoved them to be possessed of more integrity than any of those who at that time came to enrich themselves in America, to be capable of pronouncing the sentence of their own condemnation. As soon as the four moons were expired, Cordoue and Garces were butchered in cold blood by the Indians. Some time elapsed before the Indians of Cumana had any intercourse with the Spaniards. It was not till the year 1516, that three Dominicans had the courage, from the isl

mana.