Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

Extract of a letter, dated Carthagena, February 1810.

"This part of the world is quiet at present. The extensive city and province of Quito, which formerly made a part of the vice kingdom of Peru, but lately was joined to St. Fe or New Grenada, endeavored to throw off the oppressive laws and regulations of Old Spain, which prohibit all manufactures, and even the cultivation of many articles of produce, such as oil, wine, &c. which Spain can furnish, besides a number of other oppressions and monopolies, but for want of a proper head, and not being actually joined by any of the surrounding provinces, they have been obliged for the present, to submit again to their old forms of government. The bishop in Quito had joined the people, but most of the clergy of other provinces, particularly the inquisition, who think their influence more secure under the old system, raised a cry against the Quitonians, and their brethren and fellow sufferers and marched against them. The Quitonians are the most industrious of all the inhabitants of Spanish America, and manufacture coarse woolens, cottons, and linens, for exportation to other provinces. They had procured machinery for making finer goods, but their government opposed them. They have many good painters and mechanics. Their country, though much variegated, is mostly mountainous, the soil fertile, and the climate healthy and pleasant."