dered to general Bermudez, and hostilities appeared to be at an end. In 1822, however, some insurrectionary movements, instigated by the friends of a confederated form of government, disturbed for a time the establishment of order and tranquillity, but the reduction of Quito and the victory of Pitchincha, followed by the acquisition of Guayaquil, put an end to the civil dissentions of the provinces, and gave strength and security to the central administration.

Puerto Cavello and Coro were now the only places in the possession of the royalists. Coro, we believe, surrendered in February, 1822, to the patriot forces, and, although retaken shortly after, was finally evacuated in July, the Spanish troops making the best of their way to Curaçao. The Colombians, in the following September, experienced a reverse in the capture of Maracaibo by the infamous Moráles, who defended that post with an intrepidity and vigor worthy of the patriot cause, until, compelled, by successive naval losses, and a total failure of supplies, to capitulate to General Manuel Manrique and Commodore Jose Padilla, on the 3d day of August, 1823. General Paez* then marched against Puerto Cavello, now the last hold of the Spanish forces, and on the 6th of November, that place was compelled to surrender to the valor of the republican army. The Colombians having thus gradually expelled from their territory the last remains of the armies of the impotent Ferdinand, were enabled to negotiate in London, on not unfavourable terms, a loan of upwards of twenty millions of dollars, redeemable, if we are not mistaken, in thirty years from the date of the loan. The disposition of this fund has hitherto been marked by as much prudence and discrimination as can be expected from the inexperience of a youthful republic, and the measures of the present administration are, with very few exceptions, calculated to establish on a solid foundation, the prosperity and power of the commonwealth,

The relations subsisting between this country and Colombia

Colombia. The fourteenth article of that instrument enjoins the celebration of the anniversary by a "national festival, where virtue and talents, as formerly at Olympia, shall be distinguished and compensated." This, as might be expected, was found impracticable in application, and, accordingly, the fundamental law decreed at Cúcuta ordains a perpetual national festival to take place annually on the 25th, 26th and 27th of December-the first day to celebrate the independence of Colombia, the second, the establishment of the constitution, and the third, the victories by which those blessings were secured; thus wisely leaving" virtue and talents" to look for their reward before some more impartial and deliberate tribunal.

*Paez and Padilla are mulattoes.

are, doubtless, very well known to our readers. In Mr. Monroe's Message of the 5th of December, 1821, the expediency of recognizing such of the South American provinces as were able to defend themselves, with a reasonable prospect of success, against the pretensions and aggressions of Spain, was hinted at in language sufficiently intelligible; and in a special message, bearing date the 8th of March, 1822, the justice, as well as the policy of such a measure was strenuously recommended in language that will ever redound to the honor of the "last of the revolutionary presidents." The recommendation prevailed; and on the 29th of April, a bill was passed appropriating 100,000 dollars to defray the expenses of missions to the independent nations on the American continent.* On the 8th of April, Mr. Zea presented his note to the French minister for foreign affairs, and to the ambassadors and ministers of foreign powers at Paris, soliciting, or rather requiring the recognition of the independence of Colombia. The negociation proved unsuccessful. On the 6th of March, 1824, the British Commissioners held an interview with the Vice-President, in which assurances were given of the friendly dispositions and intentions of the British government, and a snuff box was offered as a testimonial of esteem, on the part of his Britannic Majesty, but declined by the Vice-President until the Congress should sanction his acceptance of it. Very recently, Mr. Canning has officially announced, to all the Foreign Ministers, the intention of the British Government to acknowledge the independence of Mexico and Colombia; and commissioners have been authorized to negotiate and conclude a treaty of commerce with their respective governments. In entering into these arrangements, England has, doubtless, been determined by her interest alone. A vast amount of British capital is invested in various enterprizes connected with the South Ame rican governments. Her mining companies in Mexico, her pearl fisheries in Colombia,† her tobacco, tea and wine monopolies in Chile, call imperatively for that protection which

*The treaty just concluded between this country and Colombia is unexceptionable in all its provisions, and carefully secures the great maritime rights for which we have always, as a nation, so strenuously contended.

+ By a decree of the Colombian congress, passed in August, 1823, a monopoly of all the pearl fisheries of Colombia was granted to Messrs. Runnell, Bridge & Runnell, on certain conditions. These fisheries, for some time after the discovery of America, were very profitable. In the year 1587, six hundred and ninety-seven pounds of pearls were imported into Seville; and one in the possession of Philip the Second weighed 250 carats, and was valued at 150,000 dollars. Recently, however, (in consequence, it is supposed, of a want of ingenuity in the manner of procuring the pearls,)

commercial treaties with an acknowledged sovereignty alone can confer. We observe, too, that the South American republics entertain none of those contemptible apprehensions of the danger of admitting foreign capital, with which our own exclusionists are perpetually distressed. On the contrary, they casily perceive that nothing can possibly constitute a better guaranty of the good will, and a better hold upon the good conduct of a foreign power, than the possession of her capital, and the means of investing it to her advantage. Netherlands, and perhaps Prussia, will follow the example of England as speedily as circumstances will admit, and France cannot long resist the obvious policy of a similar negotiation. As for Russia, Austria and Spain, it is a matter of absolute insignificance, whether they withhold or accord an acknowledgment, which, with them, is but a name that can neither confirm nor impair a Sovereignty which must shortly be recognized by all the civilized world.

The territory comprehended within the limits of the Republic of Colombia is nearly of the shape of a right-angled triangle, of which the coasts washed by the Caribean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, constitute the sides, and the north and north-west limits of Peru and the Brazils, the irregular hypothenuse. Of this territory, five parts lie north, and one part south of the equator, the city of Quito being nearly under the line. There is a very remarkable difference between the habitableness of the equatorial regions of the new and the old world, arising from the great elevation of a large portion of the former. The consequence of this is, that Colombia embraces within comparatively scanty limits, provinces of all possible varieties of climates. The changes which the traveller experiences in travelling through the mountainous districts of the south of Europe, can give but a faint idea of the geographical peculiarities of the various provinces of Colombia and Lower Peru. It is a curious fact, although not often adverted to, that in consequence of this elevation of the South American equatorial territory, an immense extent of country, of perhaps fifty thousand square miles area, possesses, although exposed to the vertical rays of the sun, the soil, the temperature and the salubrity, generally supposed to be confined to regions several thousand miles remote. Colonel Hall divides the country into three principal zones; first, the tracts of land included betwixt the Cordilleras and the sea coast; secondly, the

these fisherics have been unproductive. The substitute of diving bells, [Vide Humboldt's Essai Politique] in place of paying divers (buzos) would doubtless very much diminish the expense; and some such plan will probably be resorted to by the company.

mountainous zone, and thirdly, the savannahs, swamps and pampas between the Andes and the Orinoco. The expression zone is manifestly inaccurate, and we do not think the division is as proper or as practical as that which is generally made by the South Americans themselves. The Colombians divide their lands into the tierras calientes, the hot districts; tierras templadas, the temperate districts; tierras frias, the cool districts; paramos,* the damp cold lands, and nevados, the lands covered with snow.t

The population of Colombia, according to Colonel Hall, was 3,255,000 previous to the year 1819. We are inclined to think this estimate too high, for in 1823 the population was but 2,640,000 inclusive of Panamá, and the ravages of war can scarcely have occasioned such a serious reduction of numbers.

Of these the reduced Indians are the most, and the Negroes the least numerous.

Before the revolution there existed many absurd and oppres sive distinctions in the privileges of the different castes. The women of color were forbidden by law to wear the manto, “or black-dress used at church, or from wearing any ornament of gold or silver; custom, besides, prohibited them the use of the alfombra, or carpet, at their devotions, and that of an umbrella to skreen them from the sun in the streets." "All these distinctions," we are informed by Colonel Hall, "are now happily abolished. The law of the republic sees none but citizens in every class of inhabitants, whatever may be their origin or the tinge of their complexions. The justice of this policy has been rewarded by the exertions of the people of color, in aid of the independence of the country, of which they have been the firmest supporters, and Colombia reckons among her best and bravest officers, men, whom Spanish pride and tyranny deemed unworthy to sit at a white man's table. If any lingering prejudices still remain they are happily confined to female coteries, or an occasional explosion in a ball-room: even these last embers of irritated and childish pride, it is the interest of the republic to see extinguished."

In consequence of the smallness of the number of slaves, the Colombian government has ventured by a law passed in 1821, to abolish involuntary servitude altogether; the offspring

* The paramos are mountainous places covered with stunted trees, exposed to the winds and to a perpetual damp cold. Hence the expression, estoy emparamado, I am chilled or benumbed with cold, as if I were in the paramos. Vide Humboldt's Personal Narrative. p. 400.

Travels in the Republic of Colombia, by G. Mollien.
Vol. II. No. XII.

53

of all slaves born since the date of the law being declared free, and the proceeds of a legacy-tax appropriated to the purchase and manumission of all not otherwise emancipated by the law. Of the justice of such a proceeding we frankly confess we have very strong doubts.* That the existence of slavery is an evil of enormous magnitude, no one will deny ; but we are not prepared to say, that the insecurity of property is not still more injurious to the general good. There is every reason to believe that the evil of slavery will remedy itself, and for these simple reasons: As population increases, wages will decrease, and the price of a day's labor will gradually diminish to a day's subsistence for the workman and a certain part of his family. Now, for less than this the slave cannot possibly work, and therefore, the price of a slave will necessarily fall, in proportion as population, in a given territory, gains upon the means of subsistence, until the free laborer will eventually supersede the slave, by being less expensive to his employer. The operation of this principle has already been felt in the middle, and even in some of the southern of our states, as many of our readers are doubtless aware. England, then, has no right to make a boast of the freedom of all the inhabitants of Great Britain, for if slavery were permitted there, no one in his senses would think of employing slave labor in the cultivation of the soil, or in any other department of industry. It would infallibly ruin the man who attempted it. In the case of Colombia, however, the evil arising from the forcible appropriation of the funds of the citizen, may be less than the evil of slavery, which may be, therefore, justifiably removed by the measures adopted for that purpose.

The government of Colombia is central, not federative, that is to say, such as the United States would be if the state sovereignties were (as some of our politicians are determined, if possible, to effect,) utterly broken down and annihilated. Much as we deprecate the consolidation of our own states, we cannot help believing that the central system is the best for the scattered and uneducated population of Colombia. The election of representatives to the congress is indirect, by means of intermediate electors. A nearer approach to democracy would probably be dangerous in the actual condi. tion of Colombia, the experience of our own country having proved, that as the intelligence of the people is developed,

* We are sorry, by the way, to perceive that a distinguished member of the United States' senate, during the last session of congress, has seriously urged the expediency of a similar measure, which would virtually compel the free states to purchase the freedom of the slaves of the south.