No. 405. many troops, but he suspects that Mr. de Gravesand may have imagined to be so the two Missions or Indian settlements founded by the Catalan Capuchin Fathers in the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and sixty, one of them on the northern margin of the Yuruari river, a tributary of the Cuyuni, seventy leagues distant from the Dutch Barrack, which was destroyed. That the reason he has to think so is because there is no other establishment in that vicinity and in that direction. That although there are no more troops than one soldier in each one of said settlements as an escort to the Missionaries, the Caribs, whom Mr. Gravesand seems to believe, as he states in his report, may have deceived him with this story as well as several others which abound in his nonsensical report. That it is true that in February of last year the witness, as Prefect and Superior of the Missions, allowed permission to the Reverend Fathers Fr. Josef Antonio Cervera and Fr. Felix de Tarraga to go down to the mouth of Orinoco and the Barima rivers to gather the fugitive and wild Aruaca and Guarauno Indian deserters from the Missions, under their charge; that these Reverend Fathers, with the launch and escort which carried them, found their dispersed Indians between Guayne and Moruca, and while gathering them they reached a Post where there was a Hollander who had three Indian women with their children whom he had enslaved and taken from the mouth of Orinoco, as said women reported to the Fathers, who delivered them to the Missions, without offering any violence nor harm whatever to the Hollanders. That in regard to the Post and commercial house that Gravesand supposes to have been possessed by the Dutch Company, between Guayne and Powaron, the deponent does not know anything, nor has he heard of such an establishment. That he has not heard of the death of the Corporal of the Arinda barrack towards the source of the Esquivo, nor even of the existence of the That the deponent has never seen nor heard that the Hollanders had any fisheries at the mouth of the Orinoco, nor that the Spaniards had to stop them; that he does not understand that the Hollanders want any such fisheries at the mouth of the Orinoco, because they have plenty of fish much nearer to Esquivo; that the Most Reverend Father is persuaded that now, under pretext of fisheries, they want to establish themselves freely with their vessels on the mouth of the Orinoco, to re-establish and facilitate the furtive shipments of mules from Guarapiche and Guaruapo, and Barinas tobacco, hides, and other products of the Spanish Provinces, which improved considerably their colony when the Orinoco and its creeks were not guarded as they are now. This novelty and the want of commerce is the true cause of the de No. 405. cadence of Esquivo and the resentment of Mr. de Gravesand, the first merchant, and always the most interested in the illicit commerce of the colony. That the statement is equally false that said fisheries had been stopped likewise by the Spaniards on the territory of what Gravesand calls of his State, extending the same to the river Mareguine, down to this side of the Guayne, very near the mouth of the Orinoco; said supposition the deponent calls an intolerable error. That in regard to the slaves, deserters from Esquivo, the deponent says that there are two kinds, one of negroes purchased in Africa, and the other of Indians taken by the Hollanders cruelly and unduly, by means of the Caribs their allies, from our dominions, through the rivers Moruca and Guayne, emptying their waters into the sea, and in communication with Orinoco, or else through the rivers Cuyuni, Maserony, Apanony, and others running through the innermost territory of this Province and emptying into the Esquivo; that in regard to the retention of the latter, the reason is plain, because being the vassals of the King and criminally enslaved by the Hollanders, who keep this inhuman commerce with the Caribs, against every law, we could not and we ought not to return them to slavery, whenever they are happy enough to elude it, and return to enjoy the protection of the ministers of their lawful Lord and Sovereign. That neither the Indians nor the fugitive negroes from Esquivo have ever been induced by the Spaniards to run away, so far as he knows, nor is it likely that they would attempt to do so. That it is true that the Colony of Esquivo is being apparently ruined, from the time when the doors have been closed to it for the illicit trade they used to carry on with Orinoco, and the Poytos or Indian slaves have found the way to become free, when they escape from said Colony. He finally deposes that it is absolutely false that the Spaniards may have killed the Dutch Guardman or Guardmen, or attacked any other Post than that of the Cuyuni, in the year seventeen hundred and fiftyeight, when only one man was killed, and that was a Spanish soldier; and he adds, that in twenty-three years, during which he has been an Apostolic Missionary in this Province, having been Prefect three times, his long experience has shown him that it is on account of the suggestions of the Esquivo Hollanders, and their detestable commerce in Poytos, that the whole of the Caribs have not been already settled in our Missions, as well as many other savage tribes, and that said Caribs, under the advice of the Hollanders, work continually in the destruction of the new settlements, through various means, burning them as they did in seventeen hundred and fifty, attacking them by open force, or making them revolt by using diabolical arts, so that during the time deponent has been kept working on these Missions, the Hollanders united with the Caribs have destroyed seven settlements already organized, as may be seen by the legal No. 405. investigation instituted on the subject, without counting those settlements under the Jesuit Missionaries, which they burned and destroyed, when they killed many Reverend Fathers. That the above statements are the truth under the oath that he has taken; and that he ratifies and affirms the same, and will do it again if necessary, and that he is fifty eight years old. Having read his deposition, he said that it is the same that he had stated, and that it is well and faithfully written, and has nothing to add or withdraw from the same, and signs it with the Commander General, and ourselves the witnesses of the act, certifying to the same. DON MANUEL CENTURION-[here is a flourish]. FR. BENITO DE LA GARRIGA, ex-Prefect-[here is a flourish]. DIEGO IGNACIO MARIÑO-[here is a flourish]. [To the same effect are the depositions of various other witnesses, which, to avoid repetition, are not printed.] No. 406. Deposition made March 24, 1770, by Thomas de San Pedro, Capuchin monk, as to Complaints by the Dutch Minister. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, pp. 283-284.] On the said day, month, and year [Mar. 24, 1770], in order to continue the report ordered to be drawn up in the foregoing papers, there appeared in this tribunal the Reverend Father Friar Thomas de San Pedro, Capuchin monk, and missionary in this Province of Guayana, whom the Señor Commandant-General admittted upon oath which his Reverence took according to law, by God our Lord, tacto pectore in verbo sacerdotis, and promised to tell the truth in what he might know and might be asked: And being interrogated according to the tenor of said note presented by the Minister of Holland, which runs from leaves 1 to 6 of these papers, and, for his better understanding, it having been read to him word for word, he declared: That the Dutch are not, nor ever have been, in possession of the rivers or creeks which drain into the sea from the Essequibo, exclusively, up to the mouth of the Orinoco: That they have only been permitted to have in that part, a small guard of two Europeans and some Indians in a barrack which they call the Post, on the eastern bank of the River Moruca which the Dutch call Moroco; and that this settlement has not existed from time quasi-immemorial, because the whole of the Colony is not so, and we know that it began in the year [1]659: That it is untrue that the Dutch have held or do hold possession of the River Cuyuni (called by them Cayoeny), for, having established No. 406. thereon a guard and barrack like that of Moruca in the year [1]747, to facilitate the inhuman traffic and seizure of Indians, whom they enslave surreptitiously in the dominions of the King our Lord, for the cultivation of the plantations and advancement of the Colony, directly it came to our notice in the year [1]757, they were dislodged therefrom, and so neither on the Cuyuni, Maseroni, Apanoni, nor the other rivers which disembogue in Essequibo do the Dutch hold any possession, nor is it permissible that they should hold it, for since the said rivers include between them almost all the territory of the Province of Guayana running from its western boundary in which they rise to its eastern boundary where they fall into the River Essequibo, it would result from the supposed possession that the Dutch were owners of all the vast Province of Guayana, and that we, the Spaniards, held nothing therein except the worthless banks of the Orinoco, which is an absurdity: That the only place wherein the Dutch are tolerated and established is on the banks of the River Essequibo, which runs from S. E. to N. E. [? N. W.] almost parallel to the sea coast, the eastern extremity of this Province of Guayana, and leaves the interior thereof free to the Spaniards, its legitimate possessors: That the declarant does not know, nor has ever heard, that the Spaniards have built a fort on the Cuyuni or in its vicinity, with many or few troops; but that he is persuaded that Mr. de Gravesand has taken for such the two Missions or villages of Indians, which the Catalonian Capuchin Fathers founded in the years [1]757 and [1]761 on the northern bank of the River Yuruari, a tributary of the Cuyuni, and at the distance of 70 leagues from the demolished Dutch barrack, and that his reason for believing this to be the case is that we have no other establishments in that part, and that although in the said villages there are no more troops than one soldier in each, as escort for the missionary, the Caribs, to whom Mr. de Gravesand gives easy credence, as shown in his report, must have deceived him with this tale just as it appears from others with which he has filled his extravagant report: That it is a fact that in February of last year the Reverend Father Prefect of the Missions gave permission to the Reverend Fathers Friar Joseph Antonio de Zervera and Friar Felix de Tarraga to go down to the mouths of the Orinoco and River Barima to fetch back the Aruaca and Guarauno runaways or deserters from the Missions under our charge, and these Religious, with the boat and escort which conveyed them, finding their Indians scattered between Guayne and Moruca, took them and arrived at the post, where there was a Dutchman who had three Indian women with their children, whom he had enslaved and seized from the mouths of the Orinoco, as they declared to the Fathers, and the latter brought them to the Missions, but without violence or doing any damage to the Dutch. And that as regards the post and commercial establishment which Gravesand supposes the Dutch Company held between Guayne and Powaron, the declarant neither knows, nor has heard speak, of such establishment: No. 406. That the declarant has never seen, or heard say, that the Dutch have conducted a fishery in the mouth of the Orinoco, nor that the Spaniards have found it necessary to put a stop to it: neither does he perceive that the Dutch have any necessity for such fishery in the mouth of the Orinoco, seeing that they have places from which to provide themselves with fish much nearer to Essequibo; and that the most Reverend Father is persuaded that at the present time, under pretext of fishing, they wish to establish themselves freely with their boats in the mouths of the Orinoco, to re-establish and facilitate the clandestine shipments of mules from Guarapiche and Guaruapo, and tobacco from Barinas, hides and other products of the Spanish Provinces, with which they used to benefit their Colony considerably when the Orinoco, with its creeks, was not so well guarded as now; which new measure and want of commerce is the real cause of the decay of Essequibo and of the resentment of Mr. de Gravesand, the chief trader and always the most interested in the illicit commerce of the Colony: That it is an equally false statement that they have also been prevented by the Spaniards from carrying on the said fishing in the territory which Gravesand calls territory of the State itself, which, he says, extends from the River Mareguiñe up to this side of the River Guayne, very near the mouth of the Orinoco, which supposition, the declarant says, is an insufferable error: With respect to the slaves who have deserted from Essequibo, the declarant says that they are of two races, either negroes purchased from Africa or Indians whom the Dutch unjustly and cruelly seize, or cause to be seized, by the Caribs their allies, from our dominions along the Rivers Moruca and Guayne, which run into the sea and communicate with the Orinoco, or along the Rivers Cuyuni, Maseroni, Apanony, and others which run through the further interior of this Province and discharge themselves into the Essequibo: That if there is any question about our retention of these, our reason for it is clear; for being subjects of the King criminally enslaved by the Dutch, who maintain this inhuman traffic with the Caribs contrary to all law, we cannot and must not restore them to slavery when they have the good fortune to escape it by again availing themselves of the protection of the officers of their legitimate Lord and Sovereign: If the negroes are in question, the declarant says that Señor Gravesand is wanting in truthfulness; for although we know that two negro slaves, fugitives from this city to the Colony of Essequibo, were sold there by the said Gravesand, although their owners, Don Thomas Franquis and Catalina de Arocha, inhabitants of Guayana, have claimed them back and have not obtained any satisfaction; several times when Gravesand has here claimed deserters from Essequibo, and their owners have agreed that they should be sold, this has been done in Guayana, and the money produced taken to Essequibo, excepting only those slaves who made their escape to obtain the benefit of the Catholic Religion, for these have been declared free according to the King's command: and that the declarant |