Venezuela

When Alonso de Ojeda, first of all Europeans, entered what was then the Lake of Coquibacoa, he was chiefly struck by the unusual appearance of the Indian huts, built on platforms over the shallow waters, and were it possible for any one to-day to cruise round the “lake” without observing the port of Maracaibo, he might come away with the impression that the greater part of the State of Zulia has not changed since the sixteenth century. Strangely enough, this impression would not be far from the truth as regards the extent of cultivation and settlement, and yet, thanks to the great fertility of the soil in these steaming lowlands, and to the commercial importance of the capital, the State of Zulia is already one of the most important and wealthy in the Union of Venezuela.

The area within its boundaries amounts to some 23,000 square miles, the greater part of which is inhabited (if we except the concentrated populations of Maracaibo and the Goajira territory) by about 56,000 souls. Even if we take the total population the density is but 6·4 to the square mile, in a State whose resources might support with ease ten times that number, while its death-rate is one of the lowest in the republic.

Among the most valuable assets of the State are its abundant waterways. Not only is the central part occupied by a brackish-water lake on which small goletas or schooners and steamers can ply, but through the level plains around flow innumerable rivers, most of which are navigable for the greater part of their length. The forests which cover much of the area are at once a benefit and a hindrance to progress, the valuable timber and natural products to be found there being only in part a compensation for the obstacle they present to the increase of the much more valuable cultivated fruits. It would be a matter for regret were the forests to be indiscriminately cut down, but the absence of clearings is not due to any prudential reasons of this sort.

While the other resources of Zulia have received more or less attention, its mines, for one reason or another, have never been developed. Yet indications of petroleum or asphalt and outcrops of coal are to be met with all round the lake. The salinas near Maracaibo are not mines in the normal sense of the word, but in so far as their product is a mineral, it may be said that this is an exception to the rule, the salt of Zulia being well known in the Andes and Colombia.

The savannahs which here and there break the forest on both sides of the lake, and especially on the lower slopes of the Serrania del Empalado to the east, provide pasturage for many head of cattle, and in the north goat-farming is extensively carried on.

The port through which all these products are, or might be, transmitted to the outside world was first founded by Alfinger in 1529, but the original town fell into decay, and the present city dates back to 1571, when Don Alonso Pacheco founded it as Nueva Zamora; as usual, the Indian name soon ousted the Spanish title. To-day it is the second port of the republic, and has a larger export trade than La Guaira.

The beautiful bay, with its wharves and smooth roadstead, makes a splendid harbour, but the difficult navigation of the mouth of the lake presents a hindrance ever increasing in magnitude with the silting up of the bar. Schemes have been advanced for dredging one of the four channels and so providing a permanent entrance for the kind of steamer which at present reaches Maracaibo. The alternative idea of utilising the fine natural harbour of Cojoro on the Gulf of Venezuela and connecting this with the capital by means of a railway, appears much more satisfactory, since in this way the increasing volume of exports from Zulia and the Andes could be brought to a port capable of accommodating the largest of ocean-going steamers. The length of this line would be some 100 miles.

The foreign trade of Maracaibo is at present carried by the National boat Venezuela or by the boats of the American Red D Line, which in many cases transfer them to other lines in Curaçao; the greater part of the exported produce is carried by sailing-boats. The wharves and warehouses are under public control, and there is a fixed scale of charges from 65 centimos per 100 kilos. for exported goods to B12.0 for imported goods destined for merchants in Maracaibo or in transit to Colombia. The last-named trade is very considerable, as all the foreign goods consumed in the province of Santander enter through Maracaibo. The chief exports are coffee, cocoa, quinine, copaiba-balsam, dye-woods, sugar, and hides.

If one ignores the fact that the great majority of the streets of Maracaibo are as Nature made them, it is possible to admire the extent of the city and flourishing aspect of the port, but on a hot afternoon (and this is worse than La Guaira for heat) the dusty walk or drive to one’s hotel does not add to the pleasure of the first experience of the place. The city had a population of 34,740 at the last census, but there must now be nearly half as many again living in the capital.

There are no Anglo-Saxons at present in Maracaibo, the larger business houses being entirely managed, though not always owned, by Germans, from all of whom, including the British Vice-Consul, Mr. Schröder, our party met with the greatest kindness. The town being built for use rather than ornament, there are no public buildings of particularly striking appearance. The Legislative and Municipal Palaces in the Plaza Bolivar and the spired church of the Immaculate Conception are among the most noticeable buildings. There are hospitals and two clubs, and the Teatro and Plaza Baralt, with many statues, keep in memory the name of one of Maracaibo’s most famous citizens, who wrote the first comprehensive history of Venezuela.

Factories for candles, soap, hats, boots, tanneries, and saw-mills are among the more prominent industries of Maracaibo, whose products command a sale in Colombia as well as in Venezuela.

The town has a well-equipped electric light plant, a tramway to the south of the town, which is shortly to be electrified, another out to the Bella Vista suburb, worked by steam, a more or less efficient water supply, and restaurants, shops, and other means of administration to the public comfort, not to mention coches equal to those of Carácas. The chief needs of the city are really efficient water supply, paving and drainage systems; with these it ought to be, though hot, one of the healthiest cities of the republic; as it is, the death-rate is high.

From Maracaibo steamers and sailing craft of all kinds travel to points of the lake shore, and in some cases far up the larger rivers to the ports of the Andine States and Colombia. The steamers plying on the lake include some venerable hulks, whose passage through the water is accompanied by painful groans and sobs from the ancient engines; one of those which still makes the trip to Encontrados, on the Catatumbo, is mentioned by Dr. Sievers as working when he visited the region in 1884. The charges for freight and passengers are in inverse proportion to the efficiency of the boats.

There are two main lines of steamers from the capital, one travelling along the western side of the lake and then up the Catatumbo to Encontrados, the port of Táchira; the other crossing diagonally to La Ceiba, where the railway from Motatán in Trujillo reaches the shore. A smaller boat travels round the southern end of the lake, connecting the mouth of the Catatumbo and La Ceiba with Santa Barbara on the Escalante, where a railway was once built part of the way to Mérida. There is a bar at the mouth of the Catatumbo, and in consequence of this the smaller steamer is always there awaiting the arrival of the large boat from Maracaibo. If there is much cargo, some of it is transhipped outside the bar and reloaded when the lightened vessel has successfully navigated the shallow water. Often a whole day is wasted over this performance, and one cannot help thinking that if the dredging of a channel would be more expensive it would at least be less ludicrous.

Of the railways mentioned in connection with the lines of steamers, that from La Ceiba is wholly in the State of Trujillo, but the others traverse a considerable extent of the forests of Zulia before entering the Andine States. The metre-gauge line from Santa Barbara was originally intended to reach Mérida by way of the Chama Valley, but it only reached El Vigia, on that river, and has now fallen into disrepair. The Encontrados line or Gran Ferrocarril del Táchira, also a Venezuelan concern, has a 1·07-metre track, and is intended ultimately to reach San Cristobal; passing as it does through great stretches of virgin forest on the banks of the Zulia, it has already done much to open up this country to cultivation, and ends at present in the coffee-bearing foothills of the Andes. From Encontrados a line of small steamers carries merchandise on up the Zulia River to the Colombian port of Villamizar.

While the majority of settlements round the lake consist of a few palm-leaf huts, or houses on piles in the ancient fashion of the Indians, there are several towns of more or less importance. Altagracia, immediately opposite Maracaibo on the eastern shore, is the largest of these, and has a considerable importance on account of the agricultural products of its surroundings, with a fleet of fishing-boats, whose catches are sold in the town and thence shipped into the interior. Santa Rita, not far to the south, is in the midst of a fine goat-farming district, and the coco-palms along the lake shores are cultivated with great profit.

At the extreme south-east corner of the lake there is a hamlet which bears a famous name, and has itself been of note in Venezuelan history. This is Gibraltar, founded by Gonzalo Piña Lidueña, afterwards Governor of the province, in 1597. It is said that during the night when he camped at this spot there was a total eclipse of the moon, reminding him of a bivouac at Gibraltar in Spain, where he had last seen the phenomenon; as a result he named the new settlement after the famous rock. The fertile lands around were so excellent for cacao and tobacco that the place soon became important, and substantial buildings were erected to accommodate the increasing population. Before long it was sacked and reduced to ruins by the Motilones Indians, but in 1666 was again so flourishing that the pirate Henry Morgan considered it worth taking, and the town, which had again grown up in 1678, was sacked a third time by Gramont. From one cause and another, chiefly the disturbances during the revolution against Spain, the place became deserted, and now only a few huts amid the ruins of the old stone buildings mark the site of the city, while the cacao and tobacco plantations have, through neglect, lost their prestige or been swallowed up by forest.

San Carlos de Zulia, on the Escalante, is important by virtue of the through traffic from the haciendas in the interior to the shores of the lake, but it is not attractive, being, like the port of Encontrados, an insanitary, unhealthy, riverside village rather than a town.

North of the cultivated lands on the west shore near Maracaibo, opposite the entrance of the lake, we have open, dry lands where the salt-pans are to be found, and on a lagoon in these plains stands Sinamaica, interesting for the Goajiro population, who preserve their primitive customs alongside the civilisation of the town.

In the forests south-west of the capital occurs the peculiar arbol de leche, whose sap can be used in every way like cow’s milk, though it is slightly thicker. Here and elsewhere the woods are full of valuable timber (mahogany, ebony, lignum-vitæ) and of useful creepers and trees like that which furnishes the copaiba-balsam. These represent to a great extent the undeveloped resources of the State, and side by side with them must be considered the many varieties of fishes inhabiting the waters of the gulf and lake, only a few of which are caught at the present time.

No account of the Zulian region could omit a reference to the famous “Maracaibo lights,” or farol de Maracaibo, the flash of which can be seen far out at sea and is used by mariners out of range of any of the lighthouses. This vivid and continuous lightning is to be seen nightly over the south end of the lake, and is generally described as visible over the mouth of the Catatumbo. The flashes seem, however, rather to extend all along the line of the mountains, which rise a few miles from the lake to a height of fourteen or fifteen thousand feet. A possible explanation seems to be the following: As the atmosphere over the bare mountains cools rapidly at sunset the heavily-charged hot air of the basin-like depression of Maracaibo rises, so that masses of air at different potentials meet at a great height and emit huge sparks visible for hundreds of miles. Whether this be so or not, it is a fact that the flashes are visible nightly from sunset until sunrise, with little variation in brilliance.