pursuing. In short, they are probably the most expert horsemen in the world.

At each port is a store, called the king's, where it was the original intention of the government that the soldiers should be supplied with provisions, clothing, arms, &c. at a cheap rate; but it being a post generally given to some young officer to make his fortune, they are subject to great impositions. When a dragoon joins the service, he receives from the king five horses and two mules, and this number he is always obliged to keep good from his own pocket; but when he is discharged, the horses and mules receive the discharge mark, and become his private property. They engage for five or ten years, at the option of the soldier. But in the bounty there is a very material difference. It is extremely easy to keep up the corps, as a private dragoon considers himself upon an equality with most of the citizens, and infinitely superior to the lower class; and it is not unfrequent to see men of considerable fortune marrying the daughters of sergeants and corporals,

The pay of the troops of New Spain varies with the locality, but may be averaged in the internal provinces as follows:

A colonel, four thousand five hundred dollars per annum; lieutenant-colonel, four thousand; ma jor, three thousand; captain, two thousand four hundred, first lieutenant, one thousand five hundred; second lieutenant, one thousand; ensign, eight bundred; sergeant, three hundred and fifty; corporal, three hundred; private, two hundred and eighty-eight. With this

pay they find their own clothes, provisions, arms, accoutrements, &c. after the first equipments.

Corporal punishment is contrary to the Spanish ordinances; they punish by imprisonment, putting in the stocks, and death: but as a remarkable instance of the dis, cipline and regularity of conduct of the provincial troops, I may mention, that although marching with them, and doing duty as it were for nearly four months, I never saw a man receive a blow, or put under confinement for one hour. How impossible would it be to regulate the turbulent dispo sitions of the Americans with such treatment? In making the fore going remark, I do not include of ficers, for I saw more rigorous treatment exercised towards some of them, than ever was practised in our army.

The discipline of their troops is very different from ours: as to tactics, or military manoeuvres, they are not held in much esti mation; for during the whole of the time I was in the country, I never saw a corps of troops exer cising as dragoons, but frequently marching by platoons, sections, &c. in garrisons where they serve as infantry, with their carabines I these manoeuvres they were also very deficient. On a march, a detachment of cavalry generally encamp in a circle. They relieve their guards at night, and as soon as they halt, the new guard is formed on foot, with their carabines, and then march before the commandant's tent, where the commanding officer of the guard cries the invocation of the Holy Virgin three times. The commanding officer replies, it is well. They

then

then retire and mount their horses, and are told off, some to act as guard of the horses, as cavalry; others as guard of the camp, as infantry. The old guards are then paraded and relieved, and the new centinels take post. The centinels are singing half their time; and it is no uncommon thing for them to quit their post to come to the fire, go for water, &c. In fact, after the officer is in bed, frequently the whole guard comes in; yet I never knew any man punished for these breaches of military duty.

Their mode of attack is by squadrons on the different flanks of their enemies, but without regularity or concert, shouting, hallooing, and firing their carabines, after which, if they think themselves equal to the enemy, they charge with a pistol, and then the lance. But from my observations on their discipline, I have no hesitation in declaring, that I would not be afraid to march over a plain with five hundred infantry, and a proportionate allowance of horse artillery of the United States army, in the presence of five thousand of these dragoons. Yet, I do not presume to say, that an army with that inferiority of numbers would do to oppose them, for they would cut off your supplies, and harass your march and camp night and day, to such a degree, as to oblige you in the end to surrender to them, without ever having come to action; but if the event depended on one engagement, it would terminate with glory to the American arms. The conclusion must not however be drawn, that I infer from this, they are deficient in physical firmness more than other nations, for we see the savages, five

hundred of whom would on a plain fly before fifty bayonets, on other occasions brave danger and death in its most horrid shapes, with an undaunted fortitude, never sur passed by the most disciplined and hardy veterans. But it arises solely from the want of discipline and confidence in each other, as is always the case with undisciplined corps; unless stimulated by the god-like sentiment of love of country, which these poor fellows know nothing of.

The travelling food of the dragoons in New Mexico consists of a very excellent species of wheat biscuit, and shaved meat well dried, with a vast quanitity of red pepper, of which they make bouilli, and then pour it on their broken biscuit, when it becomes soft and excellent eating. Farther south they use great quantities of parch❤ ed corn-meal and sugar, as prac tised by our hunters, each dragoon having a small bag. They thus live, when on command, on an aliowance which our troops would conceive little better than starving, never, except at night, attempting to eat any thing like a meal, but biting a piece of biscuit, or drinking some parched meal and sugar, with water during the day.

From the physical as well as moral properties of the inhabitants of New Spain, I do believe they are capable of being made the best troops in the world, possessing so briety, enterprize, great physical force, docility, and a conception equally quick and penetrating.

The modes of promotion in the internal provinces are singular, but probably productive of good effects. Should a vacancy of first lieutenant offer in a company, the

captain

captain commanding nominates, with the senior second lieutenant (who by seniority would fill the vacancy) two other lieutenants to the general, giving his comments on the three. The general selects two, for nomination to the court, from whom is selected the fortunate candidate, whose commission is made out and forwarded. As the letters of nomination are always kept secret, it is impossible for the young officers to say who is to blame, should they be disappointed; and the fortunate is in a direct way to thank the king only for the ultimate decision. The method is the same with the superior grades to the colonel.

The king of Spain's ordinances for the government of his army are generally founded on justice and a high sense of honour: I could not procure a set from any of the officers to take to my quarters, consequently my observations on them were extremely cursory. They provide that no old soldier shall ever be discharged the service, unless for infamous crimes. When a man has served with reputation 'for fifteen years, and continues, his pay is augmented; twenty years he receives another augmen tation; twenty-seven years he receives the brevet rank and pay of an ensign, and thirty two those of a lieutenant, &c. These circumstances are a great stimulus, although not one in a thousand arrive at the third period, when they are permitted to retire from the service with full pay and emoluments. All sons of captains, or of grades superior, are entitled to enter the king's school as cadets, at the age of twelve years. The property of an officer or soldier,

who is killed on the field of battle, or dies of his wounds, is not liable to be be taken for debt, and is secured, as well as the king's pension, to the relatives of the deceased.

Court martials for the trial of a commissioned officer must be formed of general officers; but this clause subjects the officers of the provinces to a great species of tyranny, for the commanding-general has taken upon himself to punish for all offences not capital, consequently according to his own judgment and prejudices, and from which there is only an appeal to the king. Difficult indeed must it be for the complaints of a subaltern to reach the ears of his majesty through the numerous crowds of sycophants who surround him, one half of whom are probably in league with the oppressor. This practice likewise deprives an offi-' cer of the most sacred of all rights, the being tried by his peers; for should he be sent to Mexico or Europe for trial, it is possible he may not be able to take half the testimony which is necessary to his complete justification.

There is another principle defined by the ordinances, which has often been the cause of disputes in the service of the United States, viz. The commandant of a post in the Spanish service, if barely a captain, receives no orders from a general, should one arrive at his post, unless that general should be superior in authority to the person who posted him; for, savs the ordinance, he is responsible to the king alone for his post. This principle, according to my ideas, is very injurious to the interest of any country that adopts it. We

will

will say, for example, that a post of great importance, containing immense military stores, is likely to fall into the hands of the enemy; a superior officer to the commandant receives the information, and repairs to the post, and orders him immediately to evacuate it. The commandant, feeling himself only responsible to the authority who placed him in that position, refuses to obey, and the magazines and place are lost! The principle is likewise subversive of the very foundation of military subordination and discipline, whereby an inferior should in all cases obey

a superior, who alone should be responsible for the effect arising from the execution of his orders. It will readily be believed, that in thus advocating implicit obedience to the orders of a superior, I do not suppose the highest improbabilities, or impossibilities, such as a command from him to turn your arms against the constituted authority of your country, or to be an engine of his tyranny, or the pander of his vices; these are cases wherein a mau's reason alone must direct him, and are not, and cannot be, subject to any human rule whatever.

NATURAL

ACCOUNT OF THE PITCH-LAKE IN THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD. By Nicholas Nugent, M. D. [From Transactions of the Geological Society, Vol. I.]

BE

EING desirous to visit the celebrated lake of pitch, previously to my departure from the Island of Trinidad, I embarked with that intention in the month of October, 1807, in a small vessel at Port Spain. After a pleasant sail of about thirty miles down the Gulf of Paria, we arrived at the point la Braye, so called by the French from its characteristic feature. It is a considerable headland, about eighty feet above the level of the sea, and perhaps two miles long and two broad. We landed on the southern side of the point, at the plantation of Mr. Vessigny; as the boat drew near the shore, I was struck with the appearance of a rocky bluff or small promontory of a reddish-brown colour, very different from the pitch which I had expected to find on the whole shore. Upon examining this spot, I found it composed of a substance corresponding to the porcelain jasper of mineralogists, generally of a red colour where it had been exposed to the weather, but of light slate-blue in the interior; it is a very hard stone with a

conchoidal fracture, some degree of lustre, and is perfectly opake even at the edges; in some places, from the action of the air, it was of a reddish, or yellowish-brown, and an earthy appearance. I wished to have devoted more time to the investigation of what in the language of the Wernerian school is termed the geognostic relations of this spot, but my companions were anxious to proceed. We ascended the hill, which was entirely composed of this rock, to the plantation, where we procured a negro guide, who conducted us through a wood about three quarters of a mile. We now perceived a strong sulphureous and pitchy smell, like that of burning coal, and soon after had a view of the lake, which at first sight appeared to be an expanse of still water, frequently interrupted by clumps of dwarf trees or islets of rushes and shrubs: but on a nearer approach we found it to be in rea lity an extensive plain of mineral pitch, with frequent crevices and

The

chasms filled with water. singularity of the scene was altogether so great, that it was some time before I could recover from my surprise so as to investigate it minutely. The surface of the lake is of the colour of ashes, and at this season was not polished or smooth, so as to be slippery; the hardness

or