No. 420.

Extract from letter from Fidel de Santo, Procurator of the Capuchin Missions, in the Court of Spain, to the Provincial of the Catalan Capuchins, on the intention of Manuel Centurion to interfere in the government of the Capuchin Missions, August 8, 1771.

[Translated from Copy printed in STRICKLAND (Rev. Joseph, 8. J.) The Boundary Question between British Guayana and Venezuela, fol. Rome, 1896, Appendix 1, pp. 22–23.]

Wherefore he distorts and shuffles everything, with the view that no work of the Capuchin Missions, &c., should be reported in Court. It is not possible to give Your Reverence in writing an exact idea of these persecutions whereof we are every day the victims of this Minister, and there is yet more than a year to run of the five in which they usually remain in the Government. Add to this that he now wields absolute power, with no subordination to that of Caracas; what will he not do? And all this under the pretext of its being for the best service of the King; his sole object is to get great credit for himself at our cost and to our detriment.

I enclose the correct note of what the King used to give to the Missions in Cadiz (since I now find it among my papers) as it may serve to further your Reverence's ideas, as also a statement of the condition of the Missions when I was their Prefect; remarking that since then they have been increased with the following new villages: 1st, Caballapi; 2nd, Caranaxi; 3rd, Oratuyma; 4th, Tripurua; 5th, Casacoyma; 6th, Curumo; 7th, Cumamo; 8th, Tavaxi; 9th, Sant Antonio; 10th, Nuevo Tupuguen; besides two others that I cannot remember, and I think that the Rev. Father Benito de la Garriga wrote to me about it in a letter which I also handed Your Reverence on the occasion of your visit. We have also founded since then the Village of Spaniards called St. Antonio de Hupata at a great cost to the Missions, but said Commandant Centurion has endeavored to destroy it under various pretexts and to disquiet the residents thereof, in order to draw them to his simulated settlements.

Your Reverence may command my true obedience and affection which I pray

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No. 421.

Extract from letter of F. Felix,de Villanueva to F. Jayme de Puigcerda as to Indian attack on two missionaries on the Parime, June 20, 1772. [Translated from Copy printed in STRICKLAND (Rev. Jos., s. J.). The Boundary Question between British Guayana and Venezuela, fol. Rome, 1896, Appendix 1, p. 24.]

The Rev. Father Benito de la Garriga with Father Thomas de Mataró are on an exploration of the Parime. While four days distant from there a great number of wild Indians came out upon them with firearms; at the first discharge a negro from Upata, who was with them took to his heels

No. 421.

and said that he was sure all our people would be killed. Some Caribs from our Missions, who were also in the fight, have arrived and they say that some of our band are killed, but they are unable to give further particulars. The fact is, that there is no letter from the Fathers, and this a bad sign.

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Extract from letter from Benito de la Garriga to P. Mariano de Sebadel, Prefect of the Capuchin Mission of Guayana, as to the Missions of Cura and the Dutch Colonies of Essequibo, October 29, 1782.

[Translated from Copy printed in STRICKLAND (Rev. Joseph, s. J.) The Boundary Question between British Guayana and Venezuela, fol. Rome, 1896, Appendix 1, p. 43.]

I received your esteemed letter, and in view of the papers sent by His Excellency the Governor, with regard to the Village of Cura I must say that the stream thereof does not afford a passage to Esquibo; said stream is in the Yeruario river and has other streams, although this river becomes dry during the summer time, it flows into the Cuyuni river, and the latter into the Esquibo; into the Cuyuni, according to reports, no deep river empties, and it is well that all this should be told to the Governor, as also that Don Santiago Bonaldes can best inform his Excellency, he having sailed over the Yeruario and Cuyuni, when he went out to take the Dutch outpost; and knows the days he employed in the navigation, and that from the place of said outpost to the Dutch Castle, of the Governor, there remained about three days. Pursuant to the order given us to push forward toward the South, for the purpose of preventing the French of Surinama from approaching us, I posted Indians at Cura, as it is impossible to make any progress toward the South without building Villages on the way, &c. This can be reported to the Governor so as to dispel his doubt about Esquivo; as also that it is necessary to stock the savannahs of Cura with 15 or 20 thousand cows in order to draw the wild cattle, as otherwise the herd cannot be formed, but must be taken away and removed to another place, according to the opinion of everybody. As to the number of residents, I beg to say that those who agreed to the Contract were only the ten families that first settled the place and those known as slaves were not yet there. Whenever they have come to the Missions and Indian settlements, food has been given to them free, and often on their return each has been presented with some calf or more; that their families, during their absence, I know, were given meat by the priests, who likewise gave them to eat whenever they asked for it, as also their peons, all gratuitously.

No. 423.

Extract from Letter from Manuel Centurion, Commandant in Guayana, to His Excellency, Julian de Arriaga, November 11, 1773.

And in compliance with the directions of the above Royal cedule I send your Excellency a copy of the report that I have sent to the Council, with the corresponding justification upon every particular. In doing so I have the pleasure to show to your Excellency, not only that I have succeeded in giving this Province the consistence and considerable increase of population of forty-three Spanish and Indian settlements, containing over two hundred families of the former, brought from the neighboring Provinces, and about eight thousand of the latter, brought from the forests and rescued from idolatry to civilized and Christian society, besides the construction of over seven hundred houses, about three thousand farms, and the breeding of over one hundred thousand head of cattle and horses, but likewise I have contributed, for that purpose, with the amount of over seven thousand dollars, out of fees and established dues, on account of my office, that I might have retained since my assumption of this general command, and that I have waived voluntarily in the service of the King and the population of this Province, as is shown by authenticated documents accompanying said report, and particularly the two certificates, Nos. 3 and 8, from the Collector of Revenues and the Royal Officer of this city.

Extracts from Report of Manuel Centurion, Commander in Guayana, to Fray Julian de Arriaga, on the progress, population, etc., of Guayana; November 11, 1773.

[Reprinted from Ven. Sp. Docs., Vol. 2, pp. 237–238, 240-241, 243].

And in compliance with the orders of His Highness I say that this Province of Guayana is the most eastern part of the dominions of the King in meridianal America, on the northern coast, and that the boundaries are, on the north, the lower Orinoco river, the meridianal boundary of the Provinces of Cumana and Caracas; on the east, the Atlantic Ocean; on the south, the great Amazon river; and on the west the Rio Negro and the Casiquiari creek and Upper Orinoco; the boundary of the eastern and unknown part of the Kingdom of Santa Fe.

No. 424.

In the circumference and precinct of the vast continent of this Province, the Frenchmen and Hollanders occupy all the seacoast with their colonies; the former in Cayena, near the mouth of the Amazon river, and the latter in Surinam, Bervis, and Esquivo, fifty-five or seventy leagues from the large mouth of Orinoco.

On the margin of the Amazon river and on those of Rio Negro up to San Joseph of the Marivitanas (thirty-five leagues below the mouth of Casiquiari and thirty-two from our settlements and strongholds of San Carlos and San Felipe), the Portuguese are established, and our effective possessions are reduced to one part of Rio Negro, all the Casiquiari, the upper and lower Orinoco, and the new establishments that we are founding in the interior of the country by the rivers Caroni, Paragua, Aroy, Caura, Erevato, Padamo, Ventuari, and others, going from the unknown centers of Guayana to Orinoco. This river is divided in branches, forty-one leagues béfore reaching the sea, and receives its water through numberless mouths, in the space of seventy leagues of clusters of mangroves, all flooded from the point of Barima to Guarapiche.

The chief and most eastern of all is the one called large mouth or mouth of Navios. This one is eighteen miles broad and has a channel of two leagues, in the middle of the Barrack, with four fathoms of water down to the sea at high water; the bottom is muddy, the coast low, and the clusters of mangroves are all flooded; the sea is very quiet, especially in the months of February up to October; the tides are lively, of about one fathom deep of salt water, that stop and salt the waters of the Orinoco as far above as seventeen leagues from the mouth. The other mouths only permit the entrance of launches and piraguas, forming a labyrinth of inundated islands and creeks, emptying into the Triste Gulf, opposite the island of Trinidad; and among them those better known and practicable are the Manamo, Macaredo and Pedernales.

Through the large mouth, or the mouth of Navios, vessels can enter and navigate with fair weather in the Orinoco river and upwards, without any hindrance, and at all times frigates of forty-four guns can go up to the mouth of Caroni or the Fajardo Island in the months from May to October, when the river is full; and they can go farther up, but slowly, on account of the strong current and light winds of the season, to Angostura, where the capital city of the Province is situated at present, eighty three leagues distance from the sea.

From Caroni to the mouth of the Orinoco there is a distance of fiftyeight leagues without any population on either side of the river (indeed, it is a pity to have it abandoned, as it is the best soil in the world for agriculture and commerce; though there is now and then a sickly place, being amongst them the old city of Guayana, nine leagues below the mouth of the Caroni, and eight above the place where the Orinoco is divided into several branches, as it has been stated.)

No. 424.

[Pp. 240-241.]

As this country, from the last century, has been receiving population and requires the reduction of the Indians, the three Missions, one under the Catalan Capuchin Fathers from the Island of Trinidad, another under the Franciscan Fathers from Piritu, and the third under the Jesuits of Santa Fe, with the exception of the first, were inactive, until the year 1732, when the distribution amongst them of this vast territory, even before it was known or explored, except the banks of the lower Orinoco, was made in the following form:

The Catalan Capuchins, situated until then around the city of Guayana, took charge of the eighty-three leagues of territory between the mouth of the Orinoco and Angostura, and thence drawing a line up to the Marañon or Amazon rivers. The Franciscan Observant Fathers took the one hundred leagues from the Angostura to the mouth of the Cuchivero river, with their corresponding land between them and the Amazon river; and the rest, to the sources of the Orinoco (then unknown), was taken in charge by the Jesuits, but as it was discovered afterwards that the upper Orinoco, Rio Negro, and Casiquiari are in reciprocal communication, that territory was found to be too extensive for only one Mission, and leaving to the Jesuits the one hundred leagues which they had assigned as far as the rapids of the Ature and Maipure, and dividing this river into upper and lower Orinoco, His Majesty sent the Andalusian Capuchins to attend to the reduction and conversion of the Indians of the upper Orinoco and Rio Negro, and afterwards they took, likewise, provisional charge of catechising the settlements left by the Jesuits of Orinoco, and everything was afterwards abandoned, as I stated to your Highness on the 17th of September, 1771, by means of your Secretary, Don Pedro Garcia Mayoral.

At the beginning of the following year of 1767, Don Josef de Iturriaga withdrew on account of sickness to the Island of Marguerita, leaving me in charge of the General command of the settlement of the Orinoco, with the same power granted to him by the King, as it is shown by the appointment or title of my commission, signed by him on the 28th of January, 1767, confirmed by the Royal cedule of the 5th of May of 1768 (Annex No. 2). Consequently, I tried to be posted in regard to the state and circumstances appertaining to my jurisdiction, for the discharge of my duties and to satisfy the Royal trust of my superiors.

I visited all the settlements of each Province, except three of the upper Orinoco and Rio Negro, beginning with the territory of the Catalan Capuchin Mission, the oldest, and established in the last century, and I found that all the population and consistence of the same was reduced to eighteen Indian settlements, with five thousand two hundred and seventy