of proceeding to serve in conjunction with an army barefooted and in rags, provided with such splendid uniforms as we had been obliged to procure; to procure; and ridiculed the strange contrast which our dresses and those of the Patriots would exhibit in the field; observing, that such clothes would be alone sufficient to excite the jealousy of the natives, to whose eagerness for their possession, we would almost inevitably become a sacrifice *.

The Independent armies march in hordes, without order or discipline; their baggage consisting of little more than the scanty

*There is serious reason to apprehend that the truth of this observation has been recently but too fatally exemplified on the banks of the Oroonoco, in the massacre of several British officers, who were proceeding to join the Independent armies. As, however, this melancholy event has not received perfect confirmation, I shall merely observe, that the occurrence was fully credited at St. Kitt's, previous to my departure from that island; and I have, since my return, heard from officers more recently arrived that it was universally reported that our unfortunate countrymen had been assassinated by a party of the Patriots themselves, for the purpose of gaining possession of their baggage.

covering on their backs. They are totally destitute of tents, and in their encampments observe neither regularity nor system. The commanding officers are generally mounted, and likewise such of the others as are able to provide themselves with horses or mules, the latter of which are in great plenty. The exterminating principle upon which the war is carried on between the contending parties, render their campaigns bloody and destructive; desolation marks the progress of those hostile bands, to whose inveterate enmities the innocent and unoffending inhabitants are equally the victims, with those actually opposed to them in military strife. In action the Independents display much bravery and determination, and frequently prove successful, notwithstanding their want of discipline, deficiency of arms, and disorderly manner of attack and defence. Unhappily the work of death terminates not with the battle, for on whatsoever side victory rests, the events which immediately succeed those sanguinary struggles are such as must cast an indelible stain upon the Spanish American Revolution.

The engagement is scarcely ended, when an indiscriminate massacre of the prisoners takes place; nor is the slaughter only confined to the captives, the field also undergoes an inspection, when the helpless. wounded are in like manner put to the sword.

The following instance of vindictive cruelty on the royalist side, was related to me by an officer who was present in the engagement in which the transaction originated. In this action, a young French officer, in the service of the Independents, had his arm severed from his shoulder by a sabre cut, and being unable to sustain himself from loss of blood, he sunk to the ground. His distinguished bravery had however previously been observed by his companions, who succeeded in bearing him off the field, from whence they conveyed him into the woods, and sheltered him in a negro hut; where having applied such balsams as could be procured, they departed. The armies retired to other parts of the country, and the officer was fast recovering from the effects of his wound, when Gene

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ral Morillo, advancing upon the same route, discovered his retreat, and had him instantly put to death.

Such was the barbarous system pursued by the belligerent parties; although I must in justice observe, that I have always understood the exercise of these cruelties originated with the Royalists, and were subsequently resorted to by the Independents on principles of retaliation. Hence the system became reciprocal; passed into a general law, and has now, it is to be feared, become unalterable.

The sufferings which the Independents undergo during their campaigns, from the difficulty of procuring food, are most severe; mules' flesh, wild fruits, and some dried corn, which they carry loose in their pockets, frequently constituting the whole of their subsistence: and we were confidently assured, that the army, under General Bolivar has even often been for days together dependent for support, solely upon the latter description of provisions and waPay was now totally unknown to them, in consequence of the utter exhaus

ter.

tion of their resources; and, however successful they might eventually be, there existed no probability whatever, that they would even then possess the means of affording pecuniary compensation to those who may have participated in the struggle. As confirmatory of the foregoing information, I shall refer the reader to an extract of a letter from Trinidad, written by a most intelligent officer, with whom I am intimately acquainted, and addressed to our particular friend in London, some time previous to my return from the West Indies. This gentleman proceeded from England under the auspices of Don Mendez, on board the Gladwin, about two months prior to my departure to join the patriot standard in South America. No man left this country for that purpose possessing greater spirit, and few more scientific military talent; with a mind more enthusiastic in favour of the cause, or a firmer determination of meeting and encountering every attendant difficulty and hazard. Yet notwithstanding this ardent prepossession, he was so forcibly struck on his arrival at Marga