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from Spain, as well as the aids de camp of Venegas, have become rich. Some of those who arrived a year and a. half ago, are masters of 80 to 100,000 dollars. T. and C. have had to give considerable securities, before they could leave the kingdom. The first, in consequence of an enormous complication of charges; and the latter, for having robbed a large quantity of money in Guardamino, besides jewels, cattle and produce, belonging to a farm through which he passed with his troops. The simple fact of a merchant being found to be his security, for a sum larger than 80,000 dollars, proves that he has them; and if this is the case, where have they come from?— But why talk about things of such little consequence, when others might be mentioned, which rend the heart. The plague is, at present, desolating this kingdom, wherever the insurrection has left men to be killed. * A. has received a letter from Mexico, in which it is said, that 25,000 persons have been buried without the walls, besides many who have been buried in private; and it adds, that on calculations by no means exaggerated, the loss of the whole kingdom, during the last three years, amounts to one million of persons. Two years and some months ago, N. wrote me, that the insurrection was then supposed to have cost 200,000 persons, and at that time, the war was no more than a shadow of what it has been since."

And can the British public, hear of these horrors, and

*The plague in Mexico, originated from the privations incidental to the war, want of provisions, crowded dungeons, &c.; the same as did lately at Dantzic, Dresden, Konnigsberg, &c. owing to their sieges.

still be unmoved? Can the British government behold, with calm indifference, and without an effective effort on their behalf, this unheard of mass of destruction, amongst its faithful and unoffending allies! Can England still look, with obstinate composure, on such a scene?— These accounts to some, may appear magnified, yet they no more than correspond to the result of the Mexico papers I can produce; and they will be found confirmed, through channels which cannot be suspected. When a general can boast in a public report, that with the loss of one man and two wounded, he left 5000 natives extended on the field of battle, it cannot be supposed he was fighting against armed men, but that he had fallen on bands of unarmed Indians, who had collected round the banners of their just rights, but who had nothing to present in their defence, than their naked breasts. Can this be likened to any thing else, than to the entry of Cortes into Mexico? Does not this equal the horrors of an Alva, in the Netherlands ?

The editor of El Español, in his last number for April, remarks, "that the war between Spain and her ancient colonies, still continues, under the most shocking symptoms. The Spanish people of the other hemisphere, are still murdering each other, with the greatest fury; and as it happens, in similar cases, the war is carried on, divested of those laws and rules, which diminish its evils, amongst civilized nations. The governors and chiefs, sent out by Spain, are horribly satiating themselves in the blood of that unhappy people, making a parade of cruelties, which even in the most barbarous nations, would excite horror. In one of the last despatches from Mexico, the general, after giving the details of the action, says,

with the most terrific indifference," Two hundred pri soners are now in the act of being shot, by way of example."Yet this is the confession of a Spaniard, here on the spot, and with whose liberality and veracity we are well acquainted.

§ Nor are these scenes, alone, confined to the viceroyalty of Mexico. Other sections of Spanish America, present similar ones, which if possible, exceed them in horror. Those of Caracas, merit a particular review. I cannot better describe them, than by giving the substance of General Bolivar's manifest, respecting the conduct of General Monteverde and the agents of Spain, dated Valencia, September 20, 1813.-The united provinces of Venezuela, in conformity of their manifest, dated July 30, 1811, containing a full detail of the urgent motives which drove them to such a measure, that is, after war, under every species of aggravations, had been waged against them, by the Cadiz Regency, declared their independence of the mother country. They organized a provisional government, and a desultory war was carried on against them. On the 12th of March, 1813, Caracas, and several other cities of the interiour, were visited with a most dreadful earthquake, which left the former in ruins, and spread consternation throughout the provinces. The clergy, irritated at being deprived of their privileges and immunities, by one of the articles of the new constitution, (that is, they were made subservient to the civil law,) in the confessional and in the pulpit, preached, that this calamity was a signal vengeance from God, for having separated from the mother-country. General Monteverde, at the head of a handful of Spaniards, advanced from Coro, and encouraged by the distress and consternation, so ge

nerally spread around, and in secret understanding with many Europeans in the capital, marched forward. Most of the inhabitants, were then dispersed in the country, many had fled to the woods for shelter, and all were terrified at the horrors and murders, committed by the agents of the Spanish chiefs, in the progress of their

march.

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Such was the situation of Venezuela, when on the windward coast, the negroes, both slaves and free, were revolutionized and set loose on the inhabitants, to spread through the country, all kinds of violence and plunder. The towns of Guatiri, Calabozo, and San Juan de los Moros, thereby witnessed the greatest horrors. Many of their peaceful inhabitants, were murdered without more ceremony, than being ordered to kneel down, and others were whipped in the public squares. Thus, Caracas in ruins by a most dreadful earthquake; to the East, alarmed by the black banditti let loose on its defenseless inhabitants; and on the West, threatened by an army, whose numbers had been swelled by fanaticism and seduction, and seeing the only troops of the confederation. commanded by a chief who never possessed the public confidence, was under the necessity of capitulating, with General Monteverde, in San Mateo, on 25th July, 1812. The basis of this ratified convention, was, that the lives, property, and persons of every citizen, should be held sacred; that no one, should be persecuted for the - past; general oblivion and amnesty were, in short, - granted. No sooner was Monteverde in possession of the town, and the revolutionary troops disarmed, than he put some inhabitants in dungeons, others in irons, and public stocks; parties of dissolute soldiery, were

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sent out to different parts of the interiour to collect more; most respectable persons were torn from the arms of their wives and children; many, bound to horses' tails, were led on foot into town, exposed to the scoffs and mockery of the troops; and persons were placed over the victims as keepers, who had been tried during the administration of the late provincial government. Property was seized; outrages and insults, were heaped on many individuals of both sexes, many were cast into hot and damp dungeons, resembling the black-hole at Calcutta ; the streets were crowded with unhappy wives, crying out for their husbands, mothers for their sons, and sisters for their brothers. Monteverde and his fellow islanders, the Canarians, feasted on such a spectacle, and rejoiced in the humiliation of the Creoles. Enfuriated by bloody fanaticism, and thirsting for plunder, the Spanish troops, every where forgot the dictates of humanity, and to the desolation caused by one of the severest visitations of nature, every thing that can be committed by a dissolute and uncontrolled soldiery, was added. In this manner, more than 1500 individuals, were thrown into dungeons, though they had rested their personal security, on the faith of a solemn capitulation, regularly exchanged and ratified, and which they considered as binding, even amongst the most uncivilized nations.

* It can scarcely be thought, that the achievement of the above horrors, was made the subject of a British bulletin, the following is a copy

"Downing-street, Oct. 5, 1812. "By accounts from Curacoa and St. Thomas, dated the 5th and 28th August, it appears the City of Caracas capitulated to the Royalist

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