tercourse, to the freedom of navigation on the coast to the honour and stability of the Spanish authority, that the soil, occupied by these lawless banditti, should at length be reduced under the power of the law. As long as Terra Firma shall harbour in its bosom this band of atrocious offenders equally disposed wickedly to co-operate with the disturbers of tranquillity at home, and to favour the designs of the enemies abroad, it will always be exposed to immediate danger and continual alarm.

I know that the government of Terra Firma entertains no doubt with respect to the necessity of reducing the Goahiros Indians; I know that D. Fernando Miyares Gonzales, the present governor of Maracaibo, a man who is both able and willing to promote the public good, wages incessant war against these savages, in order to prevent by arms the excesses to which they would proceed, if they were not kept in check. In 1801, there were confined in the prison of Maracaibo, forty-nine Goahiros Indians, who were detained as hostages; amongst whom was a female cousin of the cacique, in whose release the nation took a very lively interest. The Spanish government offered to restore her, provided they would surrender one Martin Roderique, a mulatto of Riode-la-Hache, whose enterprising and malignant spirit, occasioned serious mischief to the province, by the counsels which he gave the Goahiros; but the exchange did not correspond with the views of the Indians and in 1803, the prisoner was still in custody of the Spaniards. This same governor has done every thing that a man could do, in order to

prevent these Indians from continuing to be a scourge to the neighbouring countries, and compel them to submit to the Spanish authority. His different representations have been dispatched to the viceroy of Santa Fe, whose concurrence is necessary to make an attack on the west side, in concert with that which would be made on the side of Maracaibo. The viceroy, who resides at the distance of two hundred leagues, could not give any orders without consulting the governor of Rio-de-la-Hache, who has been always dilatory and indecisive, and sometimes avowedly opposed to the measure. The Goahiros, according to those who contend against reducing them, are a formidable nation, well mounted, armed, and disciplined, and can bring into the field forty thousand effective men. Their only ambition, at present, is to secure a commercial communication, through which, by means of barter, they may command the necessary supplies of liquor and clothing. If they have recourse to military operations, it is easy, by a seasonable treaty, to terminate hostilities. But if they are attacked, barely with the forces which the neighbouring provinces can march against them, there is reason to fear that their ambition may be roused, and that instead of repelling invasion, they may conceive the idea of achieving conquests, so that the fate of the neighbouring provinces will be inevitably, to become a prey to their robbery and ferocity. These reasons, more plausible than just, and founded more on sordid views, than disinterested integrity, have frustrated all the efforts of the governor of Maracaibo, who beholds with indigna

tion, a handful of barbarians, in the heart of a civìlized nation, commit excesses of every kind with the certainty of impunity.

At all events, the epoch cannot be far distant, when the Spaniards will invade the territory of the Goahiros, if they wish to prevent their own from being invaded.

Civilized Indians.

From the Indians who still lead a savage life historical order leads us to those who are under the government of law. We have seen that the system of rigour which was adopted by the first conquerors, was speedily succeeded by a system of lenity and kindness; and instead of dooming the unfortunate inhabitants of America, to slavery and death, the kings of Spain ordained, that government should protect them in the enjoyment of their rights and personal liberty. They wished to place them on the footing of vassals, not of slaves, of subjects, not of victims. The policy of the Spanish government was only to reduce their independence, and although its right to accomplish that object was as problematical as that of enslaving them, yet when divested of all coercive means, it became more tolerable than it was when, under the impulse of rapacity and revenge, acts of cruelty and atrocity were committed the most shocking that ever afflicted humanity.

Excessive lenity of the laws in their favour.

Few foreign writers have rendered to the Spanish government the justice which is due to it, with respect to its treatment of the Indians. The Abbe Raynal, an ardent and profound author, too enthusiastic to be impartial, too vehement to be correct, presents, with respect to the present state of the Indians, an idea which is not applicable to any of the Spanish possessions, still less to the captain-generalship of Caraccas. Robertson, likewise a philosopher, but more respectable as an historian, has made a nearer approach to truth, without being sufficiently explicit in the declaration of it; for the Spanish laws are still more favourable to the Indians than he represents.

The Spanish legislator has studied to give that class of men all the advantages which was deemed compatible with their dependence on the mother country.

It may even be said, that their disposition to favour them has rendered them as useless to society, as society itself appears useless to them.

If laws ought to be adapted to the manners of the people for whom they are intended; if they are good only in proportion as as they tend to repress vice, correct errors and create virtues; the code which regulates the Indians is very far from fulfilling its object. One of the primary obligations which ought to have been imposed on beings whose distinguishing character is idleness, was that of industry. The

magistrate ought to have been satisfied at first with pointing out the nature of that industry, and to have allowed the result to turn out entirely in favour of the Indian. By that mode of proceeding, society would have speedily acquired an industrious citizen, and the king an useful vassal. But they thought, or pretended to think, that to lay any restraint upon the inclination of the Indian, was to aim a blow at his liberty. The manner of employing his time they left to his own discretion, and he preferred leading an idle life, immersed in those vices with which such a life is commonly attended. This subject shall be resumed in another place.

Measures to keep them in dependence.

With the exception of some trifling precautions that Spain has taken to frustrate the efforts which it was unreasonably supposed the Indians might make to recover their ancient independence, an object beyond their faculty of thinking, they were left without controul to indulge all their propensities, inclinations and vices.

The principal dispositions of the mother-country, in order to insure her sovereignty in America were to prohibit the Indians to carry any kind of arms offensive or defensive; to debar them from the use of horses; to prevent any Indian from learning the trade of armorer, or dwelling in the house of any person where he might acquire any notion of the manufac turing, repairing, or handling of arms; to oblige the conquered Indians to live together in villages, instead