the deep injuries which had been inflicted upon Nature and Society, neither the instructions of that benevolent Government, nor my own intentions, were to exercise the right of reprisals upon the Spaniards, although they delivered over all the Americans worthy of that name, whom they stigmatized as Insurgents, to an infamous death, or to tortures still more infamous and cruel. But when these tigers in human form made a mockery of our clemency, and, secure of impunity, persevered, even when conquered, in the same sanguinary ferocity; then, indeed, in order to accomplish the holy mission entrusted to my responsibility, in order to save the menaced lives of my FellowCitizens, I did violence to my natural feelings, and at once abandoned a clemency injurious to the safety of my Country.

Allow me to recommend Your Excellency to read the Letter of the ferocious Zerveris, the idol of the Spaniards in Venezuela, to General Monteverde, as contained in the Caraccas Gazette, No. 3; and Your Excellency will discover in it the sanguinary plans, the accomplishment of which has called forth all the energies of these wicked Men. Having had previous intelligence of their inhuman intention, which has been confirmed to the very letter by severe experience, I resolved to carry into effect the "War to the death," in order to deprive the Tyrants of the important advantages which their destructive system secured to them.

And, in fact, upon the opening of the Campaign in the Province of Barinas by the Liberating Army, Colonel Antonio Nicholas Briseño and other honourable Officers received the melancholy information, that the barbarous and cowardly Tiscar had caused no less than 16 Prisoners to be shot. Similar atrocities took place simultaneously in Calabozo, Espino, Cumana, and other Provinces, accompanied by such circumstances of inhumanity in the execution, that I should think it alike unworthy of Your Excellency and of this Communication to describe such abominable scenes.

Your Excellency may also see a feeble sketch of the inhuman acts in which Spanish cruelty indulged itself, in the same Gazette, No. 4. The general massacre rigorously executed in the peaceful Town of Aragua by order of the most brutal of Men, the detestable Zuazola, is one of those sanguinary paroxysms, which have only once or twice disgraced humanity. Men and Women, old and young, deprived of their ears and flayed alive, were immediately cast into venomous lakes,

or put to death by slow and agonizing torments. Nature was attacked in its innocent origin, the yet unborn foetus being destroyed in its Mother's womb by the cut of the sabre or the thrust of the bayonet.

The barbarian Antoñauzas and the bloodthirsty Boves enacted scenes equally agreeable to the Spaniards, in San Juan de los Moros, the Inhabitants of which were quiet and inoffensive, and wholly occupied in agriculture. Even now may be seen in its fields the bodies of these unfortunates hanging from the trees. The Genius of Crime appears to hold there its empire of death, and no one can approach the spot without feeling his breast swell with all the fury of implacable vengeance.

Venezuela has not alone been the fatal theatre of these horrible butcheries. The opulent Mexico, Buenos Ayres, Peru, and the unfortunate Quito, may be compared to so many vast Cemeteries, in which the Government of Spain piles up the bones of the Victims who have perished beneath its murderous axe. Your Excellency may also see in the Gazette, No. 2, in what a Spaniard makes the honour of his Nation to consist. The Letter of Fr. Vicente Marquetich affirms, that the sword of Regules has, in the field and on the scaffold, immolated 12,000 Americans in the course of one year only and it attributes the glory of the Seaman Rosendo Portier to his universal principle, of not giving quarter "even to the Saints themselves," should they appear in the garb of Insurgents.

I will not afflict the sensibility of Your Excellency by extending the picture of the fearful agonies which Spanish barbarity has inflicted upon Humanity, in order to establish an unjust and disgraceful Tyranny over the well-intentioned Americans. Would to God that an impenetrable veil could for ever conceal from the view of Man, the enormities perpetrated by his Fellow-beings! Would to God that a stern necessity did not make it our imperative duty to exterminate these treacherous and dastardly Assassins!

Let your Excellency be pleased to imagine yourself placed for one moment in our situation, and then declare what is the course to be pursued with our Oppressors. Let your Excellency decide whether the liberty of America is compatible with the existence of such obstinate Enemies. Every day's experience showed the necessity of having recourse to the severest measures; and I can assure your Excellency, that Humanity herself, with mild authority, dictated the same course.

Impelled by feelings, too strong to be resisted, to exercise clemency towards many of the Spaniards, they have been generously allowed to remain amongst us in perfect liberty, not even their Leader being brought beneath the avenging axe; yet these very Men have excited the direst commotions among these unfortunate People, and their recent atrocities equal, perhaps, in horror and wickedness, all that have been before perpetrated. In the valleys of Tuy and Tacota, and in the Countries of the West, to which places it did not appear probable that the Civil War would extend its desolating ravages, they have raised withering and lamentable monuments of their rabid cruelty. Harmless Females, tender Children, and aged Individuals of both sexes, have been found flayed alive, their eyes destroyed, and their bowels torn from their bodies. Actions like these must lead us to conclude that the Tyrants of America belong not to the human species. It would be in vain to grant a Passport for your Colony, or for any other place beyond the limits of Venezuela, in favour of those who are now incarcerated: experience has demonstrated the fatal consequences with which such an act of clemency would be fraught; how injurious it would prove to the public tranquillity; since it may be truly asserted that almost all those who had obtained a Passport, have, in consequence of the Oaths by which they bound themselves, immediately proceeded to land on places in the Enemy's possession, for the purpose of enlisting in the Bands of Assassins which infest the undefended Towns and Villages. Even in the depths of their dungeons they concoct subversive projects, more fatal indeed to themselves than to the Government, which is obliged to employ its power, rather in repressing the fury manifested by zealous Patriots against those who threaten them with death, than in frustrating the machinations of their fallen Tyrants.

Your Excellency can now therefore decide: either the Americans must tamely allow themselves to be exterminated, or they must destroy an iniquitous race, which, so long as it has breath, will never cease its efforts to accomplish our destruction.

Your Excellency has not been mistaken in attributing to me compassionate feelings: the same characterize all my Fellow-Citizens. We could be indulgent with the Caffres of Africa; but the Spanish Tyrants force us, even against the strongest convictions of our hearts, to make reprisals. American justice will, however, always know how

to distinguish the innocent from the guilty; and Your Excellency may rely upon the latter being treated with the humanity which is due even to the Spanish Nation.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

H. E. The Governor of the Island of Curaçoa.

SIMÓN BOLÍVAR.

65. ROYAL CÉDULA OF HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY FOR THE PREVENTION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

[Madrid, December 19, 1817. British and Foreign State Papers, IV, 68–74. Published by the British Foreign Office.]

Negro slavery was introduced into the Indies early in the sixteenth century. More than a hundred negro slaves were bought in 1510 for exportation to the Spanish colonies in the New World. This marks, according to Bourne,1 the beginning of the African slave trade in America. The trade was not free in the sixteenth century, however, licenses for it having to be obtained from the Spanish government. This contract system, known as the asiento de negros, was introduced by Spain in 1517 and continued for more than two hundred and fifty years. It is estimated that fully seven hundred thousand negro slaves were introduced into the Indies in two centuries. In 1808 Humboldt estimated the number of negro slaves there at seven hundred and seventy-six thousand. The question of the immediate abolition of the slave trade in Spain and her possessions was discussed in the Council of the Indies early in 1816. In that year the members of the Council opposed to the immediate abolition of this trade gave their reasons in a lengthy report.2 To this the majority of the Council of the Indies replied again, stating their views in favor of the immediate abolition of the

1 Spain in America, 270. Dr. Bourne devotes considerable space in his book to a treatment of the whole subject of negro slavery. Consult also J. S. Thrasher's Island of Cuba by Alexander Humboldt (1856) for an interesting account of negro slavery in the island of Cuba.

2 Consult British and Foreign State Papers, IV, 536-543. The report is there given in full.

slave trade.1 Expediency and the absence of any prejudice against immediate abolition demanded that Spain adopt a policy different from that of Portugal, the United States of North America, and Great Britain. These countries, guided by public opinion and public interest, had adopted a scheme of gradually abolishing negro slavery. Finally Ferdinand VII issued the decree here given in full.

THE KING

The importation of Black Slaves into America was among the earliest Measures directed by my August Predecessors, for the cultivation and prosperity of those vast Dominions, within a short period after their discovery. The Indians being disqualified from engaging in various useful, though laborious occupations, by their ignorance of the accommodations of life, as well as by the small progress of civilization among them, it became necessary to intrust to arms more vigorous and more active the working of the mines, and the breaking up and tillage of the soil. This plan, which did not occasion, but only availed itself of, the slavery already practised by the barbarous Nations of Africa, with a view to save their Prisoners from death, and to alleviate their melancholy condition, so far from being prejudicial to the Negroes of Africa, when transferred to America, afforded them not only the incomparable benefit of being instructed in the knowledge of the true God, and of the only Religion through which that Supreme Being is desirous that His Creatures should adore Him, but also all the advantages attending a state of civilization, without, however, subjecting them in their slavery to hardships more intolerable than those they had endured when free in their own Country. But as the novelty of this System required great circumspection in its execution, the introduction of Black Slaves into America depended always on particular Permissions granted by my August Predecessors, according to the circumstances of places and times, until it was generally permitted to import Negroes, in National Vessels as well as Foreign, by the Royal Cedulas of the 28th of September, 1789; of the 12th of April, 1798; and of the 22d of April, 1804; in each of

1 Consult British and Foreign State Papers (IV, 543-549) for the reply of the majority of the members of the Council of the Indies, favoring immediate abolition of the slave trade.