Star.
London, England, 1818-09-25 00:00:00

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'B4
SOUTH 4UEIUCA.
14 REPEZSENTATIO (14430E.1irilACIII00
or Tore OE or CAEACAS,
AUDIENCE or oAaloAs. '
" MOST POWERTUL Sli
during the long space of
-firmi AMC* tnried in:

N ;

iron :

after pat

and loaded With
sable immbeis. of
the Arise fate I after having witnessed
cal and melancholy scenes after having,
alterable patience, repressed the feelings of my soul ;
nod, finally, • itfti; being fully convinced that; owing
to a lamentable effect of the most notorious infrac-
tion; the people of Venezuela groan under the cruel'
yoke of the heaviest oppression : it appears at length
time, for the honour of the Spanish nation, for the
salvation of these Provinces, for the credit and re-
sponsibility I have at stake in them, that I should
take up
ctehue pen, at the only and precise moment that
it has Allowed to me, in order to claim, before
the Supreme Judicature of the country, our sealed
and incontestable rights. I should fill many pages
if I were to execute this task by the detail of all the
events that have occurred during this ominous pe-.
riod ; but I shall console myself with exhibiting them
briefly and succinctly, and with the precision which
the subject requires.
" The city of Caracas, and some cities and towns
of the interior, had just experienced the dreadful ca•
tastrophe of the earthquake, on the 26th of March,
last year, which buried in its ruins upwards of ten
thousand of the inhabitants, and the earth continuing
in a state of agitation, and the inhabitants panic-
struck from the frequent concussions of nature, these
sought for safety in the woods and fields; which, al-
though it preserved their existence from like destruc-
tion, .exposed them to the ardent heat of the sun, to
the intemperature of the air, 'and all the disasters re-
sulting from this ; exhibiting to humanity the most
melancholy and painful spectacle of which there is
an example in the annals of Columbia! •It was ae
this critical moment that the expedition from Coro,
advancing into the interior of the country, and pro•
fang of these unforeseen. accidents, waE enabled to
penetrate as far as the city of Vilemcia.
" I omit to enter into the particulars of the cam-
paign, as too well known; but it is necessary to state,
that Caracas, sensible of the imminent danger to
which she was exposed, I was, by the unanimous and
spontaneous movement and consent of all the Consti-
tuted Authorities, named Generalissimo of her troops;
and that, invested with the supreme powers which
they had exercised, and then deposited in me, I dis-
charged my duty with all the honour and zeal in my
power, by using every exertion to bring.matters to a
happy issue. But, notwithstanding the advantages
we gained at the post of Guayca and the town of
Victoria, still as, on the other hand, I was convinced
of the calamitous situation. to which the capital as
well as the port of La Guayra were reduced, both
from want of provisions, and by the rapid incursions
of the slaves from the vallies and coast to Windward
(for the e, stimulated by the offer of freedom, which
our enemies had made them, had already begun to
commit the most horrid assassinations, in Guatire and
other places), I felt the alisolute necessity of-adopt-
ing a measure, which, saving my honour and re-
spoasibility, and putting a stop to evils so transcen-
dant, even to those who fomented them, might re-
store peace and tranquillity to the people, repair in
some degree the disasters of the earthquake, and, in
short, reconcile the Americans and Europeans, so
that in future they might form one satiety, one fa-
mily, pad have only one common interest : Caracas
thus.giving an example of her political views to the
rest of the Continent, proved that she- preferred an
Istaiourable reconciliation, to the hazardous move-
ments of a civil and desolating war.
" So salutary an idea, approved of and applauded
by all the principal inhabitants of that city, was con-,
stilted with the most judicious and enlightened Eu-
ropeans, and supported by reasons of such advantage,
that they became self-evident at the first glance. Un-
der such favourable auspices, I promoted the nego-
tiations with the Chief of his Catholic Majesty's ex-
pedition. Fur this purpose I sent Commissioners
with competent instructions, and after a short armis-
tice, some discussions, and overcoming all the ob-
stacles which presented themselves, the 'Treaty of
Capitulation was celebrated with the customary hos-
tazcs, and all the rights and formalities prescribed
by the law of nations. I exhibited this Treaty in
Caracas, and it was afterwards printed and circula-
lidsthroughout the province. A short time previous
I, Led also written to Cumana and Margarita, and
participated to them my resolution, and prepared
them to ratify the contract, which, through my re-
commendation, they did in fact afterwards sanction,
in presence of the Commissioners, Jove and Ramirez.
" In exact compliance with the stipulations, the
towns were surrendered to the Spanish Chief, and
the people laid down their arms a id submitted cheer-
fully to the new order of things, which they expected
would produce peace and tranquillity. The Most
Enid acquired courage, and, on reading the procla-
mation of the Commandant-General, Don Domingo
de INlonteverde of the 3d of Augu3t, and the Pas•
taral Address of the Right Rev. Archbishop of the
sth, they all hastened to the regeneration of the
Country and a solid pacification, and nothing was
wanting on our part to the full and satisfactory exe-
cution of the pacification.
" With what pleasure did I satisfy myself with
having fulfilled, with decorum and integrity, the
duties of my situation, and of having identified myr
kelf with the beneficent intentions of the General
Cortes of the Spanish nation, when I saw the Chief
of the Expedition consent to it, and found his obsere
dance of the Treaty in the august will pf that Legis-
lative Body ! I thought to perceive at a distance a
luminous horizon, whoselight would at length reach
us to re-establish peace, and reciprocally unite the
iattreits of both hemispheres !
" I protest to your Highness I never thought I had
discharged my trust with so great satisfaction, as
when, in the disastrous circumstances I have de-
scribed, I ratified by my signature a Treaty so be-
neficial .and analogous to the general welfare, sti-
pulated with so great solemnity, and sanctioned by all
the requisites knoarn to the laws of cations—a Treaty,
intended to form an epoch in the history of Vene-
zuela Treaty, which Great Britain would see with
equal pleasure, for the advantages it produced to her

was procUmed, that it was prOceeding to a
by-trardpling on the rights of and cop•
son, various persons, arrested in an ar-
bitrary-manner, or for sinister and undue purposes.
These first excesses, committed against the common
safety, 'and contrary to the agreement entered into,
agitated the passions of those who only sought for
tapport to give them vent.
" Hence denunciations were multiplied, and poli-
tical opinions, formerly sustained, but forgotten in
virtue of this contract were charted as crimes against.
the State ; and, in short, by stringing offences toge.
liter the list of an almost general proscription were
dpened, which reduced the unfortunate inhabitants
tcr mourning, grief, and desolation, who, having es-
caped the ravages of the earthquakes, had, with ge-
' nerosity and confidence, delivered themselves up on
the security and guarantee so often ratified.
" To justify these proceedings, new conspiracies,
projects of revolution, subversive meetings, ar.d all
the springs that malice could invent, were resorted
to—the arrests were repented, and every day was
„marked by the imprisonment of different individuals.
All these victims were conducted to the port of La
Guayra ; some with their hands and feet bound,
mounted on mules of burthen ; others dragged on
foot, and all threatened, ill-treated, mid expo ,ed to,
every insult of those who conducted them, 'and even
Hr
depiived of performing on the road the offlinaff fulse-
'tans of nature, presented to the view of the spee-
ators an object the most worthy of compassion end
'lnterest !.. I saw then, with amazement, a repetition
of the same scenes of which I had been an eye-wit.
*satin France !
*•'"I'll saw droves of men of the most illuntious end
distinguished ranks, classes and conditioWueated
like the most atrocious felons—l saw theta buried
with myself in horrid dungeons--I saw venerable age,
I saw tender youth, the rich, the poor, diemechanic,
In short, the priesthood itself, reduced to shackles and
chains, and condemned to breathe a mephitic air,
which extinguished the artificial light, infected the
blood, and led to an inevitable death !
" I saw, in fine, .Sacrificed to this cruelty, citizens
distinguish
distinguished by their grobity and talents—l saw
them perish almost Addenly in those dungeons, not
only deprived of the assistance -.which humanity dic-
tates for the relief of the body, butexpire in the arms
of their corapoinns, destitute even of those spiritual
Succours which our holy religion prescribes—men,
who I am satisfied would have perished a thousand
times with their sarnis" in their hands, rather than
submit.to suet' 'outrages and treatment:
" In the midst of this confusion, produced by events
of sufficient notoriety, the wise and liberal Constitu-
tion, which the General Cortes sanctioned on the 19th
March of the last year, was promulgated in Caracas.
A monument, so much the more glorious and ho-
nourable to the worthy Representatives who dictated
it, as it was likely to prove the Iris of Peace, the
anchor of liberty, and the first but most important
step that the mother country had ever taken for the
benefit of the American Continent. The Veneaue-
Rails thought that,. under the shelter and protection
of this precious shield, all their misfortunes would
be at an end—that the imprisonments would relax—
that tranquillity and mutual cor.fidence would be re-
toted, and that a new order of things, a system free
and liberal, would for ever ensure their lives and pro-
perty. But who will believe it? In the very act 'of
swearing on the Altar, before the SUPREME Basso,
the inviolable observance of the Constitution, fresh
imprisonments, like tl.e Ermer, were going on, which
were continued for marry days, and the dungeons,
of La Guayra and prisons of Caracas filled by those
arrests to the extraordinary number, as I am in-
formed, of fifteen hundred persons ! Nor where these
unjust acts confined to this Province.
" Cumana, Barcelona, and Margarita, under the
auspices of the capitulation, and the shelter of up-
right and impartial Magistrates, were enjoying pro-
found peace, undisturbed calm, and all the blessings
and happiness which the exact observance of that
solemn compact carried with it, when on a sudden a
Commissioner from the capital appeteri, and in spite
of the Chiefs of tho.e districts, and in contempt of
good faith, an infinite number of every class and
rank, without consideration for the respectable grey
hairs of the man of eighty, or the venerable charac-
ter of the priesthood, are arrested, loaded with irons,
and buried in the dungeons of La Guayra and Puer-
to Cabello. (Tole ,ontinu:d.)

astonishment,
Spanish

at
capi-

17ofit.

A private letter from Paris contains the following
particulars respecting the state of political matters
in Spain :
" The Minister of the Thiited States of America is
still well received at Court, in spite of the protest
addressed by King Ferdinand to all the Sovereigns
of Europe against the occupation of Pensacola. It
appears that, after the satisfaction given to Spanish
pride by the Cabinet of the United States, every thing
will be arranged by a pecuniary negotiation, and by
compensations which will be more useful to Spain
than a territory from which she did not know how
,to derive any advantage, and which she probably
would net• have been long able- to keep. The cool
behaviour of the Court is all reserved for M. de
Souza, Minister of Portugal. The credit of your
Ambassador, though evidently increasing, does not
reach so far as to produce a reconciliation, or even
the hope of it, with the Court of Brazil.
44 Enough is known at Madrid for every body to
feel corivinced, that a mediation or guarantee of
words, as has been generously •proposed by some of
your Journals, will not suffice to bring back *nth
America to submission. It would require effective
succours of men and ships, with money; and it Is not
believed that either England or Russia is any longer
disposed to furnish any, or that they are so closely
united as to hazard such an enterprize in common,
which perhaps might lead to their disunion in ano-
ther hemisphere.
44 The troops of Spain, although in constant readi-
ness, according to some journals, to put to sea, are

Ally—a Treaty, in tine, which opened to the Euro-
etSigarCA. peen Spaniards a safe andopermastent asylum, let the
struggle in which they -were- engiged with France
01111111ASICISOO MIRANDA; A terminate 23 it'snight. Snob •ORTe Ally ideas, such
ifr CARACAS,• TO VIZ ROYAL my sentiments, and such the basis of this p
. acacias, which I proposed, and carried
ut.—After having observed, into due effect. ,
eight months, the most pro- " But what was my surprise sod' astonishment,
• dirritinlifiltptim, when I saw, two days afterwards, that the Spanish
after having seen a conside- Government had been established in Caracas, and at
tsmand conditions. „undergo_ the very momentin 3ehich the inviolability of.the capi-
ng witnessed the most tragt; tulation was proclaimed, that it was proceeding to a
:nes : after barium with till. breach of it, -by-trampling on the rights of and cop.