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wealth or luxury can bestow; but if thus naturally injurious, under circumstances the most favourable towards correcting its malignancy, how infinitely must its virulency be increased, by the extreme fatigue, deficiency of nourishment, and inadequacy of clothing, suffered by the Independents during their predatory campaigns. Being destitute of tents, or change of dress, they are invariably exposed to every vicissitude of weather, in a country where the transitions are sudden and extreme. After After getting drenched with heavy rains, they have no other resource, than that of allowing their dripping garments to dry upon their backs, under the influence of a scorching

sun.

The troops continually in the open air, and devoid of any protection from the weather, are necessarily exposed at night to the heavy fogs and dews, which in the West Indies are so dreadfully destructive to human health; and the severity and hardship of their campaigns are, in every respect, infinitely greater than can readily be conceived, by those who have been only sub

jected to the privations usually encountered by a British army in the field. Even the natives themselves sustain serious injury and sufferings; but the uniform testimony of every individual acquainted with Venezuela, concurred in assuring us that a campaign in that country, under such circumstances, could not otherwise than prove more fatal to Europeans, than even the sword itself.

Such was the substance of the information those gentlemen afforded us, nor could we for one moment hesitate in placing the most perfect reliance on their statement, coinciding, as it did, with every other account we were enabled to procure from the merchants, who were in the habit of repeated communications with the Main, or the Patriots' own recognised agents, by whom, it must be naturally supposed, matters would be represented in the most favourable colours; the united testimony of all, friends and foes, (the former by far the largest party) concurred in establishing the truth of the foregoing particulars.

This mass of authentic information made

a deep impression on our minds, and we unhesitatingly determined on relinquishing every previous idea of joining the Independent armies. In this moment of perplexity and trouble, I could scarcely refrain from accusing myself of rashness and precipitancy, in having placed such implicit faith in the alluring expectations which had been so widely and confidently circulated in England, by the South Amecan active partisans ; but on cool reflection, I felt, that I was rather the victim of deceit, than the dupe of my own folly and want of prudence. At the period of my departure from England, the tide of popular feeling ran strongly in favour of the patriot cause; and the black and sanguinary character of the warfare, and other derogatory circumstances, were either unknown, slightly glanced at, or enforced by authorities which I, perhaps too readily, considered undeserving particular attention. My own personal situation, and prejudice in favour of the colonists, likewise tended to weaken the strength of those arguments which were opposed to the South American pro

ject; but they now recurred most forcibly to my mind, with unavailing regret at having permitted them to possess so little influence and authority.

It was extremely difficult to procure information sufficiently authentic to authorize any positive opinion of the existing state of parties on the Spanish Main, or probable consequences of the present revolutionary contest; but those persons whose intelligence or local knowledge best qualified them to arrive at just conclusions on this interesting subject, appeared generally to consider the contest as one which would be far from terminated by the defeat of the royalists, and separation of the mother country. In numerical force the Independents are infinitely superior to their opponents; poverty, defective arms, and want of discipline, however, have heretofore paralyzed their exertions, and disabled them from combating with the actual strength they possess; but these circumstances, although they may protract the war, can scarcely render its termination in favour of the Patriots more doubtful.

At present the original or Indian natives, and the South American Spaniards, have united their exertions for the subversion of the royalist power; but it is only a mutual feeling of hostility against a common enemy, which has induced these two distinct classes to join their interests, and suspend the sentiments of jealous enmity with which they are animated against each other; and it is generally apprehended, that should their combined strength succeed in the present struggle, the contest will immediately assume another character, and South America become the seat of hostility between its white and black population.

The power and influence of the latter are even already sufficiently great to enable them to reach the highest military rank, and the system of slavery now scarcely exists; the Royalists and Independents having long since proclaimed a very general manumission, in the hope of securing from these people a more cordial and effective support. The adoption of this act of policy, I understood, originated in the Royalists granting freedom to such slaves as would

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