Spanish America, Vol. II (of 2)

Richard Bonnycastle

Richard Henry Bonnycastle

Spanish America, Vol. II (of 2)

CAPTAIN-GENERALSHIP OF CARACCAS

Caraccas is a name taken from that of a tribe of Indians, and given to a country which includes New Andalusia, or Cumana, with Margarita, Barcelona, Venezuela, or Caraccas Proper, Maracaybo and Coro, on the coast of the Caribbean sea, Varinas and Spanish Guiana in the interior.

BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT

It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea, east by the Atlantic, south by Peru and Dutch Guiana, and west by the kingdom of Santa FГ© or New Granada; its extent may be computed from the twelfth to the eighteenth degrees of north latitude, and occupies a space extending over a surface equal to 48,000 square leagues.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND GOVERNMENT

The Caraccas are subdivided into seven provinces; viz. New Andalusia or Cumana; Barcelona, Venezuela or Caraccas Proper, containing Venezuela and Coro, Maracaybo, Varinas and Guiana, with the detached government of the island of Margarita; the whole of these are under the particular superintendence of an officer of the highest rank, who is styled captain-general of the provinces of Venezuela, and the city of Caraccas. The population amounts to nearly one million, of whom sixty thousand are slaves, and about one-ninth Indians.

DISCOVERY AND HISTORY

The coast of this country was originally discovered by Columbus in 1498, during his third expedition. Several adventurers succeeding in exploratory voyages on this part of the continent, the Spanish government came to the determination of endeavouring to place colonies on its soil. These being chiefly ill conducted, and managed by priests unacquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, did not succeed, and it was found necessary to endeavour to subdue the inhabitants by force. When this was partially effected, and Spanish settlers were placed in some security, the management of the new colonies was entrusted to the care of the Welsers, a German mercantile company. These people exercised, for a length of time, an uncontrolled sway over the unfortunate Indians and the colonists. Their excess of punishment and their fraud becoming at last notorious, the king of Spain deprived them of their power, in 1550, and appointed an officer of the crown to administer justice to the oppressed.

This office, under the title of captain-general of the Caraccas, has subsisted ever since, and with some few variations in the territorial divisions, and some abridgments of the authority of the person who fills it, it existed in the same form, until the year 1810. At this period, the mother country, subdued in part by the victorious arms of the French nation, had no time to attend to the situation of her transatlantic colonies. Engaged in destructive and terrible struggle herself, she little knew of the events which were taking place in the Americas, or if she did know them, was unable to assist those subjects devoted to her cause, or to quell the insurgent and ambitious. Taking advantage of the shackled state of the resources of Spain, the disaffected raised the standard of rebellion, and formed a junta suprema (a congress, or supreme council) in Caraccas. At first they published their acts in the name of Ferdinand the Seventh; but soon, however, on the arrival of Miranda with some troops, declared themselves independent of the mother country, and appointed Miranda to the chief command. Spain now placed their ports in a state of nominal blockade.

They have since been daily engaged in hostile measures, and junta has succeeded to junta, royal power to insurgent government, and vice versa, with little interval up to the present moment. The Caraccas may indeed be styled the focus of the Spanish American revolution. Numerous and bloody actions have taken place between the Spanish troops and the Caraccanians, Miranda has been beheaded, and the captain-general has reinstated himself.

Don Simon Bolivar, a native of the country, posse