past offences, and a promise of redressing grievances, his adherents daily and rapidly increased. Pizarro, as is the case of all usurpers, when their power is in danger, was filled with apprehension and rage. He sent deputies to bribe Gasca, and if that could not be done, to cut him off by assassination or poison; but his messengers, instead of executing his diabolical orders, joined Gasca themselves. Irritated at the disaffection of his officers and men, he prepared to decide the dispute in the field; and Gasca, perceiving that it would become necessary to employ force, took steps to assemble troops in Peru, and collect them from other colonies. Pizarro marched rapidly to Cusco, and attacked Centeno, who had joined Gasca, and although he had but half the number of men, he obtained a signal victory, attended with immense slaughter. This good fortune was probably the cause of his ruin, as it elevated his hopes so high as inclined him to refuse all terms of accommodation, although Gasca continued to the last extremely moderate in his demands, and seemed more desirous to reclaim than to conquer. Gasca having tried, without success, every means of avoiding the distressing alternative of imbruing his hands in the blood of his countrymen, at length, at the head of sixteen hundred men, moved toward Cusco; and Pizarro, with one thousand more experienced veterans, confident of victory, suffered him to advance to within four leagues of the capital, when he marched out, eager to meet him. He chose his ground, drew up his men in line of battle, and at the very moment he expected the action to commence, some of his principal officers galloped off and surrendered themselves to the enemy: their example was followed by others, and this extraordinary conduct spread distrust and amazement from rank to rank; one company after another threw down their arms, and went over to the royalists. Pizarro, and some of his officers who remained faithful, attempted to stop them by entreaties and threats, but it was all in vain ; they soon found themselves deserted of nearly their whole army. Pizarro fell into the hands of Gasca, and was beheaded the next day; several of his most distinguished and notorious followers shared the same fate; Carvajal, at the advanced age of fourscore, and who had long been accustomed to scenes of carnage and peril, on being informed of his sentence, carelessly replied:-" Well, a man can die but once." Gasca, as moderate and just after victory as before, pardoned all the rest, and exerted himself to sooth the feelings of the remaining malecontents; he simplified the collection of the revenue, re-established the administration of justice, and provided for the protection and bettering the condition of the Indians; and having accomplished every object of his mission, he returned to Spain, in 1549, as poor as he left it, but universally admired for his talents, virtues, and important services. VOL. I.

H

He intrusted the government of Peru to the Court of Audience. For several years after this the machinations and rapacity of se veral ambitious chiefs distracted the Peruvian states with civil contentions; but at length the authority of Spain was completely and firmly established over the whole of that extensive and valua ble portion of America.

CHAPTER IV.

Settlement of the different provinces in America-formed into two grand divisions-viceroyalty of New Spain and Peru-the Council of the Indies established- —a new viceroyalty called Santa Fe de Bogota-events in the provinces of Rio de la Plata―establishment of the Board of Trade of Seville-policy of Spain in relation to her colonies-difference between Great Britain and Spain, in this respect-ecclesiastical establishment in Americaconduct of missionaries-inquisition established by Philip II.oppressive conduct of the Spaniards toward the natives-their wretched condition-gold and silver mines-commercial regulations—revenue derived from the colonies.

THAT part of the southern continent of America, stretching to the eastward of Darien, comprising the provinces of Carthagena and Santa Martha, was discovered by Roderigo de Bastigas, in the year 1520, and was subjugated by Pedro de Heredia, in the year 1532. As early as the year 1544, Carthagena had become a considerable town, and its harbour was the safest and best fortified of any in the Spanish territories in the new world. Its situation is favourable for commerce, and it was selected as the port at which the Spanish galleons should first begin to trade, on their arrival from Europe, and to which they were to return, in order to prepare for their homeward voyage. The province of Venezuela was first visited by Ojeda, in the year 1499, in his voyage of discovery, which has before been noticed. Observing an Indian village, built on piles, to raise it above the stagnant water, the Spaniards, from their propensity to discover resemblances between America and Europe, bestowed on it the name of Venezuela, or Little Venice.

Charles Vth, to obtain a large loan of the Velsers of Augsburg, then the wealthiest merchants in Europe, granted to them the province of Venezuela, to be held as an hereditary fief, on condition that they were to subjugate the natives, and plant a colony in the territory. The proprietors sent out some German adventurers, who, instead of establishing a colony, wandered about the country in search of mines, and to plunder the natives. In a few years their avarice and rapacity desolated the province, instead of settling it, and the proprietors, despairing of succeeding in the enterprise, relinquished their grant, and the occupation of the country, when the Spaniards again took possession of it; but notwithstanding its natural advantages, it long remained one of their most unpromising settlements.

The new kingdom of Granada, as it was called, is an interior region, and was subjugated to the authority of Spain, in 1536, by Banalcazar, who invaded it from Quito, where he was in command under Pizarro and Quesada. The natives being more improved than any in America, not excepting the Peruvians and Mexicans, defended themselves with resolution, bravery, and perseverance; but here, as every where else, discipline and science prevailed over barbarian force. The Indians in New Granada, not having been subjected to the same services of working in mines, which in other parts of America have wasted that miserable race, continued more populous in this colony than in any other. Gold was found here, not by digging into the bowels of the earth, but mixed with the soil near the surface, on the more elevated tracts. One of the governors of Santa Fe carried to Spain a lump of pure gold, found in one of the provinces of New Granada, valued at more than three thousand dollars.

The kingdom of New Granada was first established in 1547, and was under the government of a captain-general and royal audience: the seat of government was fixed at Santa Fe de Bogota. In 1718 it was erected into a viceroyalty, together with several other provinces; but this government was annulled in 1724, and restored in 1740, and continued an independent government until the breaking out of the revolution, when it was incorporated into the republic of Colombia.

These

The provinces of Caraccas and Cumana lie to the eastward of Venezuela, and, together with Carthagena and Santa Martha, formed what was anciently called the kingdom of Terra Firma, and all are now included in the republic of Colombia. two provinces were, for a long period, principally known and distinguished for the cultivation and commerce in the nuts of the cocoa-tree, which, next to those produced in Guatemala, on the South Sea, are the best in America. A paste, formed from the nut or almond of the cocoa-tree, compounded with certain ingre

dients, constitutes chocolate, the manufacture and use of which the Spaniards first learned from the Mexicans; and being a palatable and wholesome beverage, it was soon introduced into use in Europe, and became an important article of commerce.

From the contiguity of the settlements of the Dutch to the coast of Caraccas, on the island of Curracoa, and their superior enterprise in traffic, they engrossed most of the cocoa trade from Caraccas, and Spain itself was obliged to receive the article from foreigners, at an exorbitant price, although the product of their own colonies. To remedy an evil, not more detrimental to the interests than disgraceful to the enterprise of Spain, in the year 1728 Philip the Vth granted to a company of merchants an entire and exclusive monopoly of the commerce with Caraccas and Cumana. This association, sometimes called the Company of Caraccas, restored to Spain this branch of the commerce of America, greatly extended it, as the consumption of the article increased, and being subjected to proper regulations, to counteract the effects of the monopoly, advanced the growth and progress of the settlement.

Mexico, or New Spain, and Peru, were at first regarded by the Spaniards as the most important and valuable portions of America; not so much on account of their fertility, or any geographical superiority, as from the consideration of their being inhabited by people in a higher state of improvement, and consequently affording more gratifying objects for the rapacity of the first adventurers. The numbers of adventurers which these objects, and the civil contentions which they occasioned, originally drew to these countries, tended to commence their settlement under more favourable auspices than any other colonies enjoyed. The rich mines, afterward discovered, had a powerful operation to attract enterprise and allure adventurers; and the complete subjugation of the natives, both in Mexico and Peru, and reducing them to a condition of domestic servitude, and apportioning them, together with the lands, among the first adventurers, (whilst in other districts the natives, more wild and ferocious, without fixed habitations, subsisting by hunting, could no otherwise be overcome than by being exterminated or expelled,) were among the causes which continued, for a long period, to promote the growth of Mexico and Peru, and to render them the principal of the Spa nish colonies; and the same causes occasioned the other settlements to be regarded only as appendages of one or the other of these, or of little importance. Hence, after the Spanish conquests in America had been so far completed as to justify the establishment, on the part of Spain, of regular colonial governments, their whole American dominions were divided into two immense governments, one called the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the other

the Viceroyalty of Peru; the seats of government were Mexico and Lima. The former comprehended all the possessions of Spain in the northern division of the American continent, and the latter comprised all her settlements and territories in South America.

New Spain embraced, under the Spaniards, a much more extensive region than the empire of Mexico, or the dominions of Montezuma and his predecessors: the vast territory called New Navarre, extending to the north and west, and the provinces of Cinaloa and Sonora, stretching along the east side of the gulf of California, and also the peninsula of California, on the opposite side of the gulf, and the provinces of Yucatan and Honduras, extending from the bay of Campeachy to beyond Cape Gracias a Dios, were comprised within the territories of New Spain, which did not belong to the Mexican empire. These countries were mostly visited and subjugated by Spanish adventurers, in the early part of the sixteenth century. The peninsula of California was discovered by Cortes, in 1536, and was so entirely neglected, that for a long period it was not known whether it was an island or a peninsula. Toward the close of the 17th century the Jesuits explored it, established it as an important mission, made great progress in civilizing the rude and ferocious natives, and established the same dominion over them that they did over the natives in Paraguay. At length the government, growing jealous of the Jesuits, they were expelled from the Spanish dominions, and Joseph Galvez was sent out to examine the province, who gave a favourable account of the country, and of the pearl-fishery on the coast. He also discovered several mines, apparently valuable.

Honduras, and the peninsula of Yucatan, attracted attention principally from the valuable dye-woods which they afforded, the logwood tree being produced in greater abundance there than in any other part of America. After having long exclusively enjoyed the profitable logwood trade, the Spaniards were disturbed in it by some adventurers from Jamaica, who commenced cutting logwood at the cape forming the southeast promontory of Yucatan ; then in the Bay of Campeachy, and afterward in the Bay of Honduras. These encroachments alarmed the Spaniards, and they endeavoured to stop them, by remonstrance, negotiation, and by force; but after a contention for half a century, the fortune of war, and naval superiority of Britain enabled her to extort from Spain a reluctant consent to the existence of a settlement of foreigners in the heart of her own possessions. Mortified, however, at this concession, she attempted to counteract its consequences by encouraging the cutting of logwood on the west coas of Yucatan, where the wood was of superior quality. To pro VOL. I.

6