ortuguese settlement of Columbia,
in the Plata, by the governor of Buenos Ayres, before the squadron
despatched by the governor of Brazil, Gomez Freyre, could arrive to
protect it. That squadron consisted of the Lord Clive, of 64 guns, an
English ship commanded by Capt. Macnamara; the Ambuscade, of 40 guns, in
which Penrose, the poet, served as lieutenant; and the Gloria, of 38
guns. The Spanish ships retired before Macnamara, and he ran under the
guns of the forts of Colonia, in order to retake the place. He had
nearly succeeded in silencing the batteries, when, by accident or
negligence, the ship took fire; the enemy renewed their fire;
three-fourths of the crew of the Lord Clive, among which was the
captain, were drowned. The other ships were nearly destroyed and obliged
to retreat; but owing to the neglect of the Spaniards, they were able to
refit and return to Rio. And this was the most remarkable action of the
war beyond the Atlantic, and the first in which the English
distinguished themselves in the defence of Brazil.

Pombal, meantime, having resolved on the suppression of the order of
Jesuits, overlooked, in the ardour with which he pursued that measure,
the important services they had rendered, and were daily rendering, to
one of his favourite objects, namely, the improvement of the condition
of the Indians. Their plan of discipline, indeed, hitherto had kept
their pupils rather in a state of childish innocence than of manly
improvement. Their fault was, that in order to secure obedience, they
had stopped short of what they might have effected. Their dominion was
an Utopia; and had it been possible to shut out every European and every
wild Indian, it might have lasted. But such artificial polities can
never be of long duration. Some convulsions either from without or from
within must end them, and that with a more complete ruin than could
befal states less curiously framed. But the well-intentioned labours of
the missionaries had produced one decided good effect,--the habits of
savage life were abandoned, and the advantages of agriculture and
manufactures had been felt. The rock on which the education of the
Indians split, was the community of goods. When a man has no property,
but depends for the supply of his daily wants upon the providence of
others, he has no incitement to particular exertion. The stimulus to
industry cannot exist where a man has no hope of growing richer, no fear
of becoming poorer, no an