Star.
London, England, 1815-02-13 00:00:00

SULTAN AM.dRICdi.

Every arrival from the West Indies, announces
the continuation unexampled horrors and acts of
cruelty in Spanish America : and every accouut
concurs in stating, that the civil discord rages with
unabated fury. The retaking of a town by the Spa.
niards, is now a signal for the indisaiminate murder
of its irhabitants; and thus we see that Boves, the
oppress•T of Caracas, on lately entering Cumana,
put the men, women, and children to the sword.
What will he the end of these repeated massacres,
and what will be the state of the country when they
are over? We have oncit shed the tear of sensibility
over the conquest of South Colombia ; wnat will our
children say,- when they read what is now passing in
the 19th century, and in the face of Engl.md, who,
in some measure, stands as the worthy u,npire of the
wrtld ? This is a war of brigandage, the :.rages of
which, eye-withesses say, posterity will suppose as
fabulous. These horrors ate even increased by their
',repetition in the Spanish prints of Mexico, Cadiz,
&c.; but the misloitune is, they seldom meet the
eye of the Britiskpublic, yet from what is going on
in Spain, we may inter what they are on the other
side the water. •

In Mexico, Venegit, by a public decree enacted
that ee all insurgents were to Le instassily shot, ani only al-
lowed time to say a short prayer;" and even a Liente-
11.111L commanding V. 3 men, was authorized to exe-
cute this decree. The consequence has ben, that
thousands of Indians and Creoles have been put to
the sword in cold blood. in exactly the same manner
as Cortes did. General Calleja informed the Viceroy
of Mexico, that in the affair of Aculco, in which
he lost one man, and two wounded, lie put to the
l
sword five thousand seduced Indians, and that their
total loss was 10,000. 7he most of those were Indians
kneeling for mercy!:—The same General in Guanax-
oato put 14,000 old men, women, and children, to
die swot d, and destroyed the city, because the insur-
gent laany had these taken up its quarters, but by a
retreat had escaped his fury. General Oruz. by
public decree, imposed death on whomsoever 44 shall
nave • •
in his possession an axe or a small knife," and
adds—,, that every town shall be decimated, and
every tenth person shot, whete any intercourse has
been had with insurgents, even though it hat Leen be-
tween fiaher and son."
aid these been threats only consigned to paper,
had they been the hasty breathings of revenge, but
b ores' in deeds, they might perhaps have h.en over.
looked by the politician, who considers the highly
increased degree of acrimony infUstal into the dispute
and the character of the nation from whose agents
they isstool. 13th we see the terms and latitude
of such decrees cart led into full and, ttequtnt effect;
when we bee till rats horrid ill their word.ng, yet still
aggravated by the inhuman manner in which they,
are executed, and when we at the same time consi-
der what the South Colombians are contending for,
the moralist and vlolosophts mt t shudder, and ex-
claim with the venctilb:e Las CAsas," these Spaniards
are not men, Sett devils in human flesh."
The victims in the Viceroyalty of Mexico alone,
are now estimated at near a million of persons ; and
the loss in the other sections is proportionate to their
population. In Caracas, the prisoners by hundreds
were mutually murdered, and from the time of the
eat thqu.ike, the whole of that province has witnessed
excesses of cruelty surpassing those of Alva in the
Netherlands. By a late Jamaica Paper, the black hole
of Calcutta ha. been repeated, for in Puerto Cavell°,
mote than fifty prisoners were put into a powder ma-
gazine, without light or air, and the next morning
nearly all found suffocated.
Indeed, it would not be possilile, nor even desira-
ble, to convey an edequate idea of the horrors that
have been carrying on for five years in Spanish Ame.
rica ; in litstory they have no parallel. Too soon,
alas ! it is to be feared, they will be thrown in the
face of Europe that has witnessed' them with indii-
lerence, and of England whop'after instigniingSpa.
nosh A
cattICIICA in the most solemn manner to assert
her tights and throw pff an ignuminiou; yoke, has
not only beheld 431 with cold Apathy, but not even

. . •

offered a public .61, peliste unchains of &liege nee.
In share, the erupt, is nearly at a mkt sad it Is
manifest, that Ferdinand, by his own weakness and
despotism, has for ever hr 'ken the chains lie sought
to impose. Spanish America must he lire, this is
the decree of fate, and the sincere wish of every one
acquainted with her history ; but our children will
lsnve to deplore the means by which this event has
been produced. They will have to regret that Eng-
land has not shaied in its glory, or anticipated its
important consequences.
T;iis is the first time the oppressed have called on
Englaad vain; this is the first time di it a whole
Contiwnt opens exhaustless resources, aril is disre-
garded. It was ever a beloved principle b our own
politics and the maxim of Burke, 6' thst thu poorest
being that crawls on the earth, contending ris save
itstlt from injustice and oppression, is au object re-
spectable in the eyes of Gorr and man ;" yet seven-
teen millions of people, tyrannized for :400 years in
at manner unknown even in the Turkish dominions,
and bleeding under the stripes of their inlwman
task-masters, solicited our interference to obtain for
them a reasonable redress, such as might place them
on the footing with men, but hitherto without any
effect. Have we done any one act to save any one
,of the indivi.luals thus slaughtered by thousands?
As long as our alliance existed with die Peninsula,
from the obliquity of the Spanish ch irscter, some.
cause for all this apathy might be alleged ; but now
that this is at an end, now that tEc object is attained;
and we find that ingratitude and ill-treatment are our
only returns, why do we liesitate?—Do you want to'
confer bent fits I to remove misery ! to extend your
commerce ! Look at South America.