No. 455.

Letter, dated Aug. 29, 1790, from Governor Miguel Marmion to the Prefect of Missions as to the post at the junction of the Cuyuni and Curumo rivers.

[Reprinted (with correction) from Ven. Sp. Docs., Vol. 3, pp. 262–263].

Document 4.

REVEREND FATHER: In order to protect the Missions under the charge of your Reverence and your Reverend Community, I have ordered the building of a stronghold to defend them. Under the protection thereof it is advisable and necessary to establish a settlement of Indians of the Guayca nation, and afterwards a village of Spaniards, which is provided for by Royal command of the twenty-second of December, seventeen sixty-three, the execution of which I have entrusted to the AdjutantMajor of the Veteran companies of that Province, Don Antonio Lopez de la Puente.

I trust your Reverence will agree with this officer as to the founding of the settlement and village, after notice and approval of the Governor of the Province, as is proper, and that you will furnish all the necessary assistance from the cattle ranch and settlement of Tumeremo, which is to have its port on the Corumo river; and since that Reverend Community offered H. M. ten or twelve thousand head of neat cattle, which were accepted by Royal commands of the twentieth of October, of seventeen seventy-eight, and fourteenth of March, seventeen eighty, the time arrives when it can be carried into effect, and I trust that the said Reverend Community will gladly order the furnishing of the number which, on account of the offer, the Governor of that Province may request for the purpose of distributing them among the settlers of the village to be founded, and for any other purpose that may be advisable, as this will redound to the benefit and advancement of the Missions themselves.

God preserve your Reverence many years. Caracas, August twentyninth, seventeen ninety. To the Reverend Father Prefect of the Missions of Catalonian Capuchins. It is a copy of the original. Guillelmi- [a flourish].

No. 456.

Letter from the Captain-General of Caracas to the Prefect of Missions, dated August 29, 1790, asking co-operation with Lopez de la Puente in Founding an Indian Village and Spanish Town,

[Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, pp. 345-346.]

In order to protect the Missions which are under your Paternity's charge and your reverend community, I have arranged that a fort be constructed that may defend them.

No. 456.

For the support of it, it appears well and it is necessary to found a village of Indians of the Guayca tribe, and afterwards a town of Spaniards, which is commanded by a Royal Order of the 22d December, 1763, the execution of which I have confided to the charge of the AdjutantMajor of the veteran Companies of that province, Don Antonio Lopez de la Puente.

I hope your Paternity will arrange with this official for the foundation. of the village and town the Governor of the Province having been informed and given his approval, as is right, and that you will furnish all the help that may be necessary from the cattle-farm and village of Tumeremo and that the port in the River Curumo must have; and as your reverend community offered to His Majesty 10,000 or 12,000 head of cattle, which were accepted in the Royal Orders of the 20th October, 1778, and 14th March, 1780, the time is now at hand when it may begin to be carried into effect. I trust that your reverend community will cheerfully arrange to supply the number which the Señor Governor of that province may request for the purpose, with the object of distributing them among the settlers of the town which is to be founded, and the other objects to which it may be well to destine it, so that it may result to the benefit and advancement of the Missions themselves.

God preserve you, &c.

No. 457.

Second report of the Fiscal on the founding of Tumeremo, dated October 7, [17]90.

[Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 345.]

The Fiscal has again examined this "Expediente" with the despatches of the Governor of Guayana of the 8th October of the past year and 6th May of the present, with the journal of the Adjutant-Major, Don Antonio Lopez de la Puente, which was presented to his view without the map of the districts and rivers which the said official surveyed or explored in fulfilment of the commission. He states that, being able to consider the said journal and despatches for making the Report, which was requested of him on the 30th April of the past year, it is found that there is a necessity for the establishment of a village of Spaniards and other huts (?) on the site at the fork or junction of the Rivers Curuamo and Cuyuni, as suggested by the Fiscal in his Report of the 2d April of the past year; and it appears the Governor of Guayana represented it, at the same time, to His Majesty according to the copy of his despatch of the 22nd September of the past year, in which and in that which the said Governor forwarded to the Prefect of the Missions, he says he has suffi

No. 457.

cient powers for the establishment; and the measures which your Excellency has taken with the same object are not shown, nor whether orders have been given to survey the site where the village of Spaniards or fort must be constructed, nor the distance from it to the Savannahs of Tumeremo, where the Capuchin Fathers intend to transplant a part of their cattle-farm and found a church, the said distance being somewhat considerable, according to what may be inferred from the journal of the official Puente from the number of days which he spent in his return from the mouth of the Curiamo to the said Savannahs. It appears to him that, in conformity with what has been determined in regard to the new foundation of the village or fort, the Governor of Guayana might be charged that if he should consider that the new establishment of the cattle farm which the Fathers intend may be useful for the sustenance of the new settlers or fort, he may permit the new Mission of Our Lady of Belen de Tumeremo, and arrange with the Royal Sub-Treasury of the same province that it should grant the ornaments, sacred vessels, and bell for the service of the church to the missionaries free.

But in case the fort or village of Spaniards is not founded which is to cover those frontiers and restrain the robberies of the Dutch and wild Indians, and put an end to the smugglers, the establishment of the said Mission and the church furniture should be refused to them, so that they may not remain exposed to these dangers.

Your Excellency will be pleased to form whatever resolution may ap pear best in this matter.

No. 458.

Extract from strictly confidential letter from Luis Antonio Gil, Governor of Guayana, to Pedro de Lorena, November 8, 1790.

[Reprinted from Ven. Sp. Docs., Vol. 1, p. 236.]

Strictly confidential.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR: Well aware of what your Excellency directs me to do, by the strictly confidential Royal Order of the 4th of last June, I have been informed with the greatest secrecy, reserve and necessary precautions for finding out the number of fugitives from the Dutch Colony of Surinam, and whether among them are the two nephews of the rebellious Tupac-Amaro, if they have any dealings with the Indians, and whether the latter look upon them with any consideration. Upon these particulars and the other points communicated to me (simulating a desire to be posted as to the extension of this Province, their boundaries and frontiers, number of inhabitants, whether white or colored, of the Indian

No. 458.

tribes, reduced and wild, inhabiting the country), I have succeeded only in obtaining the following information:

That the amount of fugitive persons from Surinam is very large, and that it is further increased by the accession of those who go to join them from Bervice, Demerari, and Esquivo, all foreign colonies situated on the same coast at a distance of 45 leagues from the Boco de Navios of the Orinoco River; * * *

Letter from Juan Guillelmi to Pedro Lerena, dated October 25, 1790, transmitting various Papers relating to a Post on the Cuyuni at its junction with the Curumo, etc.

[Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 326.]

(On the margin of the first page, No. 65.) The Intendant at Carácas transmits, as promised, the certificate and other documents relating to the construction of a strong house or post and settlement of Spaniards in the fork or junction of the Rivers Curiano and Cuyuni of the Province of Guiana.

Minute: Received and approved for the present.

(Translation.)

Your Excellency.

Caracas, October 25, 1790.

In my despatch No. 1 of the 29th September last, marked "Very Confidential," informing you of the resolution I had taken of ordering a strong house or post to be constructed, and a settlement of Spaniards to be founded in the fork or junction of the Rivers Curiamo and Cuyuni, in the Province of Guiana, which flow into the Essequibo in the Dutch Colonies, I mentioned that I would transmit to your Excellency the testimony of an "Expediente" that had been drawn up with another object, and which relates to the said settlement and that of the village or Mission of Tumeremo.

I now forward to your Excellency, marked No. 1, the "Expediente' referred to, and also, as inclosures Nos. 2 and 3, copies of my despatch and instruction to the Rev. Father Prefect of the Missions of the Catalonian Capuchins and officials of the Royal Treasury, so that your Excellency, being informed of all that has transpired, may be pleased to approve of my resolution, on account of the importance of this new fortification, from a military point of view, and to detail the AdjutantMajor of the Veteran companies of Guiana, Don Antonio Lopez de la Puente, for the carrying out of the said commission.

No. 460.

Approval by Spain of the Plan for Building a Town at the junction of the Cuyuni and Curumo rivers; dated July 9, 1791.

[Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, pp. 346-347.]

The Governor of Guayana, Don Miguel Marmion, in a letter of the 6th of August, 1788, sent by the secret channel a report, dated the 10th of July previous, on the condition, forces and plan of defense of the said Province, proposing certain measures for improving it, and among them that the district comprehended under the name of Upper Orinoco and Rio Negro should be formed into a separate Commandancy, but directly subordinate to that Government, and that a fixed Garrison Company should be created for that object, whose Captain should be the Commandant of the same district. That the fertile lands of Lower Guyama should be settled, and batteries and fortifications of timber should be constructed, and a harbour of registers formed on the terms shown in separate papers which he mentioned in the said representation without noting the dates, and which have not been received. In another representation of the 22nd of September, [17] 89, (No. 14,) Marmion forwarded the diaryof Adjutant Major Don Antonio Lopez de la Puente, of the exploration he made of the frontiers of the Colony of Essequibo and the plan which, upon this information and that which he previously possessed, he had drawn up to show, in the best possible manner, the local characteristics of the land which is enclosed by the seacoast and the rivers Essequibo, Cuyuni, Caroni and the Orinoco, within which are the Missions of the Catalonian Capuchin Fathers, and their large cattle farm, the tobacco plantations of the town of Upata, the timber for shipbuilding surveyed in the year [17] 87, and the silver mines just recently discovered; in order to show the exposed and defenceless condition of this district, which is the chief in value, fertility and population in the Province. For the river Cuyuni offers the Dutch free and open access to our possessions for their vile traffic in Indians, whom they enslave; for the importation of manufactures, and exportation of the products of those Missions. For which reasons, and the special attention which the recognised advantages of that territory attracted, and the ease with which it could be invaded by an active enemy who had obtained possession of Essequibo, Marmion proposed, as a ready expedient, to increase the garrison of that Province by two companies of infantry, and to put the existing artillery upon the footing of 100 men. That with special care and all possible speed, a town should be founded at the junction of the River Curumo with the Cuyuni, beginning with the 30 men appointed as an escort to the Missions, who might conveniently be married militiamen, and thus at the same time protect the said Missions under their commanding