chap. xxii.

CONTRABAND TRADE.

16.3

of America . The traders from the interior ofNew Granada, as far as Popayan and Quito , re-paired to Carthagena, Santa Marta, and Rio dela Hacha on the Atlantic for the European goods,and to Panama and Guayaquil for the productionsof Asia , the greater part of which were exchangedfor silver or gold, of which a large portion hadnever paid the tax to the revenue.

In the succeeding period an intercourse betweenthe Spanish main was constantly kept open withthe Dutch Islands of Curagoa and St. Eustatia,with Jamaica, and with the Danish island of St.Thomas. Great quantities of silver and goldwere conveyed to those settlements in a form thatproved clearly their having never paid the duty.

In the latter part of the century, during thewar, there was a very active trade with the Spanish colonists along the whole coast of South America .English and American vessels, under the pretext ofsupplying negroes, conveyed large cargoes of Britishmanufactures to Buenos Ayres. Vessels under boththose flags, engaged in the southern whale fishery,took incidental opportunities of selling those goodswhich from the state of war could not be eitherconveniently or advantageously supplied from Spain ,although they were most urgently required. Besidesthese, many English vessels, so strongly armed asto defy the Guarda Costas, frequented the shoresof Chili and Peru , and carried on what was profes-

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