No. 410. 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 Augustina Catalina de Arocha, inhabitants of Guayana, have claimed them back and have not obtained any satisfaction, several times when Gravesand has here claimed restitution of the negro slaves, 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, except only those slaves who made their escape to obtain the benefit of the Catholic religion, for these have been declared free as the King has commanded. And that neither the Indians nor the negroes, fugitives from Essequibo, have, to the knowledge of the declarant, been induced by the Spaniards to escape, nor does it seem to him likely that any one has engaged in upon such action with the risk of being hung in Essequibo; that it is a fact that the Colony is going to its ruin since the door has been shut for the illicit traffic which it carried on previously in Orinoco, and the Poitos or slaves have found the door of their liberty open so that they can escape from there; and finally, he says, that the statement is absolutely false that the Spaniards have killed any Dutch guard or guards, or have attacked any other post of theirs, except that of the Cuyuni in the year 1758, in which action only one man died and he was a soldier of the Spaniards; and he adds that he has been resident for twenty-seven years in this province, and that with this experience he can, and ought to say, that the instigations of the Dutch of Essequibo and their detestable traffic in Poitos is the reason why all the Caribs in our Missions, and many other nations of savages, have not already been settled, and why they labour continually, under the direction of the Dutch, in the destruction of our villages by various means, at one time burning them as they did in the year 1750, at another attacking them by main force, and at another carrying them off by diabolic craft and policy; in such wise that during the period alone in which the declarant has been acquainted with the missions of the Catalonian Capuchin Friars of this Province, the Dutch together with the Caribs have destroyed nine of their established villages, without counting those they burnt and destroyed belonging to the Jesuit and Observant Missionaries of Orinoco, likewise killing many fathers and soldiers; and that among almost all these savages, Hollanders have been found painted like Caribs; and that what he has declared is the truth under obligation of the oath which he has taken, which is ratified and affirmed therein, and if necessary he will repeat it. That he is forty-six years of age; and this declaration having been read to him, he said that it is the same that he made, that it is well and faithfully written, that he has nothing to add or subtract therein; and being blind, has ordered his eldest son, Santiago, to sign for him as he did with the said Señor Commandant-General and us the witnesses, whereof we certify. No. 411. Cipriano Maiorga summoned to Testify as to Complaints by the Dutch Minister; March 29, 1770. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 291.] The judicial witnesses summon before this tribunal Cipriano Maiorga in order that, by taking down his declaration, the requirements of the declarations of the Capuchin Fathers, Friar Joseph Antonio de Zervera and Friar Felix de Tarraga, Missionaries of this Province, may be completed. Thus Señor Don Manuel Centurion, Commandant-General of this Province, provided and ordered in this city of Guayana on the 29th of March, 1770, and signed it in the presence of us the aforesaid witnesses, whereof we certify. No. 412. Return of summons for witness Cipriano Maiorga, March 29, 1770. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 292.] The same day [Mar. 29, 1770] we the judicial witnesses call upon Cipriano Maiorga, as Captain of the launch in which, during the month of February of last year, the two Capuchin Missionary Fathers, Friar Joseph Antonio de Zervera and Friar Felix de Tarraga, went to fetch Indians from the mouths of the Orinoco, and not having found him in the whole of this city we have ascertained that he is absent with the cruiser under his charge: which in fulfilment of the foregoing " Auto," we put for due form and certify. No. 413. Deposition made March 30, 1770, by Thomas Franquiz, as to Complaints by the Dutch Minister. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 292.] In this aforesaid city on the 30th of the said month and year [Mar., 1770] in order to complete the requirements of the foregoing declarations in respect to Don Thomas Franquiz, he appeared before us the judicial witnesses in the tribunal of Government, and being admitted upon oath, which he duly made by God our Lord, and a sign of the cross; he promised the King to tell the truth in what he might know and might be asked; and being interrogated by the Señor Commandant-General in the matter of the flight of one of the slaves of the declarant, who is said to be in the Colony of Essequibo, he declared: that it is true that about the end of last year 1776, a negro slave of the declarant, called Ambrosio, fled from this 1 An obvious error. It should be 1766; see deposition of de Arocha below. No. 413. city to the Colony of Essequibo, accompanied by another named Francisco, belonging to Agustina de Arocha; and from various deserters who afterwards came from Essequibo to this city, the declarant has learned that his negro and the one belonging to Agustina de Arocha have been sold in Essequibo to a Lutheran schoolmaster, by the Government [Governor] of that colony, after having kept them at work in his own plantation, and that they escaped from him, and he had to come down to the mouths of the Orinoco to recapture them: that this is as much as he knows, and can say in this matter, under the oath which he has taken, wherein it is ratified and affirmed, and if necessary he will repeat it; that he is twentynine years of age, and this declaration having been read to him, he said that it is the same that he made, that it is well and faithfully written, that he has nothing to add or subtract therein, and has signed it together with the said Señor Commandant-General and us the witnesses, whereof we certify. No. 414. Deposition made April 2, 1770, by Agustina de Arocha, Inhabitant of Guayana, as to Complaints by the Dutch Minister. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 292.] In this said city, on the 2nd of April, 1770, there appeared in this tribunal before us the judicial witnesses Agustina de Arocha, inhabitant of Guayana, cited in the foregoing declarations, whom the Señor Commandant-General admitted upon oath which she took according to law, by God our Lord, and a sign of the cross, under obligation whereof she promised the King to tell the truth in what she might know and might be asked; and being interrogated in the matter of the slave of the declarant, who, it is stated, ran away from this city to the colony of Essequibo, where he now is, she said: that it is true that towards the end of the year 1766 a negro slave belonging to the declarant deserted from this city to the colony of Essequibo with another belonging to Don Thomas Franquiz, the former named Francisco, and the latter Ambrosio, and that from various deserters who afterwards came from Essequibo to this city, the declarant has learned that her negro and the one belonging to Franquiz have been sold in Essequibo to a Lutheran schoolmaster by the governor of that Colony after he had kept them at work in his own plantation, from which they escaped, and he came to recapture them in the mouth of the Orinoco; that this is as much as she knows and can say in the matter, under obligation of the oath which she has taken, wherein it is ratified and affirmed, and if necessary she will repeat it: That she is forty-three years of age, and this her declaration having been read to her, she said that it is the same that she made, that it is well and faithfully written, that she has nothing to add or sub No. 414. tract therein, and has not signed it because she said she did not know how to do so; at her request Don Francisco de Amantegui signed it with the said Señor Commandant-General and us the judicial witnesses, whereof we certify. No. 415. Order of Manuel Centurion, Commandant-General of Guiana, concluding investigation of Dutch Complaints, April 4, 1770. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 293.] In the city of Guayana on the 4th of April, 1770, Señor Don Manuel Centurion, Commandant-General of this province, being in his tribunal with us the judicial witnesses, he declared that having seen the declarations and inquiries whereof these "Autos" consist, he approved them and considered them sufficient for the proofs which by order of the King he has been instructed to draw up respecting the complaints made to His Majesty by the Minister of Holland concerning the proceedings of the Spaniards of Orinoco against the Colony of Essequibo, and therefore ordered that a complete copy of this report being taken by us the witnesses, the original should be sent to the King our Lord by the hand of the Excelentisimo Señor Bailio Friar Don Julian de Arriaga, and thus the said Señor Commandant-General decreed and signed it with us the aforesaid witnesses, in default of the notary, and on ordinary paper because stamped paper is not current in this Province, whereof we certify. No. 416. Extracts, from Report of Manuel Centurion, Commander in Guayana, as to the Complaints of the Minister of Holland, April 5, 1770. [Reprinted (with corrections) from Ven. Sp. Docs., Vol. 2, pp. 172–179.] DEAR SIR: The two judicial documents accompanied will show Your Excellency, duly proved, that the Director of the Esquivo Colony, Lorenzo Horm van Gravesand, has intended to alarm the States-General with the impostures on which the Republic of Holland has founded its complaints through its Minister in Madrid, on account of the conduct of the Spaniards of Orinoco against that Colony. As it appears in part No. 1 of the proceedings, the Hollanders are not, nor ever have been, in possession of the rivers nor rivulets emptying their waters into the sea from the Esquivo to the Orinoco, nor have they any other establishment than a Guard at a straw-roofed Barrack on the eastern bank of the Moruca (Maroco) river that has been tolerated for the last twenty years, so as to enable them to prevent the desertion of their slaves; No. 416. this pretext has degenerated immediately afterwards into the most iniquitous commerce carried on by the barbarous and cruel Caribs, from whom they buy the Indians enslaved, by means of surprising and killing the other tribes living freely and peacefully within the King's our Lord's dominions. At the Cuyuni river, called by the Hollanders Cayoeny, they have no other possessions than a plantation at its mouth in the Esquivo, as they were stopped when they intended an establishment fifteen or twenty leagues farther up said river in the year 1747, erecting a Barrack and Guard Post to enslave the Indians of our territory by means of the Caribs. As soon as our Missionaries were satisfied of the fact they submitted the case to the Commander of Guayana, and this officer had them dislodged from there on the following year of 1757, by means of a detachment, who set fire to the Barrack and brought as prisioners the two Hollanders, the negro, and the Caribs that he found there, with the instructions and original report showing the infamous commerce that by orders of the Directors of Esquivo, and for a vile consideration, was carried out by that Guard, such as it is done by all the other advanced Barracks from the Colony, bleeding to the heart the centre of the Province of Guayana. Part No. 2 shows the details of this journey, by which it is plain that there was no more blood shed than that of two of our soldiers, one of whom was killed and the other wounded. Part No. 1 shows, likewise, that the Hollanders are not in possession of the Maserony nor of the other rivers emptying into the Esquivo on the southwestern bank; and it is important to remove this error, forming the basis of their unfounded complaint, for as the Esquivo runs in a direction about parallel with the coast of the ocean from the neighborhood of the Corentin until it reaches the seashore forty-five leagues to the east of the Orinoco, all the rivers having their sources in the interior of our Province of Guayana, and following their direction to the coast, between the mouth of the Corentin and Esquivo, meet precisely this last one, which runs across and takes their waters. So that if, as the Hollanders suppose, that territory embraced by the rivers emptying into the Esquivo, such as Cuyuni, Maserony, Mao, Apanony, Putara, and other minor rivers with their branches and rivulets, were territory of the Republic, the strangers would have a larger portion than the King our Lord in the Province of Guayana, as shown by the accompanying sketch that I have drawn with every possible accuracy, to go with this report, pointing out in yellow what part in my judgment may the Hollanders pretend by right of possession of any kind acquired until to-day. The Spanish detachment that Gravesand claims having advanced last year from the Orinoco to the Post of Cuyuni and taken many Indians, threatening to return and go to the Maserony river, to arrest a party of Caribs, go down the river and there visit the Barrack of the Company, is undoubtedly a story of the agents in Poytos kept around there by the Hollanders, deeply regretting to see that some savage Indians, both Caribs and Guaicas, living in that neighborhood, come and settle in our Missions; as |