creator.

social duties are by no means the same with those which must be used to make him love and adore his It is my opinion, and I repeat it, that this part of the population of Terra-Firma would be less immersed in superstition and vice, if one law had been passed to oblige them to labour, and another to render their labour profitable to themselves.

By being trained to a laborious life, men are at the same time trained to become good husbands, good fathers, and good christians; for all the social virtues are the natural attendants of the love of industry.

New plan for managing the Indians.

The following are, in my opinion, the means which should have been, and may still be adopted, the more effectually to fulfil the views of govern- '

ment.

The first step should be, to abolish all festivals, as they can be of no other service to the Indians, but to give them an opportunity to get drunk. The Sunday should be exclusively and solely devoted to the worship of God and to religious instruction. After six days of labour the seventh will be a real day of rest. Every Indian family should be under an express obligation, to raise the quantity and kinds of provisions, which the magistrate who has the superintendance and direction of their labour shall have prescribed. The quantity of provisions shall be in proportion to the presumed exigencies of the family; and the plantations for provisions shall be as near as possible to the houses of the proprietors, so as to be easily secured against the robbery of men and the

voracity of animals : on these small patches of ground they shall be employed two days in the week, which will be abundantly sufficient for their cultivation.

The Indians of each village shall be formed into four divisions; and to each of these shall be assigned an extent of ground, proper for the culture of colonial produce. One plantation shall be for coffee, another for cotton, another for indigo, and a fourth for cocoa, supposing the land in every village is suitable for such a diversity of productions; for it is of no consequence, according to my plan, whether the kind of productions raised on the four plantations be different or not.

The members of each division, shall be obliged to repair every day, except those employed in private culture, to the plantation appropriated to them, and to work on it from sun-rise to sun-set, excepting the hours of meals and during rainy weather.

In the centre of each of these plantations, shall be erected the buildings necessary for their accommodation, the expenses of which shall be advanced by the king, which shall be refunded to him in annual payments of a fourth part during the first four years of its culture. All the produce carefully laid up in a store-house shall, if possible, be sold on the spot; if not, it shall be consigned to a commercial house of the nearest sea-port, in order to be disposed of; and its proceeds shall be remitted to the village whence the produce was sent, in order to be divided in specie amongst the Indians who raised it. It shall be exempt from the duty of the alcavala and tithes for ` at least ten years. It it to be understood that the ex

penses of cultivation, transportation, commission, and other small charges, are to be deducted before a dividend is made.

The Indian shall have the free and entire disposal of the money which he shall receive as his quota; such an indulgence is calculated to rouse ambition, if he possesses any, if not, to inspire it. The establishment of all kinds of shops and trades shall be permitted in the village, so that the Indian may have an opportunity of laying out his money on such objects as he may deem useful and convenient.

If four large plantations for each village should not be sufficient, there is nothing to prevent their number from being augmented, or reduced, as circumstances may require. In like manner, ten, twenty or thirty Indians, who would wish to work together, may be allowed, without any inconvenience, to form a separate plantation; but on condition of cultivating a space in proportion to their number. The two objects to be accomplished are, to excite the Indians to industry, and to procure more objects for commerce.

The common establishments shall be under the direction of persons well acquainted with culture and the art of preparing the produce for market; under them the Indians will serve their apprenticeship, at the same time that they shall procure for themselves the means of a comfortable subsistence.

This kind of guardianship shall last for ten years, after which, the cultivated lands shall be so divided, that every family may retain its little private posses

sion.

The chief magistrate of each village shall superintend private culture; he shall carefully ascertain the

quantity of provisions necessary for the support of the cultivators, and the extent of ground, which over and above they shall be able to lay out in the cultivation of coffee and cotton.

Results of this Regulation.

I forbear enlarging on this plan, because to me it appears so simple as to require no further explanation. Its general object is, to derive advantage from the labour of the Indians, without encroaching on their personal liberty; to attach them to property, without making them rich; to keep them at a distance from towns, without depriving them of the enjoyments of society; to make them refrain from drunkenness, without debarring them from innocent pleasures; to instruct them in the principles of christianity, without corrupting them with superstition; to give them a taste for decent attire, without allowing them to be tainted with luxury; in short, to give them a soul, ideas, morals, and a comfortable subsistence; all which must arise from labour.

If better means can be devised than what I propose, let them be adopted; I shall sincerely pray for their success. In whatever manner that wretched

people can be rescued from the brutal, degraded and abject state, in which they at present exist, it ought to give equal satisfaction to every feeling heart.

At any rate, I trust that this scheme will not be considered as one of those productions of the closet, which contains a visionary theory that can never be reduced to practice. All that is necessary to accomplish my plan, are, talents, perseverance and probity, on the part of those who shall be charged with its execution. Besides, trials may be made on a small

scale, in order to run less risk, and, by means of these first experiments, to rectify whatever may appear unfavourable to the execution of the general plan.

The Indian population in the captain-generalship of Caraccas, amounts to seventy thousand eight hundred souls. By engaging them in easy culture, such as that of coffee and cotton, in which women, children and old men, can be equally employed, there would result so considerable an augmentation of commodities as would contribute very sensibly to the increase of commerce.

Of seventy-two thousand eight hundred Indians, I suppose that only one half are employed in labour; and that, instead of one thousand pounds of coffee, for example, which every individual should contribute annually to commerce, he furnishes no more than five hundred; this is always an addition of eighteen millions two hundred and fifty pounds of coffee to the present exports, the proceeds of which will serve to purchase articles of European manufactures. From these new articles of merchandize, will result a new activity to navigation and commerce; and from that activity will result advantages so palpable, that it is unnecessary to describe them.

END OF VOLUME I.