sion territory. Division of mis- agreement gave the region south of the lower Orinoco to the Catalonian Capuchins.* Spanish missions, 1743-1813. There were many missions during the 18th century which were never formally "founded." Of these, of course, no official records exist. There were others formally "founded" which have left no record behind them. By 1743 we know of seven Capuchin mission-villages in existence, beside one just being established. They contained a population of some 2,000 souls.+ A decade later, in 1753, eight new villages had been established; and although four missions had just been destroyed by the Caribs and one by a raid of the English, nine were in existence, with four more under way. In 1755 their population was nearly 3,000.§ There were 16 missions in the year 1761, containing 4,392 domesti cated Indians and 1,081 men capable of bearing arms, as well as 15,000 head of cattle. Besides these, there was the Spanish civil town of San Antonio de Upata.¶ In this same year it was estimated that to build at The 16 Missions established at present [1761] are those of Capapui, Altagracia, Suay, Amaruca, Caroni, Aripuco, Aguacagua, Murucuri, San Joseph de Leonisa, Guarimna, Carapu, Miamo, Guazapati, Palmar, Avechica, and Piacoa, as shown in the map, in the corresponding statement of the men of arms, families, souls, houses, and churches existing in every one of the said 16 settlements. [Appendix to Case, ii, 345.] One thousand and eighty-one men of arms; 1,031 families; 4,392 souls; 408 houses; and three churches. [Appendix to Case, ii, 345.] The same certificate shows that the cattle estate of the Community contains from 14,000 to 16,000 head of bovine cattle for the maintenance of the settlements and the Missioners. The cattle has been placed on new grounds in proportion of its increase, and to day it is kept in the Mission of Guarima, where the fields and mountains are most abundant in grass and water, in a cool climate. On account of these circumstances, the multiplication of the cattle has been incredible. [Appendix to Case, ii, 346.] If the settlements in distant places, deserted and not reduced, are difficult, their establishment, after the Indians are pacified, is very easy, and of no expense to the Royal Treasury, as it is shown to-day in the same Province of Guayana with the new settlement of San Antonio de Upata, which commenced in the year of 1762. [U. S. Commission Report, viii, (1) 80-81.] Angostura a town large enough to hold the people of In 1766 the Capuchin villages had a population of 5,273 Indians; and by 1773 this number had risen to 6,832.* Meanwhile the province, as a whole, including the missions of other orders, had grown not less strikingly. In 1779 the province of Guayana contained 80 villages and 18,000 inhabitants.† How many of these villages were Capuchin missions does not appear; but in 1788, there were 29 or 30 of these "missions" with 14,012 persons and 180,000 cattle. In 1799 there were 28 missions with 15,908 persons.§ Spanish missions, 1743-1813. Definition of Dutch and Spanish It is now possible to state exactly the extent of the territories belonging to the Netherlands and to territories in 1803. the Kingdom of Spain respectively at the time of the acquisition by Great Britain of the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. The Dutch were confined, on the west, to the mouth of the Essequibo. Their occupation up-stream did not reach even to Kykoveral. In the Cuyuni they had made two attempts to penetrate beyond the lowest falls, and both attempts had proven failures. Although originally * Appendix to Case, iii, 382, 383. There were also civil towns. Caulin (who lived in Guiana) says that at his date of publication, 1779, "the settlements which the Spaniards hold to-day in the province of Guayana are 80 villages and 18,000 inhabitants." [Caulin, (friar A.) Historia Coro-Graphica, etc., Madrid, 1779, p. 12.] The stock of cattle is reckoned at about 220,000; 180,000 head in the cattle farms of the Community of the Capuchin Fathers, although a very accurate estimate cannot be made, owing to the difficulty of counting them, and the remaining 40,000 among the private settlers. [Blue Book 3, 319;] see also Appendix to Case, ii, 447, for list of 29 missions.] Appendix to Case, ii, 485. Appendix to Case, ii, 487. Dutch limits of occupation. occupation. Dutch limits of permitted by the Spaniards to trade in the Cuyuni basin, even this had been long forbidden them; and Spanish growth and control. they, as well as the Caribs upon whom they relied for protection, had been driven out so that not one remained. On the coast, the little trading station at the mouth of the Moruca was as far as they dared to venture; and even to that point they went only by the permission of the Spaniards. The colony itself was utterly weak, on the verge of ruin, and entirely cowed by the Spaniards. Spain, on the other hand, had spread until she could count her towns and villages by the score, her inhabitants by the tens of thousands, and her herds of cattle by the hundreds of thousands. The whole Orinoco delta from the Barima to the Moruca she had cleared of Dutch, Caribs, English, French and Swedes, policing these regions to beyond the Pomeroon, and exercising dominion under a claim of right from the Orinoco to the very banks of the Essequibo. Over the interior savannas her settlements had spread to beyond the banks of the Cuyuni and Caroni. In the fairest region of that great basin, and south of the Cuyuni, she had erected and was maintaining a military post; exercising from that center exclusive polit ical control down to the lowest falls of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni. Through the great forests of the CuyuniMazaruni basin, and over the Pacaraima mountains into the Potaro region and beyond, her missionaries had penetrated and settled; and, at the moment that the Dutch colony passed into British hands in 1803, she was exercising undisputed and exclusive control of every acre of land west of the Essequibo, except where the Dutch were actually settled upon its very banks. XII.--DUTCH REMONSTRANCES. Before passing to the 19th century, there is a subject whose intimate connection with Dutch-Spanish relations, during the 18th century entitles it to special mention: Uselessness of Dutch remonstr The story of Dutch remonstrances is one of Spanish aggression and assertion of sovereign rights in the terri- ances. tory now in dispute, followed by repeated protests of the Dutch, and memorials to the Spanish Court, all of which were treated with contempt-answered only by a continuance of these aggressions, by further acts of political control, by further grumblings on the part of the Dutch, by further complaints to which the Spanish Government did not deign to reply, and by final acquiescence by the Dutch in the inevitable. The first recorded remonstrance of the Dutch Essequibo Colony was in was in 1746. The Dutch Commandeur complained to the West India Company of the encroachments of the Spaniards in the Cuyuni river, and of the capture by the latter of three canoes of the Dutch colony engaged in fishing in the Orinoco. In his letter to the Company the Dutch Commandeur said that on the arrival of the new Spanish Governor he would "send there to claim the boats and cargoes,' but was "certain that such would be in vain," having profited by a previous example.* What may have been the language of his remonstrance, or of the Spanish Governor's reply, does not ap pear. The practical result, however, is well known: the Spanish control of both regions continued; and the * Blue Book, 3, p. 87. Remonstrance of 1746. 1746. Remonstrance of growth of the Spanish missions on the Cuyuni savannas was in no way affected.* Remonstrance of 1759. Continuation of same acts by Spaniards. The second Dutch remonstrance had reference to the Spanish attack upon the slave-trading post that Storm van's Gravesande attempted to establish on the Cuyuni about 1754. The result of this attempt has already been shown.+ When the Dutch Governor heard of the way in which the Spaniards had destroyed the post, and made prisoners of the Dutch servants there stationed, he addressed a forcible protest to the Spanish Commandant in Guiana,‡ and likewise made a report to the West India Company,§ with the result that the States General presented a formal remonstrance to the Court of Spain. Gravesande's letter having been referred by the Spanish Commandant to the Provisional Governor of Cumaná, the latter replied thereto, stating that the destroyed post was on the territory of his King, and refusing to restore the pris oners. Gravesande caused a second letter to be sent to the Spanish Commandant demanding anew the restitution of the prisoners, as also compensation for the insult offered to the territory of his sovereigns.** That letter was returned to him unopened; †† and the remonstrance of the States General to the Spanish Court was never honored by a reply. The only answer the Spanish Commandant gave to these remonstrances was a continuation of the very acts which brought them forth. The Spaniards captured all * Appendix to Case, ii, 106. + Supra, p. 122. Appendix to Case, ii, 123-125. § Appendix to Case, ii, 125. Appendix to Case, ii, 324. ** Appendix to Case, ii, 128-129. f Appendix to Case, ii, 130. |