Caracas, the capital of the Republic, founded in 1567, is a very attractive city with a delightful climate. Only occasionally does the temperature go below 60° or above 80°. Eight miles in a straight line from its port, La Guaira, from which it is 23 miles by rail, the city is at an altitude of 3036 feet on the south side of the outer Coast Cordillera. The city is in the usual Spanish American style, with beautiful plazas and promenades. Exceptionally, the streets, which are at right angles, are numbered instead of named, but the old names are in general use. Notable buildings are the Capitol covering more than two acres, the Miraflores Palace, the Cathedral, University, National Pantheon, Masonic Temple, called the best in South America, a beautiful theatre, etc. A fine view is had from the hill Calvario, 200 feet above, the slopes of which are arranged as a public garden. Caracas is up to date in modern conveniences, water supply, street cars, etc., and has a good and cheap cab service. The city is near the west end of a rich valley 12 miles long and 3 wide, which slopes towards the southeast. The Guaire River below the city flows into the Rio Tuy.
The Coastal States follow with the Island State, and Lara, which is neither coast, llano, nor mountain, though having some hills. The coast line extends over 1800 miles.
Zulia, the large State (23,000 square miles) occupying the northwest corner of the Republic, has Colombia on the west and northwest, the Gulf of Venezuela northeast, Falcón, Lara, and Trujillo east, and Mérida with a little of Táchira south. This State, of which Maracaibo is the capital, is one of the wealthiest in the Republic, though still sparsely inhabited. The Maracaibo Plain, the most conspicuous and important section occupying the greater portion of the State, lies between the two great branches of the East Cordillera. The lake itself is a sheet of water about 150 miles long and half as wide, the water sweet in the southern half of the lake, but brackish towards the north. The precipitation in this district amounts to 70 inches annually. Thus an enormous amount of fresh water from the Cordillera is continually entering the lake through its various affluents; of these the Catatumbo with its tributary Zulia, and the Escalante, are navigable for steamboats. The lake has a depth of 30 feet and is served by several lines of steamers as well as by sailing craft. A few small towns on the lake receive agricultural products from their vicinity; along the shore cacao is cultivated with great profit. There is a fine goat farming district; fishing is carried on; there are many settlements of Indians inhabiting huts on piles in the lake in the ancient fashion. North of the city, Maracaibo, are salinas or salt deposits, from which several thousand tons are taken annually. Southwest of Maracaibo, a peculiar tree is found in the forest, the arbol de vaca, or palo de leche, the sap of which, though slightly thicker, may be used in every way as cow’s milk. In the forests are valuable timber, useful creepers, and trees which furnish various gums or resins. Around the lake are found outcrops of coal, also petroleum and asphalt.
COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, GUIANA, ECUADOR, NORTH BRAZIL
The capital city, Maracaibo, is a busy place, and prosperous. With some good buildings, and other ordinary requirements, it is in need of better paving, a suitable drainage system, and a good water supply, in order to lower its high death rate and to measure up to its favorable location, although this may be called hot.
Falcón, east of Zulia, extends along the coast of the Gulf of Venezuela (also called Maracaibo) past the Paraguana Peninsula, which it includes, and around to the east, so far that the next coast State, Yaracuy, is on the south together with the State of Lara farther west; these three States include the Segovian Highlands; the first two, coast lands also. This section is the oldest part of Venezuela except for the town of Cumaná.
An immensely profitable industry here followed is the raising of goats, which feed on the cactus plains. The extensive coal deposits and salinas count for little in comparison. The northern part of the State is rather barren, but the highlands at the south are forest clad, with fertile valleys raising a variety of agricultural products, chiefly for home consumption. There is one considerable river, the Tocuyo, several hundred miles long, which rises in the mountains of Lara, flows north, then east through Yaracuy and Falcón to the sea. With many affluents, the two of importance are the Carora and the Baragua on the left. The Rio Tocuyo comes down through a long valley, while many short rivers rising on the outer range descend rapidly to the sea. The situation is excellent for the cultivation of cocuiza and other aloes from which sacks and hammocks are now being made. Other industries are soap making and cigarettes; in some sections excellent tobacco is raised.
Coro, the capital of Falcón, the second oldest town in the Republic, contains the first cathedral in the new world. Located on the plains at the base of the Paraguana Peninsula, it is 8 miles from its seaport La Vela and 200 miles west of Caracas.
The important port Tucacas is at the mouth of the Tocuyo River.
The Dutch island, Curaçao, lies not far off the coast, with which it has close connection; some smuggling is said to be carried on.
Yaracuy, a small State with a very short coastal strip, is between Falcón on the north and Carabobo southeast, with Lara southwest. It is noted for its copper mines at Aroa.
Besides the capital, San Felipe, where a cloth factory has lately been organized, the chief towns are Nirgua, population 3000, at the south, amid fertile plains with varied agricultural products, and Yaritagua 20 miles west, where good tobacco is raised, as well as sugar and coffee which grow everywhere.
Lara, an interior State, borders on Falcón, Yaracuy, Cojedas, Portuguesa, Trujillo, finishing with Zulia on the west. Besides the usual agricultural products, there is fibre from aloes, employed in manufacturing sacks, hammocks, and bridles, for which Barquisimeto is noted. The fertile hills and slopes, many now undeveloped, the virgin forests of valuable timber, with areas where petroleum is indicated, will receive attention now that better transportation is afforded.
Barquisimeto, the capital, 2000 feet above the sea, and 90 miles from Puerto Cabello, is the most important city of this section, a centre of traffic for the northern Andes region as well as for the State of Lara.
East of the Segovia Highlands are the States belonging to the Centro, the section near and including the Federal District. These are Carabobo, Aragua, and Miranda.
Carabobo, east of Yaracuy, has a considerable coast line, with Aragua east, and Guárico and Cojedes south. Carabobo, like the states following, is traversed by the Maritime Andes, having fertile valleys between the two ranges. At the south are grassy plains pasturing large herds of cattle. There is virgin territory with forest products of wild rubber, timber, and dye woods; to the east the country is more thickly settled. The state has many agricultural and pastoral products, with marble quarries in the hills. Near Guacara 200,000 plants of sisal hemp are cultivated, here harvested in three years (usually in four), and said to be superior to the best in Mexico.
Valencia, the capital, is a pleasant city, well situated in a beautiful and fertile valley, much of which is occupied by Lake Valencia 30 miles long, with a steamboat service. Having an altitude of 1600 feet the city has a mild climate and enterprising inhabitants. The state contains the best port in the Republic, Puerto Cabello, linked by rail with the capital, which has another railway connecting it with Caracas. A small seaport, Ocumare de la Costa, is celebrated for the excellence of the cacao grown in the vicinity.
Aragua stretches from the coast down to the southeast between Carabobo and Miranda, with Guárico south. In the state is the east end of Lake Valencia, near which is the important town of Maracay, population 6000, in the midst of rich grazing land with pará grass; a splendid farming and stock raising country, its dairies produce a famous cream cheese. Goats, and excellent swine for the tropics are also raised. 15 miles south of Maracay stands Villa de Cura, in the main pass across the inner range to the llanos. Here are many big ranches, the altitude being less than 2000 feet.
La Victoria,[4] the capital, on the Aragua River and also on the Valencia-Caracas Railway, is 19 miles east of Maracay and 53 miles from Caracas. It is a prosperous town with small factories of various kinds.
[4] Very recently Maracay has been made the capital.
The Federal District comprises a long stretch of coast land with the port, La Guaira, as well as a fertile valley with fine gardens of luscious fruits, and coffee and sugar plantations. Some of the coffee trees are said to yield as much as 20 pounds annually, which seems a large story; it is probably two.
Miranda, south of the Federal District, has a long strip of coast land farther east. Anzoátegui is southeast, Guárico south, and Aragua west.
Ocumare del Tuy, the capital, about south of Caracas, is on the Rio Tuy, into which the Guaire flows at Santa Teresa. The broad Tuy valley, here and easterly towards the coast, is full of sugar cane and cacao. To Guapo farther east come hides and other animal products from the llanos as well as rich agricultural produce from the vicinity. Rio Chico, a town near the coast, is a flourishing manufacturing place.
Anzoátegui, east both of Miranda and Guárico, is a very large State with a moderate coast line, but with a deep and wider interior extending down to the Orinoco and Bolívar; the coast State of Sucre and a long stretch of Monagas are on the east. In Anzoátegui the llanos come up to the sea, though the mountains begin again in Sucre.
Barcelona, the capital, is quite a town by the sea, three miles up the Neveri River, but it makes use of the port, Guanta, 12 miles distant. Coal mines are near, owned and operated by Venezuelans, of which fact they are proud, as many of the industries are in the hands of foreigners. Coffee and animal products are exported.
Sucre, occupying the northeast corner of the Republic, is the last State on the Caribbean; having the sea west, north, and east, and the States of Monagas and Anzoátegui south. Here again we find the double range of the Caribbean Hills extending across the State.
Cumaná, the capital, dating from 1513, is the oldest European settlement on the continent; it was the birthplace of the celebrated patriot, Antonio José de Sucre. The city is on the south side and at the entrance of the Gulf of Cariaco, an arm of the sea 50 miles long and 6-7 wide, which extends east and west, separated from the sea by the narrow peninsula, Araya. In colonial days rich and prosperous, the town, population 12,000, has now less than half as many inhabitants; twice it has been destroyed by earthquakes. The neighborhood is famous for its fine fruits, especially grapes, pineapples, and mangoes. The usual products are brought from the interior for export. The waters of the eastern, the inner end of the gulf, are covered with a variety of wild fowls, caught by the peasants for their plumage; formerly killed by drowning, the men diving with them under water. Slaughter of birds for their egrets is now prohibited, other methods for taking the plumes being practicable. On the west end of the peninsula are extensive salinas, exporting 6000 tons of salt yearly; on the south are oil springs.
In this State is the port Carúpano, a city of 11,000, half way between the peninsulas, Araya and Paria, each a long point of land, the latter together with the Island of Trinidad forming the broad Gulf of Paria. Between the Paria Peninsula and Trinidad, celebrated for its pitch lake 100 acres in area, is the Bocas del Drago (Dragon’s Mouths) named by Columbus, through which ships from the north or south pass to the Port of Spain, Trinidad, and to other points on the Gulf, though for some the way is nearer through the Serpent’s Mouth, the southern entrance to the Gulf. Near the extremity of the finely wooded, mountainous Peninsula of Paria is Cristóbal Colon, the most easterly port of Venezuela, opposite the Orinoco Delta. Castro attempted to make this a rival of the Port of Spain, but the roadstead is so poor that the money was expended to little purpose. In Sucre a little north of the San Juan River and near Guanoco is the great Bermudez Asphalt Lake ten times the size of the better known Trinidad.
Nueva Esparta, the Island State, comprises the larger Margarita, 20 miles off shore, the smaller Cubagua, Coche half way between, and other smaller islands. Once famous for its pearl fisheries which are still in operation, the present production of ordinary fish, and from Coche of salt is of equal importance.
La Asunción, the capital, founded in 1524, is in a valley at the east end of Margarita, with a port, Pampatar, at which some European liners call.
Monagas, south of Sucre and east of Anzoátegui, is a large State, having at the east a small shore on the Gulf of Paria with the Delta-Amacuro Territory below; on the south is the State of Bolívar.
Maturín, the capital, population 16,000, a cheerful, healthful place with the remarkably low death rate of 12 per 1000, is on the Rio Guarapiche, which flows into the Gulf. This, the most eastern state of the llanos, has probably the pleasantest part around Maturín, where the grassy plain is well supplied with streams having deep cut channels and well wooded banks. The climate too is agreeable. The State, well watered and wooded, its forests near the northern hills, is chiefly a cattle country; the owners live mostly in small towns or villages near the streams, but some in single, primitive cottages or huts. A hammock must be carried by the traveler, though food may be procured.
Anzoátegui, a coast State as well as a llano, has already been described.
Guárico, a very large State west of Anzoátegui and north of Bolívar and Apure, is south of Miranda and Aragua, and has Cojedes and Zamora west.
Calabozo, population 10,000, the capital and chief city, 125 miles southwest of Caracas, is a hot place, but in a good grazing country. The neighborhood is noted for electric eels.
Cojedes, a smaller State west of Guárico, borders on Carabobo, Yaracuy, Lara, Portuguesa, and Zamora.
San Carlos, the capital, is said to be less flourishing than formerly.
Portuguesa, southwest of Cojedes, borders also on Lara, Trujillo, and Zamora.
Near Guanare, the capital, coffee and cacao are cultivated as well as the cattle industry.
Zamora, also west of Guárico, borders north, west, and south on Cojedes, Portuguesa, the mountain States of Mérida and Táchira, and Apure.
Barinas, the capital, is not very prosperous. Formerly there was here a flourishing tobacco district.
Apure, farther south than the other llano States, is west of Bolívar; with Guárico, Cojedes, Zamora, on the north, and a bit of Táchira at the west; it has Colombia for a long distance on its southern boundary.
San Fernando, the capital, with a mean annual temperature of 91°, and Calabozo, are distinguished as the two hottest places in the country.
These have been called attractive and interesting, but lacking good means of locomotion have been little visited. Residents, perhaps returning from Europe, have been obliged to ride several days on muleback to reach their homes. Clean, pleasant towns, fine climate and scenery, mineral wealth, rich forest lands on the upper slopes of the mountains, people hospitable and energetic, characterize the three States, but with poor facilities for travel progress was impossible. Improvement has now begun in this direction, as the need is realized.
Táchira, the most southern of these States, has Zulia and Mérida north, Zamora and Apure east, and Colombia south and west.
San Cristóbal, the capital, at an altitude of 3000 feet is a considerable commercial town. With roads from the llanos, by which cattle are brought, and others, to San Antonio on the Colombian frontier, to Uracá, terminus of the Táchira Railway from Encontrados, and to Mérida, it is evidently quite a centre of trade.
Mérida, preëminently the Mountain State, borders on Zulia, Trujillo, Zamora, and Táchira. Here are elevated plains, deep valleys, bleak paramos or high passes, one reaching 14,500 feet, and loftier snowclad mountains; the last are east of the capital, Mérida.
Mérida, situated on a plateau a mile above the sea, has another and lower range of mountains on the west. These mountain States have the variety of products found in some States of Colombia: tropical and temperate fruits, with coffee, cacao, cotton, wheat, wool, etc.; in Mérida, gold and silver also.
Trujillo, with lower mountains, borders on Zulia, Lara, Portuguesa, Zamora, and Mérida. The fertile valleys produce the finest cacao, there are large sugar estates; wheat grows higher, cattle and goats find suitable pasturage. Northwest are forests largely unexplored; oil springs give promise of future wealth.
Trujillo, the capital, is a busy town with roads in several directions; it is 19 miles from the railway station at Motatán. Other towns of some importance are Valera, Bocono, and Carache.
The Guayana Highlands have a single State and one territory.
Bolívar, a great State, with an area of 90,000 square miles, twice the size of Pennsylvania, has the Delta on the northeast; north across the Orinoco, it has a bit of Monagas, a long stretch of Anzoátegui, and a smaller extent of Guárico, to the point where the Apure enters the Orinoco and the latter river turns east. There, west of the Orinoco, is the State of Apure down to the entrance of the Meta River, below which Colombia is west for a short space. Amazonas is south of the west part of Bolivar, and west of the southeast part, which last has Brazil on the south and British Guiana east. Bolívar, largely covered with virgin forest, includes a vast extent of unexplored territory, besides a gold region bordering on British Guiana.
Ciudad Bolívar, the capital, perhaps a trifle hotter than the coast ports, has a lower death rate. Two hundred and twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river, which during a great part of its course is two miles wide in the dry season and seven in the wet, the city is located at a point where the river is narrowed to a mile. In consequence of this, the water is liable to rise 50 feet in the wet season, flooding the lower and poorer part of the city.
While the capital is the official port of entry, there is a city farther down stream known as San Felix or Puerto Tablas, just beyond the mouth and falls of the Caroni River. These falls, famed since first seen by Sir Walter Raleigh, are an imposing spectacle: a huge mass of water descending over a wall of black granite to the Orinoco below, obviously a great source of electricity in the future. East of the Caroni, which flows from the southern boundary, are the two most populous districts of the State. This is explained by gold. Cart roads, by which merchandise is carried south and balatá and hides are brought north, extend through Upata, capital of the Piar District, to Guasipati, 125 miles; but as the time of wheel traffic may be ten days and upwards, the traveler usually hires a mule and arrives in a few days. Guasipati has been the centre of the balatá industry, but as the local operators lazily cut down the trees instead of tapping them, the main production is moving south.
The town of El Callao, 3 hours ride farther, is over the famous mine of that name. On the border of Guiana 60 or 70 miles south, a section has been opened accessible by water only. The high cost of transport, and the scarcity, the high price, and the poor quality of labor, greatly interfere with the development of this region. With wide spread indications of gold, there is little reason to doubt the existence here of vast mineral wealth.
Besides the forest clad hills of this section there are great stretches of savannas occupied by or suitable for cattle ranches, while plantations and mills for the production of sugar and rum are also found.
Six hours east of Callao, near the forests, is the town Tumeremo, a centre of the balatá industry, where the wholesale destruction of trees still prevailing will end local production and the town as well. The uplands of the Caroni River are yet unknown, but gold, and the timber and vegetable products of the forest will doubtless one day reward the hardy explorer, as in many other regions of the country.
Above Bolívar, on the Orinoco, there is at one point a narrow gorge where the current is at times so strong as to drive back river steamers. Farther on, the Caura River comes in from the south, through savannas in the lower part and forests higher up. On a western tributary of the Caura, the Nichare, there is said to be plenty of good rubber. 130 miles up the Caura are falls or rapids descending 200 feet, a splendid source of power for future saw mills. Two days higher are more rapids in a narrow gorge. The lower part of these Orinoco tributaries are infested with mosquitoes, sand flies, etc., a torment to explorers, but decreasing upstream. Near the Cuchivero, the next considerable river, are many cattle ranches; its upper valley is rich in forest products.
The Amazonas Territory, beginning as previously stated somewhat below the entrance of the Meta River into the Orinoco, occupies the entire region south to Brazil. It extends farther down than the State of Bolívar, having that State and Brazil on the east, Colombia west, and Bolívar also on the north. Amazonas with 101,000 square miles is larger than Bolívar and still less known, explorers having attempted little beyond the passage of a few streams.
San Fernando de Atabapo, the capital, is a village where the Atabapo flows into the Orinoco and that river begins to be the boundary with Colombia; the Atabapo being the boundary for some distance farther south. The Orinoco coming from the southeast, in its upper reaches is entirely in Amazonas. About the same point as the Atabapo, the Guaviare enters the Orinoco from Colombia, the white waters of this stream contrasting with the clear black (one writer calls it red) of the Atabapo, which latter, it will be remembered, often indicates absence of mosquitoes with more comfort and better health.
It is farther north, between the entrance of the Colombian rivers Vichada and Meta, that the two great barriers to navigation on the Orinoco occur, the Atures Rapids, the lower and the largest on the river, and 50 miles south the Maipures. In each of these sections the foaming river dashes among rocks and wooded islands in a fashion magnificent to behold from the shore, but not inviting for a sail. With the water power apparent, an electric railway connecting the service of the lower Orinoco with that above the Maipures Rapids might not seem too difficult; a contract has been made for the work to promote the development of this region.
Amazonas contains a mountainous district with peaks 7000-8000 feet high, though the greater part is rather low land. There are tribes of Indians, some gentle and timid, others so savage as to prevent exploration, especially the Guaharibos, also called White Indians, far up the Orinoco beyond Esmeralda. The territory has grassy plains suited to cattle raising, but more forest land with rubber trees of the first class, a few of which in small sections have been tapped; there are natural cacao patches. Mineral wealth is indicated by the reports and specimens from the Indians.
Forty miles above the confluence of the Atabapo and the Guaviare, the great Ventuari tributary, 300 miles long, enters the Orinoco from the east. 150 miles higher the famed Casiquiare or Brazo leaves the Orinoco to join the Rio Negro and Amazon. An old mission station, Esmeralda, 20 miles beyond, on the Orinoco, is the last permanent settlement of the region. The watershed, here but a slight bank along the left of the river, is entirely lacking where the Casiquiare leaves it, taking a little of the water. Farther on the diverging stream unites with the Guiania River in Colombia to form the Negro, the chief northern tributary of the Amazon.
The Delta Amacuro Territory embraces the delta of the Orinoco, with some mountainous country at the south before reaching the boundary of British Guiana, which with the State of Bolívar is on the south; Monagas is on the west. The coast line runs northwest southeast from the Gulf of Paria, of which it forms the southern limit, to Guiana; thus nearly the whole coast faces the Atlantic. Only one settlement is found on the swampy shore, Pedernales on the Gulf, a gloomy spot with unprepossessing inhabitants. Up the Caño Pedernales there is beautiful foliage in the inundated forest, with higher lands back, where live primitive wild Indians; farther on is unflooded forest, or open savannas with rich grass for thousands of cattle; on the banks a few scattered houses. One fine cacao ranch is passed before reaching Tucupita, the capital, a dismal place, but with some signs of commercial life. Soon after, the mountains of Guayana are visible, and presently the town of Barrancas in Monagas, the lowest town and port on the Orinoco proper.