62L                            HISTORY OF SETTLEMENTS AND TRADE
boo k immediately went from St. Domingo, to puhifh an
vu-     outrage committed, as it was faid, againft Heaven it.
1—'—' felf; and after having deftroyed all by fire and fword,
he built a village upon the fpot, which he called To.
ledo.
It was within thefe weak palifades that Las Cafas
was obliged to place the fmall number of his compa.
nions who had refitted the intemperance of the cli.
mate, and the attempts made to feduce them from
him. Their refidence was not long here. Moft of
"them were pierced with the darts of an implacable
enemy ; and thofe who efcaped, were forced, in 1521,
to feek an afylum fomewhere elfe.
Some Spaniards have fince fettled at Cumana ; but
the population of this diftrid hath always been much
confined, and hath never extended to any diftance
from the coafts. During the courfe of two centuries,
the mother-country had not any dired intercourfe
with this fpot. It is but lately, that one or two fmall
Ships have been fent there annually, which, in ex»
change for the liquors and merchandife of Europe, re-
ceive cocoa and fome other produdions.
oftheHver     It was Columbus, who, in 1498, firft difcovered the
oroonoko. Oroonoko, the borders of which have fince been nam-
ed Spanifh Guiana. This great river takes its fource
among the Cordeleirias mountains, and difcharges it-
Self into the ocean by forty openings, after it hath
been increafed throughout an immenfe track by the
afflux of a prodigious number of rivers more or lefs
confiderable. Such is its impetuofity, that it items
the Strongest tides, and preferves the frefhnefs of its
waters to the diftanc. e of twelve leagues from that vaft
and deep channel within wliich it was confined. Its
rapidity, however, is not always the fame, which is
owing to a circumftance perhaps entirely peculiar.
The Oroonoko, which begins to fwell in April, conti-
nues rifing for five months, and during the fixth re-
mains at its greateft height. From Oétober, it begins
gradually to fubfide till the month of March, through-
4