also to be observed with respect to foreign vessels and crews.

Bolivar, the independent general, after quitting Carthagena, went to the part of St. Domingo under the authority of Petion, and there collected a force stated at 21 armed vessels, having on board 3,500 troops, of whom were 1500 coloured soldiers of the line from Petion's army, which sailed for Margarita. On May 9th, they discovered a large brig and schooner coming from the land, which crowded sail to escape. A general chace was ordered, and the brig, after a severe action and great loss, was taken. She was a king's ship of 14 guns and 140 men. The schooner was also captured. One division of Bolivar's fleet was attacked close to Margarita by seven large schooners, but the assailants were obliged to strike; and the independent fleet by these successes was augmented to 35 sail, chiefly schooners from 2 to 16 guns. Bolivar soon after his arrival at Margarita summoned the Spanish fortress of Pampatur; and upon the Commander's refusal, carried the place by storm, putting the whole garrison to death. Such is the account of these transactions received through the partizans of independence.

The first intelligence concerning Buenos Ayres relates a defeat of its army in Peru under Gen. Rondeau, who, not informed of an accession to the royal troops commanded by Pezuela, the Lima general, advanced a part of his own force too far, which was met by superior numbers, and routed. In consequence, Rondeau abandoned Potosi; he however remained in

the province waiting for reinforcements.

Commodore Brown, the admiral of the Buenos Ayres fleet which had defeated the squadron of Montevideo, after his success undertook an expedition to the eastern coast of South America, and on Feb. 9th, appeared off Guayaquil, in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. He commenced an attack upon a battery defending the shore, when, bringing his own vessel as near as possible in order to bear upon the guns, she was left aground on the ebb of the tide, troops being sent to board her, was obliged to surrender. The rest of his squadron, consisting of two large corvettes, two schooners, and some prize vessels, among which was the Consequencia of Cadiz, having on board more than 800,000 dollars, remained at anchor in the roads of La Puna. The second in command of the squadron applied to the Spanish governor for an exchange of Brown against the prisoners he had on board; which proposal was rejected, unless the whole of the squadron should also be given up, except one vessel for them to return home in, and a large sum be paid in dollars. The Com mander thereupon on the next day fired on the town. In conclusion, Brown was sent on board, on the condition of releasing his prisoners, and restoring four captured vessels, and paying some money besides. It appears, that before this occurrence the Buenos Ayres squadron had obtained considerable success, and struck a great alarm on that coast.

Of the further operations of
Bolivar

Bolivar, the most discordant accounts have been given by the opposite parties. About the end of May he sailed with his squadron to the eastern coast of Cumana, where he landed and gained possession of a defensible post. He was there surprized by the governor of Cumana, and it is said, lost a great part of his forces. He afterwards withdrew to Margarita; and finding that a royalist squadron was approaching to attack Pampatur, he ordered the embarkation of the women and children who had fallen into his hands, and sailing away, landed 60 miles from La Guira. Here his forces occupied a craggy mountain considered as impregnable; but being surrounded by the royal troops, they were all put to the sword except those who escaped to the fleet, which immediately took its departure. Such is the royalist account; to which it is added, that Bolivar, attempting to penetrate into the interior, was completely routed by the king's troops, and after further actions, the slaughter among the insurgents is represented as so great, that their cause would appear entirely ruined in that quarter. Bolivar was afterwards heard of at the West Indian island of St. Thomas.

On July 19th, was published at Buenos Ayres a Declaration of Independence, by the "Representatives of the United Provinces in South America assembled in General Congress." Invoking the Supreme Being, and protesting to all the nations and men of the globe the justice of their intentions, they declare their unanimous purpose to break the

galling bands which united them to the Kings of Spain, and assume the character of a nation, free and independent of Ferdinand VII., his successors, and their mother country.

The situation of these provinces was at this time critical. Artigas, who had quitted Buenos Ayres, apparently to set up for himself, and had placed his troops on the left bank of the Rio de la Plata, gave a pretext to the Portuguese government in Brazil, for interfering in the affairs of the Spanish colonies; and it was known for a considerable time past, that an armament was preparing, the purpose of which was matter of conjecture. At length the Brasilian army entered the territory of Montevideo, and two proclamations were addressed to its inhabitants, one by the Marquis de Allegrete, Governor and Captain-general of the Captainship of St. Pedro of the Rio Grande; the other by Gen. Lecor, Lieut.-gen. in the army of Portugal, and commander-in-chief of the troops destined for the participation of the left bank of the Rio de la Plata. The language of these proclamations was very vague and indeterminate; but the second gave as the reason for the entrance of the Portuguese troops, the repeated insults given by the tyrant Artigas to the inhabitants of Montevideo, and the Rio Grande," and the proof that there could be no stable government among themselves, nor security in the Portuguese dominions, whilst they remained subject to his oppression. Two other proclamations from the same authorities appeared in the Cadiz

66

papers.

papers. The first is apparently the same with the former; but that of Lecor is entirely different. It begins, "Without prejudicing individual interests, we proceed to take possession, in the name of his Most Faithful Majesty our Lord, of the territory to the east of the river Plate. It has been a necessary measure adopted between the cabinets of our monarch and his Catholic Majesty who subjects you to the dominion of a king, great, beneficent, and generous.' If this be authentic, it removes any doubt of the concert of the two crowns in this extraordinary expedition, and of the intention of a transfer of American territory from the Spanish to the Portuguese dominion, doubtless for a purpose of mutual advantage. The general fact of this invasion has alone yet been made known in Europe, but much curiosity has been excited as to the further results.

In the extensive province of Mexico, as far as can be deduced from the extraordinary accounts of the opposite parties, the greater part of the districts north of the city of Mexico were in the power of the independents, while the royalists retained the possession of the south, especially of the chief towns. Morello, the independent general, having been taken prisoner in an action, was brought to the prison of the Inquisition at Mexico, and was condemned and executed in that city. The patriotic cause is represented as having obtained an accession of strength by the following circumstance. One of the commanders who, with the officers under him, quitted Carthagena on its reduction by the royalists, fitted out a

squadron, with which he took possession of the posts of Matagorda and Galveston in the northern part of the bay of Mexico. A decree was afterwards published by "Citizen Joseph Manuel de Herrera, Deputy of the Mexican Republic," in which, by virtue of the powers and instructions given him by the Mexican Congress, he enacts certain articles relative to the establishment of Matagorda and Galveston, until an improved form of government shall be sanctioned for the province of Texas, in which they are situated. Later accounts from Mexico speak of the affairs of the republicans in that quarter as wearing a prosperous aspect; but there is reason to suspect that the intelligence is adapted to the effect it may produce on the favourers of their cause in the United States.

The latest advices from Spanish America agree in reporting successes of the patriots in different parts. A general in their service, under the name of Sir Gregor M'Gregor, who had been returned as killed in the royalist accounts, was at the head of a considerable force in Venezuela, where he was making a rapid progress, and after having taken possession of Cumana, was proceeding against Caraccas. This place, however, was occupied by the royalists on October 16th, when

a gazette was published there, announcing a victory ob. tained by their party at sea, over a small force of the independents. In such a perplexed and indecisive state of things, it cannot be desirable to lengthen this article by minute and uninteresting details, to which little authority can be annexed.

British

British West India Islands. No tice was taken in the history of the last year, of ́the unfavourable reception which the Slave Registry Bill, introduced into Parliament by Mr. Wilberforce, met with in the Island of Jamaica. The feeling respecting it was participated, as might be supposed, by all the other British Islands in the West Indies. The Houses of Assembly in each appointed committees to report on the tendency of the proposed bill, which ex. pressed their opinions in strong language, generally contending against the right of Parliament to legislate internally for the colonies, and attributing the agitation of the measure to fanatics, unacquainted with the matter on which they undertook to legislate.

In this state of affairs an alarming insurrection broke out among the negro slaves in Barbadoes. On the night of April 14th, the slaves of some estates on the windward part of the island rose in open revolt, and began to execute a plan of destruction which appears to have been general. They began with demolishing the houses of the overseers, and proceeded to destroy the sugar pans and all the implements belonging to the works, and to spread conflagration over the fields of sugar canes. The alarm soon reached Bridgetown, and martial law being proclaimed, the militia and troops from the garrison marched against the insurgents, who were dispersed through the interior in perpetrating their ravages. Having apparently formed no concerted project of resistance, they retreated in all directions at the VOL. LVIII.

sight of the military, and were fired upon with so much effect that eight or 900 were killed or wounded, and a great number made prisoners. On the following morning tranquillity was perfectly restored, but not fewer than twenty estates in a single parish had been entirely laid waste by fire. Of the white inhabitants very few suffered in their persons; and the negroes in many estates stood to the defence of their masters. Notice of these occurrences was transmitted to Gen. Sir James Leith at Guadaloupe, who immediately embarked in a French vessel, and reached Barbadces on the 24th. A considerable number of the insurgents were executed; and Sir James issued an address to the whole slave population, for the purpose of correcting their mistaken notions, and reconciling them to the lot in life which had befallen them. The event was studiously connected with the consequences of the proposed registry bill by all the enemies of that measure; and it was affirmed, that the negroes had been led to consider it as a law of general emancipation, the delay of which had roused their fury. Some ar gumentation on this subject will be found in our parliamentary history.

An alarm could not fail to spread throughout the West India islands on the intelligence of such an insurrection; and as early as April 24th, Sir Charles Brisbane, Governor of St. Vincent, and the other islands bearing the name of the Grenadines, thought it advisable to issue a proclamation relative to the subject. He

[M]

spoke

spoke of it as the result of a delusion practised by some design ing men upon the most ignorant of the slave population in the islands, to make them believe that the British Government had interfered in their behalf, by directing the colonial authorities to make such a change in their condition as would almost extend to total emancipation. He said that his Majesty's government had been always disposed to second the views of the colonial legislatures in promoting the comforts and happiness of the slaves, for which purpose many salutary regulations had been made; but that beyond this, no interference on its part was to be expected.

Of the notions prevalent in this island respecting the origin of discontents in the slave population, an extract from the Minutes of the House of Assembly on May 3d, affords a remarkable exemplification.

"The following message came from the Council:

This board further recommends, that an act of the legislature should be immediately framed, for the better regulation of the Methodist mission in this government; and that dissenting preachers of every denomination should in future not be allowed to preach within it, until they have entered into securities, themselves in 4001. currency, and two freeholders in the like sum each; that no doctrine or opinion shall be inculcated or circulated by them unfriendly to the system of government established in this colony, or inconsistent with the duty slaves owe to their masters; and that every such preacher shall

also take a solemn oath, binding himself in the observance of this obligation; and further deposing he has no connexion, and holds, nor will hold, any correspondence, directly or indirectly, with any self-created society, or any other unauthorised set of men in England, who, either directly or indirectly, have or shall attempt to interfere in the relations between master and slave in these colonies. ANDREW ROSE,

Clerk of the Council." To which was returned the following answer :

"The recommendation suggested by your Hon. Board, for obviating as much as possible the baneful and pestilent doctrines. of certain Methodist missionaries within this government, has long been a subject of a most serious reflection in this house; and it pledges itself to lend its hearty aid and co-operation to carry into full force and efficiency any law. or laws which may be framed by your Hon. Board for remedying the evil complained of.

ALEX. CRUIKSHANK, Speaker."

Further intelligence from Barbadoes, dated May 16th, related that martial law still was in force, and that the militia were much harassed by their constant guard, and their marches through the island in search of the insurgents, or in conveying them for execution to their owner's plantations. More than a thousand of these unhappy wretches are said already to have lost their lives, and many remained to undergo capital punishment; nor is it to be wondered at, that the slaves who continued quietly at their labour, displayed a sulky demeanour