brought to the scaffold, saw his end ap-
proach with the courage of a man capable
of great designs; and Wal died in the Island
of Trinidad, where he found an asylum, but no
assistance.
Notwithstanding the tranquillity of character
and extreme docility of the people in the Spa-
nish Colonies, and notwithstanding the parti-
cular situation of the inhabitants, who are dis-
persed over a vast extent of country, and in
the enjoyment of that individual liberty which
always accompanies a life of solitude, political
agitations would have been more frequent since
the peace of Versailles, and especially since
1789, if the mutual hatred of the casts, and
the dread which the whites and the whole
body of freemen entertain of the great number
of blacks and Indians, had not arrested the

effects of popular discontent. These motives,

as we have explained in the beginning of this work", have become still more painful since the events which have taken place in Saint Domingo; and it cannot be doubted that they have contributed more to preserve tranquillity in the Spanish Colonies, than the rigorous measures adopted, and the formation of

militias, of which the number amounts in Peru L^

to more than forty thousand men, and in the

Island of Cuba to twenty-four thousand.” This increase of armed force points out more clearly

* I shall state in this note what information I could procure, respecting the number of troops in the Spanish Colonies. When I was last at the Havannah in spring 1804, there were under arms in the Island of Cuba; o

I. Disciplined Militia: infantry Men. At the Havannah - - - - - 1,442 At the Villa de Puerto del Principe - - 721

II. Disciplined Militia: cavalry
At the Havannah, and in its jurisdiction - 517

III. Country Militia: undisciplined (milicias rurales)

To the east of the Havannah, and at Matanzas 7,995 To the west of the Havannah - - - 5,688 In the suburbs (extra muros) of the Havannah 1,368 In the jurisdiction of the four towns (las quatro

villas) - - - - - - 2,640 In that of the Puerto del Principe - - 1,728 In that of Santiago de Cuba - - - 2,412 Total force - - - - - - 24,511

It appears certain that the Island of Cuba could possess for its defence, a body of 36,000 whites, from the age of 16 to 45. (See above, Vol. i. Chap. vii. p. 208.) The armed force of the Island of Cuba is much superior to that of the capitania general de Caracas, which only amounts in the provinces of Venezuela, Nueva Andalusia, or Cumana, Maracaybo, Guayana, and Varinas, to 11,900 men, among whom there are not 2500 Europeans. In Peru there were in 1794:

Men. In Regular Troops - - - - - 12,000

In Militia, of which # Cavalry - - - 49,000

-

the increasing distrust of the Mother Country, as on the Caracas coast, there were no regular troops previous to the year 1768, and in the kingdom of Santa Fe, for more than two centuries and a half, the government never found any occasion for militia, which were first levied in 1781, when the introduction of the tobacco farm and the duties on brandy gave rise to popular commotions. In the present state of things, the external defence of New Spain can have no other aim than to preserve the country from any invasion which a maritime power might attempt. Arid savannahs, resembling the deserts of Tartary, separate the provincias internas from the territory of the United States. It is but lately

This list is taken from the court calendar, or Guia politica de Lima, published by order of the Viceroy. We have already observed that a part of these militia, armed with wooden muskets, is not very formidable. In the kingdom of New Grenada, there were in 1796, according to official papers in my possession, 3600 regular troops, stationed at Santa Fe de Bogota, Carthagena, Santa Martha, in the isthmus of Panama, at Popayan and Quito, and 8400 militia. In the Philippine Islands, according to M. de Sainte Croix, there are 5500 regular, troops, and 12,200 militia. Presuming all that I have procured respecting the Spanish Colonies of America, it appears that in a total population of fourteen or fifteen millions of inhabitants, they contain 3,000,000 of whites, 300,000 Europeans, and at most 26,000 European troops. o

that the inhabitants of Louisiana have been, able to penetrate by the Missouri, and the river Plata, to the town of Santa Fe of New Mexico. The Arkansas and the red river ofNatchitoches, which flow into the Mississippi, rise, it is true, in the mountains in the neighbourhood of Taos; but the difficulty of ascend. ing these rivers is so great, on account of the rapidity of the current, that the northern provinces of Mexico are as secure against attack. from this quarter, as the United States and New Grenada are from the Ohio, and the river Magdalen. Beyond the 32° of north latitude, the nature of the soil, and the extent of the deserts in the neighbourhood of New Mexico, afford the inhabitants a constant security from the attack of a foreign enemy. Farther south, between the Rio del Norte, and the Mississippi, several lines of rivers appear on the same frontier; and it is in this part of the country, that the colonists of Louisiana approach the nearest to the Mexican colonists; for the distance is only sixty leagues from fort Clayborn, in the county of Natchitoches, to the Mexican presidio of Nacogdoch. In this part of the intendancy of Potosi the ground along the coast is marshy; . the surface only rises towards the north and north-east; and in the midst of the plains which join the basin of the north river to that

of the Mississippi, the Rio Colorado de Texas appears to afford the most advantageous military position. This point is the more remarkable, as between the mouth of the Colorado, and the small port of Galveston, M. de Salle founded, towards the end of the 17th century, the first French colony of Louisiana. It would be useless to enlarge here on the defence of the frontiers in the provincias internas; for the principles of wisdom and moderation by which the government of the United States is animated, lead us to hope that a friendly arrangement will soon fix the limits between two nations, who both possess more ground than they can possibly cultivate.

The petty warfare carried on incessantly by the troops stationed in the presidios ", with the