more industrious than the Creoles. They are not admissible to any public office in the state, nor into the army of the line; but they may serve in the militia, and even rise to the rank of captain. They are liable to a capitation tax, which, in Caracas at least, is not exacted; and they are forbidden to have Indian servants. They may be physicians; but they cannot be priests. There are various sumptuary laws regulating the dress of their women; but they are fallen into neglect; and the only regulation now in force is one, which prohibits them from having a cushion to kneel upon in church. Trifling as this distinction is, it is sometimes abrogated for money, in favour of a particular family, by a royal order, raising the members of it to the rank and privileges of whites. The marriages of people of colour with white families of distinction have been always extremely rare in the Spanish colonies; but, with the lower ranks of whites, they were not unfrequent, till 1785, when the difference of colour was declared to be a sufficient reason for refusing consent to a marriage, on the ground of disparity of condition in the parties. Since that time such marriages have ceased, except in the case of white womer, who, having been exposed, when infants, by their mothers, to conceal their frailty, had been saved by negresses or people of colour, and who found themselves reduced, when they grew up, to marry in the class where they had been educated.

The Indians subject to the Spanish government are as remarkable for the inddence and weakness of their charader, as for the mildness of their disposition. The Spanish law conside's them as in a state of perpetual pupilage, and assigns to them gurdians and protectors. Their civil contracts are not binding, unless nade in the presence and with thepprobation of the Spanish magistates; and their lands cannot be sid, unless under the sanction of gal authority. They live in villags, without any mixture

They

of Spaniards or people of colour, under a cabildo or magistracy of their own nation, whose authority is controlled by a Spanish corregidor, or protector, to whom an appeal lies against the cabildo from its subjects, and who is bound to interfere when he sees an occasion, and protect them against its injustice and oppression. The king's fiscal or attorney-general is their protector and legal defender, in all causes, whether civil or criminal, brought against them in the courts of law. have no labour imposed upon them as a task; and the only direct tax to which they are subjected is the capitation tax, amounting to about two dollars a head. The religious discipline under which they are placed is extremely slight. They are exempt from the jurisdiction of the inquisition; and, in pity to the weakness of their faith, and the dulness of their understanding, they are excused for transgressions and omissions of their religious duty, which would be severely punished in other christians.

There are several tribes of independent Indians in the territory of Caracas; but, except the Guajiros, they are neither numerous nor formidable. The Guajiros are a fierce and warlike tribe, who are in general in a state of hostility with the Spaniards. They possess a tract of about thirty leagues along the coast to the westward of Maracaibo; and can bring into the field 14,000 men, well mounted on horseback, and armed with carabines, and bows and arrows. They are supplied with arms, ammunition, and clothes, by the English of Jamaica, with whom they carry on a commercial intercourse. The remaining tribes of independent Indians are of a mild and peaceable character, and owe their freedom, not to their valour, but to the inaccessible and unwholesome regions which they inhabit.

We are struck with the difference of the policy followed by France and Spain with regard to their colonies, The French planter had his eyes continually directed to the mother coun

try. It was there he ultimately expected to rest after his labours. It was there only where he could aspire to honours or preferment, or even procure education for his children. The colony was a place of temporary exile, where he submitted to live, in order to amass a fortune; France was the home where he proposed to enjoy it. But Spain, in every one of these particulars, has followed a policy directly the reverse. No settler in a Spanish colony can return to the mother country, without an express license from the government. Schools, academies, and universities, are established in the Spanish colonies for the education of the natives. A richly endowed church and splendid hierarchy are open to their ambition. A numerous, respectable, and opulent body of colonial nobility, are strangers to Spain; and additions are continually making to their number from colonists who never crossed the Atlantic. Experience has shown, that both systems of policy are compatible with the security of the mother country; but, if we consider the internal good of the colonies, we can have little hesitation in giving, of the two, the preference to the French. The Spanish colonies languish under the weight of a cumbrous and oppressive government, calculated not for their own necessities, but to secure, by its extensive patronage, their fidelity and obedience to Spain.

The captain-general of Caracas holds his office for seven years. His appointments are valued at 18,000 dollars a year, one half of which consists in his salary, and the other half in perquisites of office. He is bound to reside for sixty days in the colony after the arrival of his successor, in order to answer any complaints that may be brought against him, and these must be decided within other sixty days at farthest. A similar provision is extended to all the other Spanish colonies. Viceroys are even obliged to remain for six months in their government after they have resigned it to their successor. But M. Depons trusts that

these provisions against the injustice of the governors are,, as might be expected, quite illusory.

The inhabitants of Caracas are no longer forced to have recourse to another colony for the settlement of their lawsuits. An audiencia or court of law was established at Caracas in 1787. It consists of a regent, three oidors or judges, and two fiscals or public prosecutors. The regent has a salary of 5300 dollars a year; and each of the judges and public prosecutors 3300 dollars.

The proceedings in the Spanish courts of law are extremely slow, uncertain, and expensive. Business is transacted by means of written memorials of great length, the whole of which must be read over in public to the judges, before they can give a decision in the case. In a cause decided by the council of war, arising from a vessel which had been cut out of port by the English, the memorials laid before the judges filled 780 sheets of paper, and three days were entirely occupied in hearing them read. The Spanish law is also too favourable to the challenge of judges and assessors by the parties, and too indulgent to appeals. By a contract, singular in itself, though not uncommon in countries where the despotism of the government is tempered by the influence of the church, there is no law more indifferent about the liberties of men than the Spanish, and none more tender of their lives. The slightest suspicion of a crime is sufficient to hurry a man to prison. The clearest evidence of guilt is hardly able to bring him to the gallows.

The cabildos, or municipal governments of the new world, were established by the Spaniards at a time when they still enjoyed freedom at home, and they were therefore modelled on the plan of the cities of Castille. They consist of two alcaldes or magistrates, chosen annually by the regidores or council, who hold their offices for life. The cabildos of Caracas possessed at one time great political privileges and influence, which they obtained du

ring the weak administration of the house of Austria. But the Bourbons, true to their principle of tolerating no power in the state that could serve as a controul upon their own, contrived, in the course of the last century, to reduce them to a state of insignificance in which they still continue.

The military establishment of Venezuela consists of one company of grenadiers and ten companies of the line. making in all 918 men, who are recruited in Spain, and distributed at Caracas, Guayra, and Porto Cabello. The artillery is 900 strong, and consists of one company of Europeans, and eight companies of Creoles, people of colour, and blacks. The militia, amounting to 4740, is formed of Creoles and people of colour. In Cumana there are three companies of Europeans, amounting to 221; 450 artillerymen; and 2245 militiamen. In Maracaibo there are 308 Europeans on the military establishment, 100 artillery men, and 810 militiamen. In the Isle of Margarita there is a company of 77 European soldiers, with 400 native artilierymen, and 771 militiamen. In Varinas there is a single company of 77 men. The whole military force of the captain-general.ship of Caracas, therefore, amounts to 13,136 men, supposing all the companies to be complete; but the distance of one province from another is so great, that, if attacked by an enemy, each must look to its own resources alone for its defence.

The fortified towns upon the coast are Maracaibo, Coro, Porto Cabello, Guayra, and Cumana. Of these, the best fortified and most important are Porto Cabello and Guayra. The inland towns, which are the richest and most valuable, are quite open and defenceless. An enemy who would invade Caracas, should not waste time in the attack of the fortified places on the coast, but land in some convenient situation; and, while the invading fleet kept the garens of the forts in check, advance invading army against the the interior. As soon as

these were in the possession of the invaders, the militia would disperse, and the towns on the coast would be forced to surrender for want of provisions.

The stability of the Spanish government in America is maintained as much by the policy of her ecclesiastical government as by her civil and military institutions. From the place of archbishop to that of doorkeeper of the cathedral, all ecclesiastical preferment in America flows directly from the king. The priests, secular and regular, may be considered as an army devoted to his service, and ready to expose themselves in defence of his authority. To the influence which the ignorance and bigotry of the people naturally confer upon their clergy, the inquisition superadds its terrors. Three courts of that inexorable tribunal maintain the purity of the catholic faith in Spanish America.

The tithes throughout America be long to the king, and he allows out of them what he pleases for the maintenance of the clergy. In general, the crown is contented with one ninth of the produce of the tithes ; one fourth is allowed to the bishop, one fourth to the chapter, and the remainder goes to the parish priest, to the repair of churches, and to other pious uses. There are three bishoprics in Caracas. Before the last war, the annual revenue of the bishop of Caracas amounted in some years to 70,000 dollars. It is now reduced to about 40,000. The parish priests in Caras are chiefly Creoles. The number of priests in Spanish America, though infinitely greater than the good of the colonies requires, is is sensibly on the decline. There has been no convent founded in Caracas for the last sixty years. Missions to convert the Indians were not established in Caracas till the middle of the seventeenth century. They are still in existence; but the missionaries are accused of occupying themselves little with the object of their institution, and of availing themselves of their situation to defraud and oppress the Indians. Some

of them acquire great wealth by commerce, or rather by contraband. There are missionaries who have scraped together, by such means, from 30 to 40,000 dollars.

Agriculture is at a low ebb at Caracas. There are not twenty estates in the province which bring in more than 4 or 5000 dollars a year of clear income to the proprietors. Not that landed property is much subdivided, but it is rare to find more than the tenth part of an estate in cultiva tion. There are five causes for the low state of agriculture in this province. 1. The proprietors are in general drowned in debt. It is not usual for a Spaniard to sell his estate, till he is reduced to the greatest necessity. He prefers rather to borrow money upon it, for which he pays an interest of five per cent. There is hardly an estate in the colony, which has not some burden of this sort pressing upon it. 2. It is equally uncommon to meet with an estate, which has not some rent charge to pay to the church, in consequence of the dying bequest of some pious ancestor of its owner. Such burdens dissipate the gains, and dishearten the industry of the colonists. 3. The planters live in towns, at a great expence, and often above their income, and leave the management of their estates to overseers. 4. The Spanish Creole has the most extravagant passion for public offices and distinctions; for military rank; for some employment in the courts of law, or in the finances; or for the cross of some order. Every Creole of rank has an apoderado, or agent, at Madrid, whose chief business is to solicit such favours for his employer, when they become vacant. Immense sums are sacrificed to this foolish vanity, and the attention of the colonist withdrawn from his true interest, the improvement of his es

tate.

5. There is a want of negroes for cultivation at Caracas. It was formerly permitted to import ne groes into this province from the West India islands; but, since the revolt of the blacks in St. Domingo,

VOL. VI, NO. XXXVIII.

this trade has been prohibited; and from 1791 to 1804, not a single negro was brought into Caracas. In 1804, permission was granted to two merchants of Caracas to import each 1500 negroes into the province.

The productions of Caracas are, 1. Cacao, which is esteemed the best in the world, except that of Soconasco. When the cacao of Caracas is sold at Cadiz for 50 dollars per cwt., that of the river Magdalena, near Carthagena, brings only 44, that of Guayaquil only 32, and that of the river Amazons only 25. A single slave can manage 1000 feet of cacao ground, which ought to produce 1250 lib. of cacao, worth 250 dollars in Caracas. The other expences of cultivation are inconsiderable. A cacao tree begins to bear fruit at the age of seven or eight years, or, near the line, at the age of four or five, and continues to bear till fifty on the coast, or till thirty in the interior. There is no branch of cultivation to which such attention is paid in Caracas as to that of cacao. 2. Indigo. The cultivation of indigo was not introduced into Caracas till 1774. It has since prospered exceedingly. The indigo of Caracas is inferior to that of Guatemala; but 25 or 30 per cent. better than that of any other country. 3. Cotton. Cotton began to be attended to in Caracas, as an object of exportation, in 1782. The cultivation of it is now considerably extended. 4. Coffee. Coffee was neglected as an object of commerce in Caracas till 1784. During the late war, many cacao and indigo plantations were given up, and converted into plantations of coffee. But the whole produce of Caracas for exportation in this article does not yet exceed a million of pounds. It is reckoned that the coffee plantations of Caracas give two pounds of coffee for every square foot. 5. Sugar. The whole of the sugar raised in Caracas is consumed within the colony. No people are so fond of sweetmeats, or use such quantities of sugar in their food, as the Spaniards It is calculated, that, in the province