THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES

VENEZUELA

CATHEDRAL: CARÁCAS.

VENEZUELA

BY
LEONARD V. DALTON, B.Sc. (Lond.)
FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL
SOCIETIES, ETC.

WITH A MAP AND 34 ILLUSTRATIONS

(All rights reserved.)

TO
D. R. R.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The author is desirous of expressing his appreciation of the continued courtesy and kindness rendered during his stay in Venezuela by the British Chargé d’Affaires, Mr. W. E. O’Reilly, by Mr. E. A. Wallis, and other British residents, as well as the warm reception accorded by the Venezuelan officials throughout the parts of the country he visited.

Mr. F. A. Holiday, A.R.C.S., F.G.S., has made himself responsible for much of the information on the Llanos, and has assisted largely in the preparation of the tables in [Appendix B]. Mr. J. D. Berrington, of El Callao, also furnished details relating to the Guayana goldfields and their surroundings.

The author is greatly indebted to Mr. N. G. Burch, F.R.G.S., for reading the manuscript and for many valuable suggestions and criticisms. He would also thank Mr. G. T. Wayman, of Carácas, for many useful documents and items of interest regarding recent developments.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The frontispiece and the illustrations facing pages 78, 88, 98, 108, 128, 138 are taken from “Venezuela,” by N. Veloz-Goiticoa, by permission of the Bureau of South American Republics, Washington, U.S.A.

VENEZUELA

CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA

Situation—Area—Population—Main physical divisions—The Guayana Highlands—Mountains, rivers, and forests—The Llanos—Selvas—Mesas—Rivers and cienagas—The Delta—Caños—The Caribbean Hills—Serrania Costanera—Serrania Interior—Rivers—Segovia Highlands—Drainage—Vegetation—The Andes—Portuguese chain—Cordillera of Mérida—The Sierra Nevada—Mountain torrents—Vegetation—Páramos—The Coastal Plain—Lake of Maracaibo—Coro and Paraguana Lowlands—Climate—“White-water” and “black-water” rivers—Seasons—Tierra caliente, templada, and fria—Temperature and seasons—“St. John’s little summer”—Health.

If we take a map of South America on which the political boundaries are clearly shown, Venezuela will be observed as a wedge of territory immediately to the east of the most northerly point of the continent, separating Colombia from our colony of British Guiana.

The United States of Venezuela, as this republic is officially called, lie wholly within the tropical zone, between latitude 0° 45´ N. and 12° 26´ N. and longitude 59° 35´ W. and 73° 20´ W. (from Greenwich). The area within these limits is some 1,020,400 square kilometres, or 394,000 square miles, according to the Statistical Year Book for 1908, published in Carácas in 1910. The total population, according to the same authority, is 2,664,241, these being the figures of the last census, that of 1891.

Turning to our map once more, it will be seen that the wedge is not a regular one, but suggests rather the lower half of a human head, with the Lower Orinoco as the line of the jaw. The features are easily observed to separate the territory of the republic into four main divisions: (1) the Guayana Highlands, including all the region corresponding to the part of the head below the jaw-line, i.e., south and east of the Orinoco; (2) the great central area of plains or Llanos, bounded on the north and west by (3) the north-eastern branch of the great Andine chain, and in the north-west of the country (4) a smaller low-lying region round the Lake of Maracaibo. Each of these divisions includes somewhat varying types of land surface, but has its main features of uniform character.

As already defined, the Guayana Highlands include the whole of that vast, more or less unexplored, tract of Venezuela lying on the right bank of the Orinoco and round the head-waters of that river. The area is primarily one huge elevated plateau about 1,000 feet or more above the sea, and from this rise a few principal mountain ranges, with some peaks over 8,000 feet high, while smaller hills and chains link up the larger systems. The highest ground is found on the Brazilian frontier, beginning at Mount Roraima (8,500 feet), where the three boundaries of Venezuela, British Guiana, and Brazil meet, and extends thence in the Sierras Pacaraima and Parima westward and southward to the head-waters of the Orinoco. From Roraima the Orinoco-Cuyuni watershed extends northward within Venezuela, along the Sierras Rincote and Usupamo and the Highlands of Puedpa, to the Sierra Piacoa, and thence south-east along the Sierra Imataca to the British limits again. The Sierra Maigualida forms the watershed between the Caura and the Ventuari.

The whole area, which amounts to some 204,600 square miles, is well watered by the upper Orinoco and the Ventuari, with the other great tributaries, the Cuchivero, Caura, Aro, Caroni, and their affluents. Large as these rivers are, they are so broken by rapids that travel along them is only possible for much of their length in small portable craft, and even then the passage is fraught with danger. Save for the districts in the immediate neighbourhood of the Orinoco, and scattered areas elsewhere, the whole region is thickly covered with forests of valuable timber, containing rubber, tonka-beans, brazil-nuts, copaiba, and all the varied natural produce of the South American tropics.

The great plains or Llanos of the Orinoco extend from the banks of the Meta in a broad arc parallel to the course of the Orinoco along its left bank. Westward they are bounded by the Cordillera of Mérida, and northward by the Cordillera of Carácas and the hills of Sucre, but between these ranges, at Barcelona, they virtually reach the sea for a short distance. To the east they merge into the low-lying tract of the Orinoco Delta. The total area of the Llanos proper is in the neighbourhood of 108,300 square miles, so that we have in these two thinly populated tracts about 80 per cent. of the territory of the republic.

Vast areas of the Llanos remain, for all practical purposes, still unexplored, and their general character can only be inferred from that of the regions bordering on the “roads.” The typical areas are wide grass plains, often stretching to the horizon on all sides without a break, but generally interrupted by little groups of palms and small trees, especially near the banks of the rivers. At some four or five points near the northern edge there are great forests or selvas, relics possibly of an earlier, more extensive woodland.

The elevation of the Llanos ranges up to 650 feet, and more than this in the mesas of the central region, these being gravel-capped plateaux, of varying extent, beginning in the west with the Mesa de Santa Clara, northward of Caicara, and extending thence in a continuous series eastward and northward to form the watershed between the Orinoco and the Unare-Aragua basin, which drains into the Caribbean Sea west of Barcelona. The lowest part of the Llanos is situated westward of this chain of tablelands, in the valley of the Portuguesa, the lower part of which has large tracts less than 300 feet above sea-level. East of the Mesa de Guanipa the ground falls comparatively rapidly to the Delta.

PENINSULA OF PARIA FROM TRINIDAD.

IN THE DELTA.

While severe drought is experienced over much of the Llano region in summer, the heavy rains, particularly in the western districts, produce floods over the low-lying plains, the mesas being dry at all times. The whole area is traversed by numerous streams and rivers, which rise either on the southern slopes of the Cordillera or in the mesas. North of the Meta, in addition to the large number of smaller streams which here and there broaden out into marshy lakes or cienagas, we have the navigable rivers Arauca (the main waterway to eastern Colombia) and Apure, flowing from the Andes to the Orinoco in an easterly direction. The Apure receives many tributaries on its left bank from the Venezuelan Andes, most important of which are the Portuguesa, rising in the plains of the same name south of Barquisimeto and joining the Apure at San Fernando, and the Guárico, whose mouth is east of the same town, flowing from south of Carácas through the State to which it gives its name, and receiving from the east the waters of the Orituco, whose source is less than thirty miles from the coast in longitude 66°. Of the Orinoco tributaries from the north beyond the Apure the most important is the Manapire, all the streams east of this rising in the mesas and having but short courses. The greater part of the eastern Llanos drains northward by the Unare and Aragua into the Caribbean Sea. A few large rivers rise on the east of the mesas, but flow for short distances only through the plains, emptying, not into the Orinoco itself but the caños of the Delta. This last-mentioned region of inundated forest, savannah and mangrove swamp, occupies about 11,500 square miles, bringing the total area of the central plains up to 119,800 square miles.

The third great tract, the north-eastern spur of the Andes, divides itself naturally into three parts—the Caribbean Hills, along the shores of the sea of the same name; the Segovia Highlands, linking the former to the higher mountains of western Venezuela; and the Cordillera of Mérida, or the Venezuelan Andes. The total area occupied by these mountain and hill tracts is about 41,800 square miles.

The Caribbean Hills give to the Venezuelan coast its splendid and almost unique aspect, for, save for the interruption near Barcelona, the range extends without much decrease in average height from west of longitude 68° to the east end of the peninsula of Paria, less than 62° west of Greenwich. Two main lines of elevation are plainly discernible in the Carácas region, known as the Serrania Costanera and the Serrania Interior; they continue throughout the range, but are less distinct in the Cumaná Hills. The greatest elevation of the outer line is reached near Carácas itself, a considerable area west of the city rising to over 6,500 feet, while to the east are the famous peaks of La Silla (de Carácas) and Naiguatá (8,620 feet and 9,100 feet respectively). In the inner range the greatest elevation is round Mount Turimquiri, south of Cumaná; the eastern portion of the coast range, in the peninsulas of Araya and Paria, does not rise above 3,200 feet. On the northern side the complex is drained only by mountain torrents falling rapidly throughout their short courses to the sea, while on the south are the head-waters of the Orinoco tributaries. Between the two ranges, however, we have longitudinal valleys with rivers of more or less importance—the Aragua, flowing westwards from Carácas into the lake of Valencia or Tacarigua, which overflows into the Paito, a tributary of the Portuguesa; and the Tuy, with its affluent the Guaire, flowing eastwards to the sea south of Cape Codera. In the Cumaná Hills we have the Manzanares and other smaller streams emptying their waters into the Gulf of Cariaco, and on the east the Lake of Putucual, though small, is similar in situation to that of Valencia, and its overflow forms the River San Juan, which empties into the Gulf of Paria, forming virtually part of the Orinoco drainage. The lower slopes of all these ranges, and the valleys, are clothed with rich forests, excepting the dry, barren coasts near Carácas, while the heights are bare, save for grass and a few small temperate trees.

Between the western extremity of the Caribbean Hills and the northern spurs of the Venezuelan Andes there is an elevated region, which, though subject to variations of level, possesses the main features of a tableland, and this type of surface extends in a broad belt northward through the States of Lara and Falcón. Their main extent is in the State of Lara, whose capital, Barquisimeto, had as its original name, before any territorial limits were defined round it, Nueva Segovia; it seems appropriate, therefore, to distinguish this area as the Segovia Highlands.

The level of most of the area so designated ranges from 1,500 to 3,500 feet, but the plateau type is best developed in the Barquisimeto region, the dry, barren plains of which, with their cactus vegetation, suggest by their general features the dry bed of an ancient lake, in whose waters the small scattered hills formed islands, while the Andine spurs to the south and the Sierra de Aroa and similar mountain masses north of Barquisimeto, constituted its limits. Beyond the latter, and north of the Tocuyo River, while the larger part of the area maintains its more or less uniform elevation, three well-defined ranges rise from the plateau, in the Cordilleras of Baragua, Agua Negra, and San Luis; the last named is the largest, and extends for 110 miles parallel to the Coro coast, overlooking the Gulf of Venezuela. Practically the whole of this region is drained by the Tocuyo and its tributaries, the other rivers rising merely on its outer edges and falling direct to the sea; from this generalisation should be excepted a small area round Barquisimeto, in the catchment area of the river of the same name, which contributes its waters to the volume of the Portuguesa, and so enters the Orinoco. The Tocuyo, whose principal affluents are the Carora and the Baragua on its left bank, rises in the Andes and flows for some 330 miles in a northerly direction, changing to easterly in the lower river, before it empties itself into the Caribbean. While the southern part of this area is barren, all the lower slopes of the northern hills are forest clad and fertile, with llanos in the Carora Valley and grass-covered summits above.

To the south we have the Venezuelan Andes, stretching for some 300 miles south-westward to the Colombian frontier, and forming the highest land in the whole country.

There are two main divisions of this mountain group, the Portuguesa chain south of Barquisimeto, and the Cordillera of Mérida constituting the more important and higher part. The Portuguesa chain reaches its greatest elevation (13,100 feet) in the south near the sources of the Tocuyo, the northern portion rising only to about 5,000 feet. A slight break in the mass is caused by the valley of the Boconó, beyond which the Cordillera of Mérida begins with peaks of nearly 13,000 feet on the north, rising to their maximum in the centre, where the summits of the Sierra Nevada of Mérida have an elevation of about 16,400 feet, and the top of the highest of all, La Columna, is 16,423 feet above sea-level. Southwards the elevations decrease again, until on the borders of Colombia the watershed is less than 5,000 feet above the sea. The streams of this chain, with its steep outer flanks so characteristic of the Andes, naturally belong for the most part to the catchment area of the Orinoco or the Maracaibo Lake, but there is a succession of longitudinal valleys within the chain which may be considered as pertaining more particularly to the Andes. The chief of these rivers are the Motatán, which, rising north of Mérida, flows northwards through Trujillo to the Lake of Maracaibo; the Chama, whose sources are in the same snows that supply the Motatán, though the stream flows southward past Mérida, bending then sharply northward to reach the south shore of the lake opposite the mouth of the Motatán; and the Torbes, flowing south-westward by San Cristobal, and turning there to the east to fall into the Uribante, a tributary of the Apure. Every type of vegetation occurs within this Andine tract, varying according to the geology of the ground and its elevation. At some points there are fertile valleys with tropical flora, others with temperate cereals; sometimes bare mountain slopes and hot gorges supporting only cactus and acacia, and little of these; sometimes grass-clad slopes and summits, with the peculiar heather-like and resinous plants of the “páramos,” and, lastly, the eternal snows of the peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

North of the mountain region of Venezuela lies what may be considered as the coastal plain, including the alluvial area of the Lake of Maracaibo, the Coro and Paraguana lowlands, and such few tracts of flat ground as may be found along the coast, with the numerous islands in the Caribbean which belong to Venezuela. The area of this division may be estimated as about 27,800 square miles. The lake has many points of similarity to the Delta, both in hydrography and general character. The southern part has innumerable rivers comparable to the caños, with open lagoons and swamps, bordered by dense forests more or less inundated in the rains. On the east and west shores to the north there are stretches of higher ground between the swamps, and frequent grass plains like the Llanos; the western side is bounded by the Sierra de Perija, forming the frontier of Colombia. Chief of the rivers traversing these plains are the Motatán and Chama, already mentioned as rising in the Andes, the Escalante, and the Catatumbo; the mouths of all are of a deltaic character, and all are navigable to a greater or lesser extent. The largest and most important is the Catatumbo, which, with its great tributary, the Zulia, rises in Colombia.

The Coro and Paraguana lowlands form a stretch of open, sandy, more or less barren and low hills, extending from the neighbourhood of the port of Maracaibo along the coast to Coro, and into the Paraguana peninsula; with them may be grouped the islands, which are similar in character, except Margarita, whose mountains resemble those of the Caribbean chain, though the open, cactus-covered lower ground is a repetition of the western coast (and Curaçao).

The climate of the 394,000 square miles naturally varies greatly according to latitude, elevation, and vegetation. The Guayana region, here also, stands by itself, both from its southern position and comparatively uniform elevation, so that over a wide area the temperature and rainfall are more or less the same. Naturally in those parts of Guayana where mountain ridges rise above the general level of the plateau the temperature is lower than the average, but these must constitute a small part of the whole. There is a marked difference in the meteorological conditions in the various river-valleys of the Orinoco basin, where the “white-water”—i.e., the swiftly flowing but muddy streams, with rocky beds—are always accompanied by a clear sky overhead, and mosquitoes and crocodiles abound; on the “black water”—the deep and slow rivers—the sky is continually clouded, but the air is free from mosquitoes. The Orinoco represents the former type, the Rio Negro the latter. The rainy season in Guayana begins in April and lasts till November; the remaining four months are fairly dry.

The better known region of the north is generally considered as divided, qua climate, into three regions, in common with tropical South America generally—that is to say, the hot, temperate, and cold zones. The hot zone or Tierra caliente is generally considered as ranging from sea-level to an elevation of 1,915 feet, where the mean annual temperature varies from 74° to 91° Fahr. The intermediate or temperate zone, the Tierra templada, lies between 1,915 and 7,030 feet above sea-level, and within those limits the mean annual temperature may fall as low as, or even lower than, 60° Fahr. The Tierra fria, or cold zone, including the highest peak of Venezuela, 16,423 feet, has mean annual temperatures ranging from 60° to below zero.

The Tierra caliente includes (in addition to the greater part of Guayana) the Llanos, the coastal plains, and the region of the Lake of Maracaibo, the lower slopes and part of the central valleys of the mountains, part of the Segovia Highlands, and the Caribbean islands. The higher ground naturally has a climate varying with elevation, but the typical hot country, the Llanos are the warmest, the islands the coolest. On the Llanos the central, northern, and eastern regions are cooler than the southern and western, the highest mean annual temperature being recorded in San Fernando de Apure. Over this area the rainfall is heavy, and the wet season lasts from April to November. Maracaibo has the highest temperature of the cities of the coastal region, and, while the rains in the greater part of the area last through the same months as in Guayana and the Llanos, the area round the lake is comparatively free from rain until August and September, when the heaviest falls are recorded. The Segovia highlands and the islands alike have a lower mean temperature and rainfall than the remainder of the zone, the position of the one region, behind the coastal range which has precipitated the moisture of the easterly winds, being paralleled by the distance of the islands from these heights in the opposite direction.

The Tierra templada includes the greater part of the inhabited region of the hills, in which the climate necessarily varies greatly according to situation, the bottoms of some of the Andine valleys within the zone being more oppressive than parts of the low countries.

In the eastern part of the Caribbean Hills the rains last during the same months as in the Llanos, but in the Andes, particularly to the south, the seasons vary, and it is generally considered that there are two rainy seasons; the first light rains from April to June, separated by “St. John’s little summer” (El Veranito de San Juan) from the later heavy rains which last from August to November; this arrangement applies rather to the eastern side of the watershed, the western side having an increasing similarity in seasons to the Llanos as one descends towards those plains.

Only the higher peaks and ridges of the Caribbean Hills are included in the Tierra fria, but between Tocuyo and the Colombian frontier the greater part of the area is situated above 7,030 feet. The prevalent strong winds and the sparse vegetation of the upper areas render them too unattractive to have become extensively colonised, but the products of the temperate zone grow readily in the lower parts below the timber-limit. Only the peaks of the Sierra Nevada are permanently snow-covered, the line having, it is said, retreated upwards of late years. The snow is apparently more abundant in the hotter months of the year, when the clouds which are dropping rain on the plain hide the peaks for many hours of the day, and then, lifting suddenly, show them white with snow far below the normal point, which is about 14,700 feet above sea-level. A very short period of exposure to the sun’s rays restores the mountains to their usual aspect.

PANORAMA OF THE ANDES FROM NORTH OF CARACHE.

From the point of view of health, Venezuela must be looked upon as holding a good record for a country in its latitude, where malaria is to be expected to prevail. The death-rate for the whole republic in 1908 is given in the Anuario Estadístico as 25·1 per 1,000, and of the 56,903 deaths in that year, about one-third were infants under four years of age, while malaria (paludismo) accounts for 8,239. Tuberculosis and gastric and nervous diseases are the most prevalent causes of death. Yellow fever, once so prevalent, is now rare, thanks to improved sanitary conditions. The Delta region and the lower parts of the Guayana valley are the most unhealthy from a general point of view, while the death-rate of the cities shows that the Llanos are by far the healthiest district, with the Andes next, followed by the Caribbean Hills. In some of the low-lying coast towns, where mangrove swamps abound in the neighbourhood, the death-rate is high, but as a general rule the northern coast, with its dry atmosphere and sea breezes, while hot, appears to be markedly healthy.

CHAPTER II
THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF VENEZUELA

Ancient land of Guayana—Comparison with Scottish Highlands—Gneisses, schists, and granite—Dykes—Roraima Series—Strange peaks—The Caribbean Series—“All that glitters is not gold”—La Galera—Segovia Group—Natural castles—Capacho Limestone—The Golden Hill—Cerro de Oro Series—Formation of mountains—Early outlet of Orinoco—Cumaná Series—Shoals and islands—Llano gravels—Cubagua beds—Igneous rocks—Earthquakes—Hot springs—A natural kettle—Coal—Iron—Gold—Copper—Lead—Petroleum and asphalt—Sulphur—Salt—Urao—Ornamental stones—Wealth in minerals.

A certain interest, often described as spurious but none the less common, generally attaches to the ancient for the sake of its antiquity, and we may, hope, therefore, that the story of the rocks of Venezuela will appeal even to non-geological readers.

The Guayana Highlands appear not only to be formed of the oldest rocks in Venezuela, but from such scanty study as has been made of parts of the region, to represent one of the most ancient land-surfaces in the world. Different as they are in appearance, they offer many analogies with the north-western highlands of Scotland from a geological point of view; and here it is known that the processes of building-up and breaking-down have preserved for us glimpses of a land which stood, as it now stands, long ages ago when living organisms, if there were any, had not reached such a stage in their development as to leave their traces in the deposits of the time.

The great elevated platform from which rise the peaks and mountain chains of Guayana appears everywhere to be composed of similar rocks, gneisses, hornblende schists, and granites, all containing evidence of great antiquity in geological time. This Guayana complex, as it may be called, has been considered by geologists as more or less equivalent in age to the Lewisian gneiss of Scotland, and therefore one of the oldest members of the Archæan system.

What may have been the original condition of the rocks it is impossible now to say, but one of the agencies which has brought them to their present form has left its traces in the form of “dykes” of quartz-porphyries and felsite, which were once forced in a molten condition into crevices and joints of the then less solid deposits.

After the cooling of these intrusions and wearing down of the whole mass by atmospheric influences, the movements of the earth’s crust produced a shallow sea or series of lakes over what is now Guayana, and in these waters a series of beds of red and white sandstones, coarse conglomerate, and red shale were laid down to a thickness of about 2,000 feet. Later the area was again elevated into dry land, the sediments were consolidated, and again veins or dykes of basalt, dolerite, and similar dark, heavy rocks in a molten condition forced themselves into the fractures of gneisses and sandstones alike. These sandstones are here named the Roraima Series, from their occurrence in that mountain, and they now remain as isolated peaks or chains of hills all over Guayana, which, since that far-off period when the series was first consolidated, seems to have been always dry land.

The points at which the Roraima beds have been left as upstanding masses of horizontally stratified material, in place of being completely denuded from the ancient foundation of gneiss, appear to have been determined in many cases by the presence of exceptional accumulations of molten igneous rock, which has hardened and remained as a cap to protect the softer sandstones below from the effects of atmospheric weathering. Where this has been the case the strange vertical-sided, flat-topped mountains of Guayana are the result.

While in all probability northern Venezuela has no rocks quite so ancient as those of Guayana, the geological history of this part of the country has been much more eventful, and the number of earthquakes suggest that even yet the form of the earth’s crust in this region is undergoing comparatively violent changes.

As is commonly the case, to find the oldest rocks we have to search the hills, and because the masses of gneiss, silvery mica-schist, marble, and so on, which form the highest parts of much of the mountain region, were first studied by Mr. G. P. Wall in the Caribbean Hills in 1860, he named the whole the Caribbean Series. The beds which make up the series may have been deposited at a period corresponding to that of the ancient Silurian rocks of Wales, but it seems very possible that they are older in some parts than in others. They form the central region of the Venezuelan Andes, where there is a core of granite which probably cooled at a date subsequent to the consolidation of the gneiss and schists. The silvery mica-flakes of the latter are very often mistaken by the inhabitants for gold or silver ores, and the author had more than one pretty but valueless specimen offered for sale, with its locality to be revealed as a secret of great worth! The same rocks extend all the way along the coastal range across the Boca del Draco into Trinidad, and northward in Margarita the mountains are formed of similar gneisses and schists. In the Llanos north of El Baúl there is a peculiar elevated plateau known as La Galera, from which rise many hills of gneiss and granitic rock, but these may perhaps be an outlying island of the Guayana complex.

After the deposits of the Caribbean Series had been consolidated and elevated into dry land, but before they had been thrown into high mountains such as they form to-day, perhaps at the same time that the granite of the Sierra Nevada of Mérida was being pushed up under them in a molten condition, the seas around were receiving deposits of quartz sand, mud, and lime, which were later consolidated to form a series of red and yellow sandstones, shales, slates, and black bituminous limestones, which now outcrop along the Sierras, and chiefly in the Segovia Highlands, suggesting for the whole the name Segovia Group. The animals which inhabited the seas of those times left their shells and remains in the rocks, and the forms (Ammonites, Inoceramus, &c.) which have been found by various travellers show that these deposits were formed at a period approximately corresponding to that of the lowest parts of our chalk or of the Cretaceous System generally.

Here and there throughout the mountains of northern Venezuela, the traveller is sure to be struck by the sight of great cliffs and castle-like masses of limestone rock, which add greatly to the effect of the scenery where they occur. From their position it is clear that these were originally parts of a more or less continuous accumulation of lime in a deep, still sea, after more turbulent waters had deposited the Segovia Group. The German traveller Dr. Sievers called this limestone the Capacho Limestone, from Capacho in Táchira. The fossils are similar to those of the period of the higher parts of the chalk.

After the deposition of the Capacho Limestone the earth’s crust, which had in this region remained tranquil for a considerable period, again underwent some changes, and in the new shallower sea thus formed sand and mud, with some lime, were alternately laid down. The resulting sandstones, shales, and limestones were named by Dr. Sievers the Cerro de Oro Series, from a hill formed of these rocks in Táchira, and called Cerro de Oro, or Golden Hill, because the very abundant iron pyrites in it were mistaken for the precious metal. Many fossils have been found in the group, and from these it seems that in Venezuela, instead of the break between Cretaceous and Tertiary which we have in England, there was a continuous series of deposits, so that at the base we have chalk fossils, and higher up Eocene forms, the general character of the animal life changing gradually from one to the other.

With the consolidation of the Cerro de Oro beds we have a new period of disturbance, in which the mountain chains of northern Venezuela began to be formed as we know them to-day, and the waters of the Orinoco began to flow into the Atlantic more or less by the present mouth of the river. Alongside the newly formed hills, or islands as they would then be, sandstones and shales were deposited to a considerable thickness. They are found outcropping now along the coast and under the Llanos, as well as round the Lake of Maracaibo. The first fossils from them were collected by Mr. G. P. Wall from Cumaná, and it seems fitting to distinguish the whole as the Cumaná Series.

After the deposition of the Cumaná Series, and the crust movements which led to the consolidation and folding of these rocks, the physical features of Venezuela must have been very much what they are to-day, save that many of the smaller islands and parts of the coast were still submerged as shoals, whilst the Llanos seem to have been a great swampy or submerged plain, with deep water in parts, over which the Orinoco sediments gradually accumulated in the form of current-bedded sands and clays surmounted by gravels, which we may term the Llano deposits. At the same time, along the coast and on the shoals shell-beds were being formed, and can now be seen at Cabo Blanco, west of La Guaira, and similar places, while practically the whole surface of the Island of Cubagua is formed of them, suggesting the name Cubagua Beds. About this period some volcanic rocks were thrust up and cooled both in the Peninsula of Paraguana and near San Casimiro, south of Carácas. In the mountains great masses of gravels containing huge boulders and some Megatherium and other bones were being piled up by the rivers. Last of all we have the still-accumulating recent alluvium of the modern streams, attaining its widest extent in the Delta and round the Lake of Maracaibo.

No volcanoes, active or recently extinct, are known in Venezuela, but the country has, like most of South America, been continually subject to earthquake shocks of greater or less intensity. Some of these are historic, but of the many others recorded not a few had far-reaching effects on the population. The first important tremor noticed after the discovery and settlement of the shores of the Caribbean was that of 1530, which shook the city of Nueva Cadiz on the Island of Cubagua and destroyed the fortress of Cumaná, thus checking for some time the colonisation of the mainland in this region. Thirteen years later New Cadiz was visited again by earthquake and hurricane, and so disastrous were the results that from that day to the present Cubagua has been, what it was before the arrival of the Spaniards, a desert island. The many shocks experienced in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seem to have been generally unaccompanied by much loss of life or property, but this period of comparative quiescence was followed by one of the historical examples of severe earthquake early in the nineteenth century. In March, 1812, a shock destroyed great parts of Carácas, La Guaira, Barquisimeto, Mérida, and other towns, and in the capital alone ten thousand people were killed. The great earthquake which, on August 13, 1868, made itself felt all over South America, so much affected some of the Venezuelan rivers that their waters over-flowed the banks, and even remained for a short time in new channels. In 1894 Mérida and other towns in the Andes suffered much damage, houses and churches being shaken down; the destruction was in some cases extraordinarily complete. Since that time only slight tremors have been felt.

The internal heat in the north-eastern spur of the Andes, which traverses Venezuela, manifests itself at many points in the form of hot springs. One, containing much sulphur, is found at Las Trincheras, between Valencia and Puerto Cabello. The temperature of this spring varies, but in 1852 it was found by Karsten to be only a few degrees below the boiling point of water; in general, however, it does not exceed 195° F. or 17° below boiling point. Wall found one south of Carúpano actually boiling. All along the flanks of the coastal Cordillera there are mineral springs, generally at fairly high temperatures, and many more are known throughout the Andes. Nearly all these springs have been used in the treatment of various diseases, though none has achieved especial popularity.

While hot springs may be interesting to the visitor, they are hardly valuable assets to a country such as Venezuela, but this part of the world has always, and with much justice, held the reputation of being rich in minerals. There is coal of fairly good quality in more than one of the Cretaceous and Tertiary groups of strata, near Barcelona, Tocuyo, Coro, and Maracaibo, as well as in the Andes, but the often-associated iron is only found in large quantities in the Guayana gneiss south of the Orinoco Delta.

Gold, that great lure for the early European ventures to the west, may be said to occur in almost every State of Venezuela, but it has only been worked with profit in Guayana, even though samples of a quartz-reef near Carúpano are said to have assayed 7 oz. to the ton. When Sir Robert Dudley visited the coast of the Gulf of Paria in 1595, he heard of a goldmine near Orocoa (Uracoa), on the eastern side of the Llanos, which may mean that the gravels are occasionally auriferous, but unfortunately he failed to reach the place. Placer workings are the chief source of the precious metal in the Guasipati goldfields in Guayana, but the reefs from which it is derived have been discovered and worked at odd times. In British Guiana, where the conditions are similar, Mr. Harrison says that the gold is generally found along the later intrusive dykes, the smallest dykes being the richest, while most gold is found where a basalt intrusion crosses one of the older ones.

The ores of copper are fairly common in the northern Cordillera, and the mines of Aroa in Yaracuy have been worked for many years. Here the pyrites veins occur in the Capacho Limestone, not far from where it has been invaded by a mass of granite. In the Andes it seems to occur in the more ancient rocks, as near Seboruco in Táchira, and Bailadores in Mérida. A mine near Pao seems to be in Cretaceous rocks.

Many other metallic ores occur at various points, notably galena in the Andes, but one of the most common minerals of northern Venezuela is petroleum, known in its desiccated form as “Bermudez asphalt” over half the world. Boring for the original mineral oil has only recently been undertaken. Sulphur is one of the less valuable minerals which occur in considerable quantities, but the so-called salt-mines are not strictly mines at all, and are described in Chapter XVI. Humboldt had heard of the strange mineral lake near Lagunillas, which contains a large proportion of urao or sesqui-carbonate of soda, a mineral not usually found in nature, and here apparently supplied from springs rising in the Segovia rocks. It is used locally for mixture with tobacco juice to make a chewing mixture called chimo, but there have been projects to obtain the salt in large quantities for the manufacture of caustic soda.

In addition to those already mentioned, all the following minerals or ornamental stones have been found in one part or another of Venezuela, viz., marble, kaolin, gypsum, calcium phosphate, opal, onyx, jasper, quartz, felspar, talc, mica, staurolite, asbestos, and ores of antimony, silver, and tin.

The minerals of Venezuela have merely been mentioned casually in this place, an account of the extent to which they have been exploited being deferred to the chapter on the general development of the country. It is evident, however, when one considers their number and the extent of their distribution, that the geological changes which have played their part in the building up of the physical features of the country have left Venezuela in possession of splendid assets in this respect.

CHAPTER III
THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS OF VENEZUELA

The glamour of the South American forests—Hidden treasures—Temples of Nature—“A dim religious light”—Bejucales—Forest giants—Brazil nuts—Tonka-beans—Rubber—Quinine—Arctic and tropic forms—The Llanos—Tierra caliente—Natural hothouses—Colour and coolness—Páramo plants—Monkeys—An old friend—Cannibalism—Vampires and bats—“Tigers” and “lions”—“Handsome is as handsome doesn’t”—Wild horses—Dolphins—Prickly mice—The “water-hog”—Sloths—Birds—Many-coloured varieties—Umbrella-bird—“Cock-of-the-rock”—Toucans—Cuckoos—Humming-birds—“Who are you?”—Oil-birds—Parrots and macaws—Eagles and vultures—A national disgrace—Game-birds—Snakes—Lizards—From the Orinoco to a city dinner—A cup-tie crowd—Ferocious fish—When is a mosquito not a mosquito?—Agricultural ants—Gigantic spiders—Ticks—A pugnacious crustacean—A rich field.

Most of us, if possessed of imaginative faculties, have been impressed in our youth by the thought of those vast virgin forests of South America, inhabited, as we often used to think, only by huge boa-constrictors and anacondas which lived to an immense age and continued to grow throughout their lifetime; and even in later years, when experience at first or second hand has taught us that the supposed silent forest of the tropics is generally noisy with the chattering of monkeys and birds or the perpetual hum and chirp of insects, and is often far from a desirable place on account of these last, the glamour of the vastness and fertility of these great untrodden temples of nature remains with us.

More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, and, indeed, comes within the forest area of South America; what botanical treasures and zoological curiosities may yet be discovered, when some explorer is found to succeed Humboldt and Schomburgk, are not to be guessed at, and it is not our purpose to give a scientific account of what has been done towards classifying and enumerating the many plants and animals already known to live in Venezuela, but to briefly describe what is most interesting and important to the general reader who may be interested in the country as a whole.

Richest in quantity, and probably in variety, of vegetable life is the little-known land of Guayana, with its vast forests, hot climate, and heavy rainfall. Within it the plants range from the alpine shrubs and reindeer moss of some of the higher plateaux and hills to the bamboos and orchids of the river banks. The simile which compares the tropical forest to those darkened lofty cathedrals of Europe has been often used, and is, perhaps, somewhat trite, but its aptness is incontrovertible. The huge timber-trees grow fairly close together, and their spreading tops, fifty, eighty, or a hundred feet from the ground, with the abundant hanging lianes and flowering creepers, keep all but a feeble light from the ground, whence it comes that the under-growth is usually sparse or absent, and progress on foot is comparatively easy. Sometimes, however, there are stretches of bejucal, full of tangled ground creepers, and it may take a day to cut a path for one mile through such growth as this.

Of all the forest giants of Guayana, Schomburgk considered the mora the most magnificent; the average diameter of the trunk is about three feet, and it seldom branches at less than forty feet from the ground. The dark-red, fine-grained wood is said to be excellent for shipbuilding purposes. Mahogany or caoba, the palo de arco, whose wood is very like mahogany in colour, and a big tree called in Venezuela rosewood, which it resembles, are among the timber trees of the region known to us in Europe. The huge ceibas, with their buttress-like roots, have a soft, easily worked wood, excellent for the dug-out canoes of the Indians, and the equally large mucurutu or cannon-ball tree furnishes a beautiful but hard and fine-grained timber. Unfortunately, the very fertility of the soil becomes a drawback in the exploitation of these timber resources, for all trees grow with equal freedom, and the particular kind for which the lumber-man is searching may only be found at rare intervals; on a large scale, when all the valuable woods are utilised, this difficulty would, to some extent, disappear.

There are two fruit-trees whose products are well known in European markets, and though these grow all over Guayana, they are particularly abundant in certain regions. The Brazil nut was first described by Humboldt, but since his time it has become a common article of merchandise in Europe; the tree which bears it is itself large, and the fruit, with its fifteen or twenty nuts, is tremendously heavy, and generally breaks in falling from the tree when ripe, not infrequently cracking the shells inside, when the birds and monkeys are able to enjoy the oily kernel; otherwise the exterior usually proves too hard. The other fruit we have referred to is the sarrapia, or tonka-bean, not so well known to the general public of to-day as formerly, though extensively used in perfumery. The trees grow in greatest abundance and excellence, according to André, in the Caura and Cuchivero valleys. The gums and resins of Guayana include the balatá, copaiba-balsam, and rubber-producing trees, the latter chiefly varieties of Hevea, while cinchona or quinine with innumerable creepers and trees possessed of medicinal or toxic properties are found everywhere. The 2,450 species of plants referred to by Schomburgk have since been added to, and it is obvious that in such an assembly there must be many of value, as yet undiscovered and unused.

The vegetation of the higher exposed peaks and plateaux is quite different from that of the forests, and here Schomburgk found such an alpine, or rather Arctic, form as reindeer-moss, associated with semi-tropical rock-orchids and aloes.

The forest plants and trees of Guayana also flourish in the Delta region and in the forests bordering the Llanos of Maturín, but the vegetation of northern Venezuela is generally very different from that of the south.

The great green or brown plain of the Llanos is often beautified by small golden, white, and pink flowers, and sedges and irises make up much of the small vegetation. Here and there the beautiful “royal” palm, with its banded stem and graceful crown, the moriche, or one of the other kinds, forms clumps to break the monotony, and along the small streams are patches of chaparro bushes, cashew-nuts, locusts, and so forth. The banks of the rivers often support denser groves of ceibas, crotons, guamos, &c.; the last-named bears a pod covered with short, velvety hair, within which, around the beans (about the size of our broad beans), is a cool, juicy, very refreshing pulp, not unlike that of the young cocoa-pod. Along the banks of the streams in front of the trees are masses of reeds and semi-aquatic grasses, which effectually conceal the higher vegetation from a traveller in a canoe at water-level.

IN THE UPPER TEMPERATE ZONE: THE CHAMA VALLEY.

As might be expected, when we enter the region of the Cordilleras, we find very different types of vegetation in the various zones. The tierra caliente has generally a heavy rainfall, and then supports thick forest, but along the coast there are barren stretches with only cactus, acacia, croton, and similar plants, picturesque, but hardly beautiful. The mangroves and their associated forms line the shore in a belt of varying width, but behind follow, according to the climate and soil, lowland forests or plains and hills covered with cactus of all shapes and sizes, some being so large that the woody stems are used locally in building.

In the tierra caliente we have the plantations of cacao, sugar, bananas, plantains, maize, and cassava, which produce the staple foods of the inhabitants, and the highly profitable coconuts, if not cultivated, are at least encouraged and exploited. In addition, there are the many valuable products of the forests, chief of which are the dye-woods and tanning barks, including logwood, dividive, mangrove, indigo, and many others. A good deal of valuable timber grows in parts of the forest, the chief woods exported being mahogany and “cedar.”

As we rise into the cooler regions, we find, naturally, a mixture of the hot-country plants and those of the mountains; particularly is this so in the case of cultivated kinds. One may see in the same valley, within a short distance of one another, bananas, potatoes, sugar-cane, wheat, yuca or cassava, peas, maize, cotton, cocoa, and coffee, all flourishing, and a single orchard may contain guavas and apples, peaches and oranges, papayas and quinces, not to mention many other fruits; the garden adjoining will have a mixture of roses, carnations, violets, and dahlias with bougainvilleas, dragon’s blood, magnolias, and other tropical flowers. Strawberries, mint, bulrushes, nasturtiums, and other of our garden plants have been successfully naturalised in these mountain regions within 10° of the equator.

The higher part of the tierra templada exhibits the greatest variety of plants peculiar to this zone. As one travels along the mountain roads, in addition to new kinds of palms, one sees screw-pines and beautiful tree-ferns, splendid white rock-orchids and purple parasitic varieties, red and white rhododendrons and heaths, cranberries, blackberries, ivy, passion-flowers, yews, quinine-trees, aloes of all kinds, small bamboos, silver-ferns, and all manner of beautiful flowering shrubs and plants, for it is here and not in the hotter tropical regions that we have the greatest variety of colour and the most beautiful floral scenery.

Nor is the tierra fria of the Cordilleras without its beauty and interest to the botanist. The small woods of the temperate zone gradually die out, and towards the snow-line we have the alpine grasses, heaths, and lichens of the páramos, amongst which are scattered those peculiar white or yellow, thick-leaved, aloe-shaped plants which, strangely enough, have lumps of resin clinging to their roots, and seem in this respect to supply the place of the pines and firs which are not found in Venezuela.

There is at least one animal found in the forests of Guayana which is familiar even to the untravelled Cockney, namely, the prehensile-tailed capuchin monkey or sapajou, of which several species are known in Venezuela, while they are the most common tame kind brought to Europe. Humboldt’s woolly monkey, which is nearly allied, is dark grey, the capuchin being generally reddish; its flesh is said to be excellent eating for those who feel no qualms at nearing the verge of cannibalism. Many other kinds are found in the forests, including the black thumbless spider-monkeys, but the variegated spider-monkey, of which the first specimen brought alive to England came from the Upper Caura in 1870, is a gorgeous beast, with black back, white cheeks, a band of bright reddish-yellow across the forehead, and yellow under-surface to body and limbs. The banded douroucouli also occurs in southern Venezuela, and Mr. Bates has described how, on the banks of the Amazon, a person passing by a tree in which a number of them are concealed may be startled by the apparition of a number of little striped faces crowding a hole in the trunk. Their ears are very small. The graceful little squirrel-monkeys, with dark fur shot with gold, the titi, reddish-black, with a white spot on the chest, the white-headed and other sakis, and the abundant and very noisy howlers are all denizens of the Guayana forests. Nor must we omit to mention the pretty little marmosets, which are often kept as pets.

Bats, and their objectionable cousins, the vampires, are abundant in Venezuela, but the true blood-sucking vampire does not seem to be very common.

There are, of course, no tigers or lions, properly so called, in the New World, but the names have been usurped by similar beasts, the jaguar and the puma. The tan-coloured fur of the former, with its large rosette-like spots, is very beautiful, and quite equals that of the tiger in large specimens, while for agility it more than rivals its Asiatic relative, being credited with climbing trees and living there in times of severe flood, to the great danger and annoyance of the usual inhabitants, the monkeys. The tawny puma is also said to chase the monkeys in the tree-tops, even in ordinary times. The other large cats of Venezuela include the ocelot, jaguarondi, and margay, and there is the one fox-like “Azara’s” dog.

The peculiar-looking “spectacled bear” is found up in the Andes, and the kinkajou represents the raccoon tribe, while the weasels include the tayra and grison, and their relative, the handsome but most objectionable skunk, occasionally pollutes the atmosphere with his presence. The big Brazilian otter, with chocolate-brown fur, is found in the rivers of the Llanos.

Amongst the hoofed animals, the red Brazilian and Ecuador brockets represent the deer, and there are two species of vaquira or peccary, in addition to the now acclimatised European pig. Horses and donkeys live in a semi-wild state on the Llanos, though their nearest relative native to the country is the tapir or danta, a very different beast in appearance.

The nailless manati of the Orinoco mouth is fairly common, and higher up the river there is a fresh-water dolphin: the author observed a fish-like beast in the Lake of Maracaibo, which may be the same species, though out in the salt water of the Caribbean the common dolphin is found, as well as the cachalot, and another species of whale is said to have been seen there.

The rodents include a number of species of great scientific interest, but for the ordinary individual one rat or shrew is much like another, and the squirrels, mice, rabbits, hedgehogs, and allied animals are very similar to those of Europe. One of the mice has flattened spines mingled with the fur, and the coypu or perro de agua has a very harsh coat, though it is rather like a beaver in appearance and habits, while some near relatives of smaller size have the same peculiar flattened spines on the back. The peculiar Brazilian tree-porcupine is a Guayana species. The gracefully formed aguti or acure is common in the Venezuelan forests, and its near relative, the aguchi, is found there with the lappa or paca, the flesh of which is excellent eating. The big “water-hog,” chiguire or capybara, familiar to Zoo visitors, occurs in Guayana and elsewhere.

There are several sloths common in the low-lying parts of the Guayana forests and similar regions of northern Venezuela, and the great-maned ant-eater or “ant-bear,” with the lesser ant-eater, is as often seen in Venezuela as in any part of South America, while Guayana is the centre of the small district in which the peculiar two-toed ant-eater is found. The cachicamos or armadillos are much esteemed as food in the forest districts.

The marsupials are represented by the rabipelados or opossums and the perrito de agua or water-opossum.

The birds, being more commonly seen, are perhaps of greater interest than the mammals, and certainly many of the Venezuelan birds are beautiful, though, as frequently happens, what they gain in plumage they lose in song, and few have even a pleasant note.

Beautifully coloured jays, the peculiar cassiques, with their hanging nests, starlings, and the many violet, scarlet, and other tanagers, with some very pretty members of the finch tribe, are all fairly abundant in Venezuela. Greenlets, some of the allied waxwings, and thrushes of various kinds, with the equally familiar wrens, are particularly abundant, nor does the cosmopolitan swallow absent himself from this part of the world. The numerous family of the American flycatchers has fifty representatives in Venezuela, and the allied ant-birds constitute one of the exceptions to the rule, in possessing a pleasant warbling note. The chatterers include some of the most notable birds of Venezuela, and we may specially notice the strange-looking umbrella-bird which extends into the Amazon territory, known from its note as the fife-bird; the variegated bell-bird, which makes a noise like the ringing of a bell; the gay manikins, whose colour include blue, crimson, orange, and yellow, mingled with sober blacks, browns, and greens; the nearly allied cock-of-the-rock is one of the most beautiful birds of Guayana, orange-red being the principal colour in its plumage, while its helmet-like crest adds to its grandeur; the hen is a uniform reddish-brown. The wood-hewers are more of interest from their habits than the beauty of their plumage.

The beautiful green jacamars, the puff-birds, and the bright-coloured woodpeckers are found all over Venezuela in the forests, but their relatives the toucans are among the most peculiar of the feathered tribe. With their enormous beaks and gaudy plumage they are easily recognised when seen, and can make a terrible din if a number of them collected together are disturbed, the individual cry being short and unmelodious. Several cuckoos are found in Venezuela, some having more or less dull plumage and being rare, while others with brighter feathers are gregarious. With the trogons, however, we come to the near relatives of the beautiful quezal, all medium-sized birds, with the characteristic metallic blue or green back and yellow or red breasts. The tiny, though equally beautiful, humming-birds are common sights in the forest, but a sharp eye is needed to detect them in their rapid flight through the dim light; some of the Venezuelan forms are large, however, notably the king humming-bird of Guayana; and the crested coquettes, though smaller, are still large enough to make their golden-green plumage conspicuous. The birds which perhaps most force themselves, not by sight but by sound, upon the notice of travellers are the night-jars; the “who are you?” is as well known in Trinidad as in Venezuela. The great wood night-jar of Guayana has a very peculiar mournful cry, particularly uncanny when heard in the moonlight. The kingfisher-like motmots have one representative in Venezuela, but the other member of the group, which includes all the preceding birds, constitute a family by itself. This is the oil-bird or guacharo, famous from Humboldt’s description of the cave of Caripe in which they were first found. The young birds are covered with thick masses of yellow fat, for which they are killed in large numbers by the local peasantry. They live in caves wherever they are found and only come out to feed at dusk.

Other birds which are sure to be observed even by the least ornithological traveller are the parrots and macaws which fly in flocks from tree to tree of the forest, uttering their discordant cries. The macaws have blue and red or yellow plumage, but the parrots and parraquets are all wholly or mainly of a green hue. The several owls are naturally seldom seen, and, in the author’s experience, rarely heard.

There are no less than thirty-two species of falcons or eagles known from Venezuela, and of these many are particularly handsome, such as the swallow-tailed kite and the harpy eagle of Guayana. Their loathsome carrion-eating cousins, the vultures, have four representatives.

In the rivers and caños of the lowlands there are abundant water-birds, and the identified species include a darter, two pelicans, several herons or garzas, the indiscriminate slaughter of which in the breeding season for egret plumes has been one of the disgraces of Venezuela, as well as storks and ibises. Among the most beautiful birds of these districts are the rosy white or scarlet flamingoes, huge flocks of which are sometimes seen rising from the water’s edge at the approach of a boat or canoe. There are also seven Venezuelan species of duck.

The various pigeons and doves possess no very notable characteristics, and one or two of the American quails are found in the Andes. Other game-birds include the fine-crested curassows of Guayana, the nearly allied guans, and the pheasant-like hoatzin. There are several rails, and the finfeet are represented. The sun bittern is very common on the Orinoco. There are members of the following groups: the trumpeters (tamed in Brazil to protect poultry), plovers, terns, petrels, grebes, and, lastly, seven species of the flightless tinamous.

Descending lower in the scale, we come to the animals which are, or used to be, most often associated in the mind with the forests of South America. The snakes are very numerous, but only a minority are poisonous. Of the latter the beautiful but deadly coral-snake is not very common, but a rattlesnake and the formidable “bushmaster” are often seen. Of the non-poisonous variety the water-loving boas and tigres or anacondas are mainly confined to the Delta and the banks of the Guayana rivers. The cazadora (one of the colubers) and the Brazilian wood-snake or sipo, with its beautiful coloration, are common; the blind or velvet snake is often found in the enclosures of dwellings.

One of the lizards, the amphisbæna, is known in the country as the double-headed snake, and is popularly supposed to be poisonous, but there are many species of the pretty and more typical forms, especially in the dry regions, while the edible iguana is common in the forests. There are eleven species of crocodiles, of which the caiman infests all the larger rivers and caños. The Chelonidæ include only two land tortoises, but there are several turtles in the seas and rivers, and representatives of this family from the Gulf of Paria often figure on the menus of City companies.

There are some six genera of frogs and toads to represent the Amphibians, and the evening croaking of the various species of the former on the Llanos is very characteristic of those regions; one, in particular, emits a sound like a human shout, and a number of them give the impression of a crowd at a football match.

CLOUD-DRIFTS IN THE ANDES.

TORBES VALLEY AND THE COLOMBIAN HILLS.

Fish abound in rivers, lakes, and seas, but, considering their number, remarkably little is known about them. Some are regarded as poisonous, and others are certainly dangerous, such as the small but ferocious caribe of the Llano rivers, which is particularly feared by bathers, as an attack from a shoal results in numbers of severe, often fatal, wounds. The temblador or electric eel is very abundant in the western Llanos, and is as dangerous in its way as the caribe.

The insects are too numerous for more than casual reference, but it may be noted that the mosquito of the Spaniards is a small and very annoying sandfly; the mosquito as we know it is, and always has been, called zancudo de noche by the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Venezuela. The gorgeous butterflies and the emerald lights of the fireflies are in a measure a compensation for the discomforts caused by their relatives, but of the less attractive forms, the most interesting are the hunting ants, which swarm through houses at times devouring all refuse, and the parasol ants, which make with the leaves they carry hot-beds, as it were, for the fungus upon which they feed.

One of the most unpleasant of the lower forms of life in the forests is the araña mono or big spider of Guayana, which sometimes measures more than six inches across; it is found in the remote parts of the forest, and its bites cause severe fever. The better-known tarantula, though less dangerous, can inflict severe bites. The extremely poisonous scorpions and the garrapatas or ticks must be seen or felt to be appreciated.

We may leave the lower forms of life to more technical works, but the amusing “calling-crab” deserves special mention. With his one enormous paw of pincers the male if disturbed will sit upon the mud or sand and apparently challenge all the world to “come on” in a most amusing fashion.

A host of interesting birds, beasts, and plants have already been found in Venezuela, and it still presents an almost virgin field for the botanist and zoologist, to whom the technical literature given in the bibliography will prove of more use than this necessarily brief sketch.

CHAPTER IV
VENEZUELA UNDER SPANISH RULE AND BEFORE

Pre-Columbian times—No great empire—Primitive Venezuelans—Picture rocks—Invasions—The Guatavitas and the legend of El Dorado—Amalivaca—An Inca prince?—Ancient roads—The discovery of Tierra Firme, 1498—Alonso de Ojeda—The name Venezuela—A great geographical fraud—Discovery of the treasures of the west—Arrival of the conquistadores—The slave trade—Treacheries of the Cubagua colonists—Gonzalez de Ocampo—Las Casas—First cities of the New World—Settlement of Coro—The Welsers—Alfinger—Ingratitude of Charles V.—New Andalusia—Exploration of the Orinoco—Cruelties of Alfinger—Exploration of the Llanos—First Bishop of Venezuela—Destruction of New Cadiz—Faxardo and the Carácas—Cities of Western Venezuela—The rebellion of Aguirre—Foundation of Carácas—Pimentel moves his capital to the new city—Capture of Carácas by English buccaneers—Inaccuracies of Spanish historians—Explorations of Berrio in Guayana—Raleigh and El Dorado—Attempts to civilise the Indians—Missions—University of Carácas—Guipuzcoana Company—Revolution of Gual and España—Miranda—The last Captain-General—The Junta—Appeals to England—The Declaration of Independence.

The advanced civilisations of early Peru and Mexico have left us, despite the vicious destruction of everything “heathen” by the “Christian” conquistadores, in possession of sufficient documents of one kind or another to glean a fairly complete and consecutive story of those countries in pre-Columbian times, as we may term that period before the discovery of the New World by Columbus. It is otherwise in Venezuela; here there seems to have been no advanced civilisation; and the conquistadores were as incapable of noticing or recording details of the social organisation and international relations of the savage aborigines as of appreciating the knowledge and skill of Incas or Aztecs; hence we have to depend mainly, if not entirely, on the information gathered with difficulty from buried ruins, tombs, and sepulchre-caves. Dr. G. Marcano has been one of the chief workers in this direction, and his systematic and painstaking work may one day give us a fairly complete picture of Venezuela before the Spaniards.

In the remote past, long (though we do not know how long) before the arrival of the white men from the east, the land appears to have been sparsely peopled by semi-nomadic, primitive tribes of a long-headed race, whose social organisation was limited to a grouping in temporary villages, while in the arts they had advanced as far as the making of rude earthenware, and perhaps the use of curiously shaped stones for personal adornment. They buried their dead in caves, either natural or artificial, placing them in a sitting posture in palm-leaf frails or earthenware urns, accompanied by small pieces of pottery and other household matters. The names of “tribes” in Guayana appear to be far too numerous to be really distinct races, and it is probable that they represent merely the more permanent associations of villages or groups of villages with slight differences of dialect. In Humboldt’s time there were traditions of the internecine warfare of these “tribes,” and it is possible that in times of strife they were guilty of cannibalism, though in later days authentic occurrences of the eating of human flesh were very rare, if existent at all.

Throughout Guayana there are crude rock inscriptions of comparatively ancient date, apparently representing an early attempt at picture-writing, and it is said that some of the shy and reticent Indian tribes appear to know the meaning of these. As yet no one has obtained any satisfactory clue to the purpose of these rocas pintadas.

We have said that these long-headed peoples occupied the land in the remote past, though their descendants were to be found in parts of Venezuela in comparatively recent times, and tribes of mixed race still bear witness to their existence. Many years before the Spanish conquest, however, there was a great influx of the more normal short-headed peoples, divided into more or less civilised communities, and possessed of some proficiency in the arts, with beliefs which were, in some respects, an advance upon the Nature-worship of the earlier inhabitants.

These last were soon compelled to withdraw into the mountain fastnesses, or the equally inaccessible forests of the south, while their conquerors settled in the Caribbean Hills and the lower valleys of the Andes, where at some points excavations have revealed something of their customs. Though greatly inferior to the ruling nations of Peru and Mexico, these races must still be looked upon as intermediate between them and the savages already referred to.

The Guatavitas of the plateau of Bogotá, whose great religious festival probably gave rise to the legend of El Dorado and his golden city of Manoa, may be taken as representing their higher development. The Guatavita chief, according to Acosta, used on the occasion of this annual festival to smear his body with turpentine preparatory to rolling in gold-dust; then, proceeding on a barge to the centre of their sacred lake, he would cast into it gold ornaments, emeralds, and other valuables, finally plunging into the waters himself, an action which was the signal for shouts of applause from the worshippers on the banks.[1]

Whether the Incas ever really held any communication with these lowland peoples it is impossible at present to say, but perhaps the legend of Amalivaca, who, the Indians say, visited them and began to teach them to write, finally sailing away to the east with a promise to return, may be based upon an actual visit of a Peruvian leader, who left on an exploratory voyage to the east, from which he never returned, at least to these shores. It is strange that there was in Humboldt’s time on the Llanos between Barinas and the River Apure some twenty miles of well-made road, elevated about fifteen feet above the frequently flooded plains, the remains of a causeway from the mountains made long before Spanish times, and apparently the work of some nation far more advanced in the arts than any living close at hand.

We emerge from these regions of conjecture into the definite historical period rather more than five years after the first discovery of the islands of the New Continent by Columbus, when the great explorer, on his third westward journey, coasted along the south side of the Peninsula of Paria on July 31, 1498. He did not land there, but his son tells us that from the ships they could see men on the shore dressed in vari-coloured turbans and loincloths. When he entered the Gulf of Paria, he had expected to be able to pass out on the west side, believing the peninsula to be an island; realising his error, he turned back and entered the Caribbean through the Boca del Draco, “giving thanks to God who delivered him from so many troubles and dangers, still showing him new countries full of peaceful people, and great wealth.” On his way across to Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), he passed by an island which he named Margarita, knowing nothing, as it seems, of the rich pearl fisheries which later rendered the name so appropriate.

Great enthusiasm was naturally kindled in Spain by the news of the discovery of a mainland (Tierra Firme) west of the islands, and it was decided to send a special exploratory expedition. Hence we have Alonso de Ojeda setting sail in 1499, and landing several times on what is now the Peninsula of Paria, though he knew it by the native name of Maracapana. The region generally he designated Nueva Andalusia. Encouraged by what he had seen, he sailed on westwards as far as Cabo de la Vela (now in Colombia), and entered the Lake of Maracaibo or Coquibacoa. Here there were at that time, as now, Indian pile-dwellings on the shores of the lake, which so far reminded Ojeda of Venice or Venezia, that he gave to the region the name of Little Venice, or Venezuela.

Thus we have the mainland of the New World or the Indies first sighted by Columbus and partly examined and named by Ojeda, but we may here turn aside from the story of Venezuela for a moment to see how, by a great and successful geographical fraud, the whole of the continent came to be called America.

There was on Ojeda’s ship a Florentine merchant by name Amerigo Vespucci, who appeared to have contented himself on this voyage with gazing from the deck at the shores of the new countries. After returning to Europe, he developed sufficient zeal to make a voyage on his own account to Brazil, and wrote a clever joint account of both voyages, in which he represented himself as a leader in the first expedition which effected a landing on the mainland of the New World. This suggestio falsi, if it deserves no harsher term, led Martin Hylacomylus in his “Cosmographia,” published in 1509, to say of the discovery of the different parts of the globe: “Alia quarta pars per Americū Vesputium ... inuenta est: qua non video cur quis iure vetet ab Americo inventatore ... Amerigen quasi Americi terram, siue Americam dicendam.”[2] Thus it comes that a third of the land of the globe bears the name of a man who had no claim to be considered as of any particular importance on the ship which bore the first Spanish explorers who set foot in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, close behind Ojeda there was travelling an expedition including Pedro Alonso Niño, Luis Guerra, and Christobal Guerra, who visited Margarita and the adjacent islands of Cubagua, where they had some intercourse with the natives and obtained from them by barter a number of pearls. Next they touched the Cumanagoto coast, not far from where Barcelona now stands, and sailed from there to the Coro district. Here again they were well received by the natives, and exchanged European trinkets with them for gold and pearls. They continued their voyage as far as the Goajira Peninsula, but found the people there of a fierce and menacing aspect, so they returned to Spain, bearing news of the wealth of the West.

Had those natives only kept their pearls and golden trinkets from the sight of these first genuine explorers, the history of Venezuela might have been very different. The white men who next visited Venezuela were little, if anything, more than rapacious brigands, consumed with a lust for gain, before which any shreds of morality or good feeling they may once have possessed went for nothing.

In the year 1500 some fifty adventurers, sailing from Hispaniola, established a settlement on Cubagua for the pearl fisheries, and soon a horde of nondescripts from all the countries of Europe flocked to this source of easily won treasure, which under their uncontrolled and extravagant exploitation began to fail rapidly. With appetites whetted, these spoilt children of fortune turned to look for other means of acquiring wealth, always provided these did not entail any honest toil, and from this time begins the long black record of Spanish cruelties in the Indies, with the fabricated excuses of cannibalism and ferocity among the Indians.

To appreciate the position we must recall the infamous decree of Charles V. of Spain, which permitted the Europeans in the Indies to capture and enslave the natives who in any way opposed the “colonisation” of the new countries, or who practised cannibalism. The Indians being found most reprehensibly innocent of either of these crimes, the Cubaguans pronounced their very presence an evidence of opposition, and further assumed that they must all be cannibals. Carefully avoiding the possibility of arousing the wrath of the fine and stalwart Guaiquerias of Margarita, who lived in uncomfortable proximity to their town, they took steps to enslave some of the more remote Indians of the mainland.

While the world, the flesh, and the devil had been having things to themselves on Cubagua, the Church had been entering upon the new field of missionary work on the mainland, and three Franciscan monks settled on the Cumaná coast in 1513, while some Dominicans established a little community at Manjar, near Píritu. At both places the monks were on the most friendly terms with the natives, on whom, at that date, their influence was wholly for good.

The Franciscans of Cumaná received one day a visit from a few of the adventurers of Cubagua, who had previously, for obvious reasons, ignored the existence of the missionaries. Notwithstanding, they were hospitably treated, and entertained as well as might be by the monks and their Indian friends for several days; then the most catholic and Christian conquistadores revealed themselves in their true colours. The cacique of the district (christened Don Alonso by the friars) was invited with his family to dine on board; he accepted, unsuspecting, and found himself, his wife and children, captives on a ship making sail for Santo Domingo. At sight of this treachery, the Indians naturally seized the monks as partly responsible, but acceded to their request that before taking summary vengeance they should allow time for a messenger to go to Hispaniola and return with the cacique in safety; for this purpose four months was granted. But justice in Santo Domingo was non-existent, and legal decisions bought and sold. The pleas of the friars and their superiors in the island were of no avail, and at the termination of the stipulated period the monks of Cumaná were put to death by the mourning Indians. The region remained abandoned by Spaniards till 1518, when a new Franciscan community was established.

THE CHAMA VALLEY ABOVE MÉRIDA.

MOUNTAIN STREAM BETWEEN CUMANACOA AND CUMANÁ.

In 1520 the Dominicans of Chichirivichi, near Barcelona, also fell victims to Spanish treachery; the Indians had previously recognised their innocence of any possible complicity in the Cumaná affair, but their turn came on this wise. One of the Cubagua colonists, Alonso de Ojeda, said to have been the unworthy father of the author of the name Venezuela, crossed to Chichirivichi, and was well received by friars and Indians alike. Being, like most of his confrères, neither a gentleman himself nor able to recognise one when he met him, he insulted one of his hosts, the cacique of Maraguey, by asking whether any of his people ate human flesh; the chief replied with some feeling that they did not, and withdrew, recognising the motive of the question, as seeking the sanction under the codicia to enslave all cannibals. Ojeda departed, we may believe unregretted, and sailed along the coast to Maracapana, where he was well received by the cacique (christened Gil Gonzalez). Ojeda was, or pretended to be, short of corn, and accordingly Gonzalez gave him guides for ten or twelve miles inland to enable him to buy maize from the Tageres Indians, while these lent him fifty men to carry the grain to Maracapana. By way of return for the various favours received, Ojeda’s men fell on the porters as they rested in the market-place and carried them off to the caravel. On this occasion retribution fell, in part at least, on the heads of those who deserved it, for Ojeda landed again farther down the coast, where Gil Gonzalez met and killed him with six of his fellow-scoundrels. Unfortunately, the reception accorded to their countrymen by the friars of Chichirivichi made them appear privy to the plot against the Indians, and they, too, fell victims to the vengeance of Maraguey.

The Audiencia Real of Hispaniola, by way of brazening out the crimes of the Cubaguans, now dispatched Gonzalez de Ocampo with an armed force to settle the country. The leader of the expedition appears to have been temperate and wise in his dealings, and succeeded in establishing peace, founding a city where Cumaná now stands under the name of Nueva Toledo (1520). Shortly afterwards, Bartolomé de las Casas, a noble figure in the history of the period, reached these shores, and discovering for himself the true history of what had been described as unprovoked attacks by the Indians, suggested that a fortress should be built opposite New Toledo, with a garrison under such control that it should protect the Indians from the lawless gangs of Cubagua, and keep in check any unprovoked manifestation of hostility on the part of the natives towards well-intentioned Spaniards. As might be expected, the Cubaguans were extremely hostile to such a project, and so hampered Las Casas that he resolved to return to Hispaniola and thence to Spain, to lay before the authorities a true account of the condition of affairs in the west.

Francisco de Soto was left in charge of affairs in New Toledo, and no sooner was the good influence of Las Casas withdrawn than he recommenced the slave traffic, which had been the cause of all the previous trouble, and now resulted in the destruction of the new city after the massacre of inhabitants and missionaries and an invasion of Cubagua by the Indians of the mainland. A second semi-military expedition from Hispaniola in 1521, under the leadership of Jacome Castellon, built the castle of Araya in spite of the Cubaguans, and founded the city of la gloriosa Santa Ines de Nueva Córdoba, the modern Cumaná. The fortress was reduced to ruins by an earthquake in 1530.

In the meantime, orders had been received from Spain to name the already existing city on Cubagua, Nueva Cadiz, and three years later, in 1524, La Asunción was founded on the island of Margarita, while in 1527 the inhabitants of New Cadiz received the right to elect annually an alcalde, the Emperor giving 500 pesos for rebuilding the church there. Thus we have three cities founded in Venezuela territory within the first twenty-five years of the sixteenth century.

With the year 1527 the history of Venezuela as a colony, or rather a group of colonies, under Spanish dominion, may be said to commence. We have already seen a form of government established in Cubagua, which for a time appears to have existed more or less irregularly apart from the other provinces into which Venezuela, with Trinidad, was shortly divided, namely, Nueva Andalusia in the east, Venezuela or Coro in the west, and Trinidad and the Orinoco in the south.

Attracted by the reports of the first expedition, various merchants and adventurers had settled in the Coro country, and lived on good terms with the Caiquetia nation of Indians. Now, however, some of these colonists, losing taste for a civilised life, made attempts to commence the nefarious trade which was at that time disgracing all the countries of the Old World in Africa and America. Having learned wisdom from the disasters in Nueva Andalusia, the audience of Santo Domingo dispatched a splendid man in Juan de Ampies to nip the evil in the bud; as a first step he founded the city of Santa Ana de Coro on that Saint’s day in 1527, and in his administration sought steadily to foster the spirit of amity between the Caiquetias (under their cacique Manaure) and the Europeans. His good work was soon, however, destined to be ignored and frustrated by the selfish policy of the King of Spain.

Charles V. had at various times raised heavy loans from the Welser, the bankers of Augsburg, and now in part payment he handed over to them the administration and exploitation of the newly-acquired province of Venezuela. Ambrosius Alfinger was appointed first Governor of Coro, with jurisdiction over all the country between the Gulf of Coquibacoa and the western end of the Peninsula of Paria. He arrived at the seat of his government with three hundred Spaniards, many of them of noble blood, and fifty German miners, and found Juan de Ampies too patriotic to raise difficulties on account of the ingratitude of a worthless king. The man who had founded Coro and started administration on sound lines spent the remainder of his days in retirement in Santo Domingo, though at a later date the barren island of Curaçao was given to him as some return for his services.

The following year saw Nueva Andalusia constituted a definite province, under Don Diego de Ordaz as first Governor, who was given authority to explore and conquer all the territory to the south. Sedeño was appointed Governor of Trinidad, but as yet the Orinoco region was ignored or by implication included in New Andalusia, and it was therefore Ordaz who, upon his arrival, journeyed up the Orinoco as far as the rapids of Carichana, near the mouth of the Meta, where he heard stories of the gold and emeralds to be found in the country whence that river flowed. The success of the voyage proved his death, however, for Sedeño was jealous of his fame and in league with Matienza, then commander-in-chief in Cubagua, managed to poison Ordaz in Nueva Cadiz on his return.

In the west Alfinger undertook a long journey of discovery towards what is now Colombia, and in his greed for gold and precious stones committed all manner of atrocities on the Indians who had none, or who refused to be robbed. Making a permanent camp in the country to the west of the Lake of Maracaibo, after founding the city of that name in 1529, he sent a party of Spaniards and Germans to Coro for fresh supplies and reinforcements. The party lost themselves in the forest-clad mountains at the south end of the lake, and in their privations some of the members turned cannibals, killing and eating their Indian servants. Apparently the taste for human flesh, once acquired, was not easily overcome, for the survivors, when given food by some Indians on the banks of the Chama, fell upon their benefactors and devoured them! The few that reached Coro found that Alfinger had been killed in his camp in 1531, and his expedition had accomplished nothing beyond outraging the Indians.

Georg von Speyer (Jorge de Spira) was the next Governor, appointed in 1533, and with him came Alonso de Pacheco, and ancestors of many of the modern Venezuelan families. Before his death, in 1540, von Speyer and his equally energetic lieutenant, Nicolaus Federmann, carried out extensive journeys in western and southern Venezuela, and the former reached the banks of the Guaviare, which were never again visited by Europeans until the middle of the nineteenth century. In the meantime Coro was made the seat of a bishopric, and Don Rodrigo de Bastidas arrived as first occupant of the see in 1536. The Bishop acted as interim Governor after Speyer’s death until the new Governor, Philip von Huten (Felipe de Urre), arrived in 1541. The latter also made extensive journeys into the Llanos in search of El Dorado, but was killed in 1545 by Juan de Carvajal, the founder of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de el Tocuyo. With his death the rule of the Welsers practically came to an end, though the King of Spain only finally removed all claim to power on their part in 1558. Their energy in exploration is indisputable, but their dominion was marked throughout by cruelty and extravagance.

In Nueva Andalusia the new Governor after Ordaz, Gerónimo Ortal, and after him Sedeño, Governor of Trinidad, were also exploring the Llanos and endeavouring to settle that region, but the previous evil deeds of the Cubaguans had made the task very difficult, if not impossible. Before long these received a just reward for their crimes, in a succession of natural catastrophes, which ultimately drove the remnant from the island. In 1530 an earthquake shook the town and destroyed many buildings, not without loss of life, and in 1543 earthquake and hurricane together wrought so much havoc to life and property that only a few lingered on, persisting in the slave trade, for which New Cadiz was notorious, until at last the population decreased to nil in 1550; even the exact site of the city is now unknown. One important man appears on the scene from Margarita, about 1555, in Francisco Faxardo, the son of a Spaniard of noble birth who had wedded a princess of the Guaiquerias. Crossing to the coasts of the Carácas, he established friendly relations with the Teques and other Indians, and in 1560 built the Villa de San Francisco, approximately where the capital of Venezuela now stands, together with the Villa de El Collado (Pablo Collado being the Governor in Coro), afterwards Caraballeda, about eight miles east of La Guaira.

Under the Spanish Governors who succeeded the Welsers, the already evident tendency to leave the barren plains of Coro for the more fruitful territory to the east and south became more marked. Mérida had been founded in 1542, Borburata (Puerto Cabello) in 1549, Nueva Segovia (Barquisimeto) in 1552, and Nueva Valencia, on the shores of Lake Tacarigua, in 1555, with Trujillo in 1556, while the mines of San Felipe and Nirgua had been known and worked for some years.

In 1561 occurred the rebellion of the mad “traitor” Lope de Aguirre. After journeying down the Amazon from Peru, he sailed up to Margarita, and there robbed the treasury. With his booty he crossed to Borburata, sacked the port, and climbed the mountain road to Valencia, from which town he wrote his famous letter to Philip II. In this he upbraided the monarch for his lack of practical interest in the colonists’ welfare, in lands won by Spaniards for his father, while the latter lived at his ease in Castile; the officials and priests sent out to guide them sought, he said, only their own ends. The monkish historian Oviedo y Baños, incensed by the reference to the laziness of the Churchmen, calls him aquel bruto (“that brute”), but it is probable that most of his complaints were fully justified, though he was hardly fitted to found a new and better order of things. He marched on Barquisimeto and took it, and, hearing that the Governor was approaching with troops from the direction of Tocuyo, wrote him a letter, the humour of which can best be appreciated after reading the early writers’ accounts of the poltroonery of Pablo Collado, for which he was subsequently deposed by the Audience of Santo Domingo.

The letter opens: “Muy magnífico Señor,—Entre otros papeles que de V. md. en este Pueblo se han hallado, estaba una carta suya a mi dirigida, con mas ofrecimientos, y preambulos, que Estrellas ay en el Cielo.”[3]

These offers he rejects because, he says, he has thrown off his allegiance to Spain and therefore needs no pardon for rebellion; then he closes with the sarcastic farewell:—

“Nuestro Señor la muy magnifica persona de V. md. guarde,

“Su Servidor,

“Lope de Aguirre.”[4]

The Governor wept with vexation on reading this epistle, and, after the manner of men of his stamp, said what he would do to Aguirre, were they able to fight the matter out in single combat. Meanwhile the troops surprised and took the town from the rebel, who fled towards San Felipe. He met his daughter there, and killed her to save her from the disgrace she might expect as the child of “the traitor.” Oviedo y Baños declaims at length against the murder as the crowning act of cruelty of his life, but while he was undoubtedly guilty during his career of many acts of wild savagery, this final deed seems to an unbiased mind to be creditable rather than otherwise. Be that as it may, he was captured and killed, and his body was quartered and thrown to the dogs on the various roads leading away from Barquisimeto.

Whether as a result of Aguirre’s protest or no, it is impossible to say, but in 1564 Philip II. took steps to adequately reward one man who had worked to develop his Caribbean colonies, in conferring upon Faxardo the title of Don, and offering him the governorship of the lands he had been so instrumental in opening to commerce. Unfortunately, before the messenger arrived, Faxardo had been treacherously killed by Cobos, alcalde of Cumaná, who was jealous of his exploits in the west.

The work of this first traveller in the Carácas was not entirely lost, however, for three years later, during the governorship of Don Diego Ponce de Leon, Diego de Losada, a native of Tocuyo, travelled across through Villa Rica (Nirgua) to the Llanos, where his efforts, in spite of many battles with the Indians, were directed rather towards settlement than conquest. Returned to the Villa de San Francisco (of Faxardo), he founded there—presumably in the latter part of 1567, though, strangely enough, the exact date is not recorded—the city of Santiago de Leon de Carácas. As he had on his travels adopted San Sebastian as his patron and protector against the poisoned arrows of the Indians, that saint’s day has been celebrated in a special manner in Carácas since its foundation.

Ten years later Don Juan Pimentel, the newly appointed Governor, moved his seat from Coro to Carácas, and that city has remained since, with one short break, the capital of Venezuela. For some years at this time there seems to have been no Governor of Nueva Andalusia, and a captain of considerable energy and tact, named Garcia-Gonzalez, was dispatched by Pimentel to settle the countries near the boundaries of the two provinces.

Carácas is splendidly situated for defence, the steep range of the coast making a natural 5,000-foot rampart against invaders from the sea. It was taken once, however, and the story of its capture has, for some reason, been wrongly described by nearly every writer on Venezuela, though Kingsley’s reference in “Westward Ho!” avoids the current inaccuracies. Generally it is briefly stated that Drake, or El Draque, took the city at the beginning of June, 1595; but Sir Francis was then in England preparing for what proved to be his last voyage, during which he died at sea off Porto Bello in Panama, a place confused by an American writer on Venezuela with Puerto Cabello. The true account may be read in Hakluyt’s “Voyages” as it was given by one of the members of the party.

Briefly, Captain (afterwards Sir Amyas) Preston and Captain Sommers, after putting Cumaná to ransom, landed on the Carácas coast and captured a small fort, presumably near Naiguatá. Finding the Governor of the fort asleep in the forest, they learned that the inhabitants of Carácas had heard of the arrival of the corsairs, and were preparing to meet them on the main road over the mountains from La Guaira. The fugitive, whose name is given as Villalpando, was induced to act as guide along the “Indian Way” to the city, which Preston entered on May 29th, after a difficult journey through forests and over mountains. The only Spaniard found in the place was an old gentleman, Don Alonso Andrea de Ledesma, who gallantly tried to repel the invaders single-handed. The Englishmen had orders to spare him for his chivalry, but his refusal to accept defeat led to his death, and he was interred with honour by his foes. Meanwhile messengers were carrying the news to the troops in the pass on the La Guaira road, who returned to find such valuables as they had left in the city gone with the invaders by the supposedly unknown Indian way. Preston continued his way to Coro, found nothing there and burned the town, and finally returned to England on September 10, 1595.

Here we must go back for a year or two to follow the course of events in the east and south. In 1591 Don Antonio de Berrio y Oruña was appointed Governor of Trinidad and the Orinoco, and very shortly after his arrival he gave evidence of his energetic spirit by crossing to the mainland and founding there the city of San Thomé de la Guayana, east of the mouth of the Caroni, where the castle of Guayana Vieja stands to this day.[5] In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh first visited these regions of Guayana or Guiana, described so fully in his famous book. On his way he took Berrio prisoner in Trinidad, but afterwards released him.

BARQUISIMETO.

Both men, clever and energetic as they were, rapidly became fascinated by the stories of Manoa, the city of El Dorado, which were being handed on from one narrator to another, and losing nothing, by repetition; the fabled wealth of the Golden Inca was eventually the cause of the death of both. In 1615 Berrio led an expedition southward from San Thomé, but he at length returned unsuccessful, with only thirty of his three hundred men, and himself died of fever shortly afterwards. His son, Don Fernando de Berrio, took charge temporarily, but was soon removed to Santa Fé de Bogotá, as Viceroy of the New Kingdom of Granada, into which Venezuela was now incorporated.

Raleigh’s final expedition in 1618 captured the fortress of San Thomé, but this and other encounters with the Spanish colonists, who, owing to a misunderstanding, appear to have commenced the attacks, led to his execution by the poltroon James I. to appease the wrath of Spain. Thus the fable of Manoa remained alive for two centuries more till finally exposed by Humboldt.

The province of Venezuela by this time was completely conquered, but New Andalusia, or Cumaná, which again had a Governor of its own, still continued to be the scene of strife; and Vides, as Governor, did not improve matters by his encouragement of the slave trade. At length, in 1652, the suggestion of one Francisco Rodriguez Liete to the bishops of Puerto Rico, made four years previously, was adopted, and, all military operations against the Indians were forbidden, with a view to carrying out organised attempts to civilise them through the missions, and in 1656 a station was again founded at Barcelona by Franciscan monks. As an indication of the success of these new methods it may be observed that within 150 years (before 1799) the Franciscans founded 38 towns with 25,000 Indian inhabitants, while the previous equal period of aggression and oppression had effected no settlement of a lasting nature. In 1686 missions were established round Cumaná and south of the Delta by the Capuchins, while the Jesuits undertook to civilise the Orinoco. The latter were obliged on account of ill-health to abandon their first stations within a very short time, but returned again in 1725 to meet with increased success. The inhuman cruelty which their creed allowed some of them to practise towards the pagan Indians undid much of the good they may have at first accomplished, and in the nineteenth century their missions became deserted, with one or two exceptions, while the last of the missionaries after the revolution seem to have been as licentious and lazy as their predecessors had been cruel and energetic.

The founding of the University of Carácas by Philip V. in 1721 seemed to promise development of the colony on sound lines, but three years later a monopoly of trade was granted to the Compañía Guipuzcoana, a step which probably did more than any other single act to bring about disaffection towards Spain. The province was separated from New Granada in 1731, when the whole of what is now Venezuela (with the exception of the Maracaibo region, incorporated in 1777) was included in a new Capitania-General of that name. The first Captain-General was Colonel Don Sebastian Garcia de la Torre.

As a result of the evident discontent among the colonists the privileges of the Guipuzcoana Company were taken away from them in 1778, but the disregard by the mother country of Venezuela’s best interests could not be atoned for by a negative act only, and nineteen years later, in 1797, occurred the first definite attempt at revolt. Under the influence of the French Revolution, some of the colonists banded themselves together with the purpose of forming an independent Republic of Venezuela; the leading spirits appear to have been Don Manuel Gual and Don José Maria España, but one of the other leaders in his zeal to multiply adherents disclosed the schemes to his barber, who straightway communicated the fact to the authorities, Carbonell being Captain-General. Six of the leaders were hanged, drawn, and quartered, many having voluntarily given themselves up as their best hope of safety. Gual and España fled, but the latter, returning from Trinidad in 1799 to visit his wife in La Guaira, was captured, executed, and his body mutilated by order of the new Captain-General, Manuel Guevara Vasconcelos.

The revolution of Gual and España thus being ended, nothing of special note occurred in Venezuela for six years, but in the meantime a Venezuelan, Don Francisco Miranda, who had relations in Europe and had travelled in many lands, fighting in the American War of Independence, and for France in the wars with Prussia in 1792-5, was conferring with Pitt in England. From the British statesman he obtained promises of help, but finally got practical assistance in America, and at last invaded the colony at Ocumare oh March 25, 1806. Vasconcelos had been warned of his arrival, and repulsed him without difficulty; Miranda retired to Trinidad, but continued to work for his purpose there, and made an unsuccessful landing in Coro some five months later. His resources were exhausted, however, and he finally returned to Trinidad and thence to Europe.

In the following year Vasconcelos died, and the interim Captain, Juan de las Casas, recognised Prince Murat as regent in place of Charles IV., the Prince’s commissioners reaching La Guaira in July, 1808. The colonists, however, compelled him to swear allegiance to Prince Ferdinand as Ferdinand VII., then captive in Bayonne. In May of the following year Vicente Emparan arrived as new Captain-General, appointed by the Supreme Junta of Spain, but finding the people unwilling to acknowledge that authority, he was easily led by Madariaga, a Chilian, then canon of the cathedral of Carácas, to appeal to them as to whether they wished him to carry out his duties as Governor. It is said that Emparan came out on a balcony to put the question to the crowd, and Madariaga, behind him, signed to them to reply to him in the negative, “No lo queremos” (“We do not wish it”), in answer to which Emparan said, “Yo tampoco quiero mandar” (“Nor do I wish to command”), and so retired from the captaincy, which he was the last to fill. He was finally deposed by a local Junta formed to act in the name of Ferdinand VII. on April 19, 1810.

While this new Government had sworn allegiance to the rightful occupant of the throne of Spain, it was inevitable, in view of the disturbed state of that country and the insecurity of the reigning dynasty, that sooner or later the colonies would break away completely. The Junta sent Simon Bolivar to England to appeal for protection and to ask the Government to urge Spain to avoid war with the colonists. Our statesmen, however, were not then able to resist the temptation to secure the utmost from Venezuela in return for such passive assistance as they might render, even to the point of asking for a monopoly of trade, and negotiations fell through. Spain declared Venezuela under blockade conditionally, and appointed Miyares, Governor of Maracaibo, to be Captain-General, an office which he never filled.

Later Miranda returned from Europe, being sent by Bolivar, and was refused a landing by the Junta, in view of his avowed republican principles. The people of La Guaira, however, insisted on his landing and brought him ashore.

In 1811 forty-four deputies were elected by the seven provinces which recognised the Junta (Carácas, Barinas, Barcelona, Cumaná, Margarita, Mérida, and Trujillo), and they met on March 2nd. The names of the first Congress of Venezuela (as it subsequently became) included, besides Miranda, the Marquis del Toro, Martin Tovar, Fernando de Peñalver, and many gentlemen of rank and standing in the colony. Miranda was elected President of the Junta, and the combined effect of the inaction of Miyares, a man of more vanity than talent, and such incidents as the massacre of persons of republican inclinations by royalists in Cabruta on April 2nd, led finally to the Declaration of Independence by the deputies on July 5, 1811.

The seven provinces were declared to be a confederation of free, sovereign, and independent States, governed in accordance with the will of the inhabitants, and thus ended, in name at least, the long period of Spain’s misrule. From this time onward, whatever has been the internal policy of the country, the inhabitants, in theory if not in fact, have had the government they chose for themselves.

CHAPTER V
THE REPUBLIC, 1811-1911

Local character of revolution—Declaration of a Constitution—Centralised government—Troubles of the young republic—The Church and the patriots—Miranda—Dictatorship and downfall—Drastic measures of Monteverde—Youth and parentage of Simon Bolivar—The guerra a muerte—Dictatorship of Bolivar—Monteverde murders four prisoners—The Mestizos—Massacre of Spaniards—Murmurings—Retirement of Bolivar—Royalist victories and reinforcements—Morillo’s barbarities—Return of Bolivar to Venezuela—Indecisive campaign—Renewed discontent—Bolivar withdraws to Haiti, but returns—Mariño’s insubordination—Massacre of Barcelona—Campaign in the Llanos—Arrival of the British Legion—Congress of Angostura—The march to Bogotá—The republic of Great Colombia—Change of allegiance of the Mestizos—Armistice of Trujillo—Negotiations with Spain—Recommencement of hostilities—Battle of Carabobo—End of Spanish power in Venezuela—Position of Venezuela in Colombia—Separatist movement—Death of Bolivar—Páez first President of Venezuela—Vargas—Folly of Mariño—Progress of the country—Public honours to Bolivar—Recognition of republic by France and Spain—Commerce and prosperity of the country—Tyranny of Tadeo Monágas—Gregorio Monágas—Abolition of slavery—Revolution of Julian Castro—Capital temporarily removed to Valencia—Federalists and Centralists—Falcón—Convenio de Coche—Federal Constitution—Guzman Blanco—Development under his government—Revolution of Crespo—British Guiana boundary dispute—Cipriano Castro—The Matos revolution—Coup d’état of General Gomez—Centenary celebrations—Present prospects.

Even though subsequent events proved that the Declaration of July 5, 1811, marked in reality the beginning of the independence of Venezuela, that end was far from being attained as yet. The revolution itself had begun, not amongst the people but with a few of the more intelligent and patriotic members of the aristocracy of the country; and even the open breach with Spain found popular feeling about equally divided, or, if anything, on the side of Spain and the royalists. While the movement had thus little staying power within the colony, there were many foreign sympathisers, notable amongst whom was William Burke, an Irish Catholic.

The Declaration of Independence was followed almost immediately by disturbances in Los Teques and Valencia, instigated mainly by colonists from the Canary Islands; but though the provinces of Coro, Maracaibo, and Guayana held aloof, the leaders of the Revolution were sufficiently strong to declare a Constitution on December 21, 1811.

One of the main features of this first Constitution was the power given to the Central Government to revise the Constitutions of the provinces. The national power was divided under three heads—Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The Legislature was to consist of two Chambers—one of Representatives, the other of Senators, the first to be elected by popular vote, the second by the Provincial Governments; the qualifications for membership of the Lower Chamber were: to be over twenty-one years of age, five years a citizen, and a property-owner; the Senators were to be over thirty years of age, ten years citizens, and to possess 6,000 pesos. A National Guard was provided, to be controlled by the Legislature. The Executive was vested in a Junta of three persons, who were to have been in Venezuela on July 5th or to be natives of the “Colombian Continent” (i.e., South America); they held office for four years. Judicial power was exercised by a Supreme Court, subaltern Courts, and inferior tribunals, under control of Congress. The royalists who had been responsible for the risings in Valencia were pardoned and released.

In 1812 the troubles of the young republic began. Early in the year Don Domingo de Monteverde landed in Coro and marched inland, capturing Siquisique and Carora, finally directing his steps towards Carácas via Barquisimeto and San Carlos. On Holy Thursday (March 26th), while thousands were gathered in the churches, a terrible earthquake destroyed Carácas, La Guaira, San Felipe, Barquisimeto, Tocuyo, and Mérida; in Carácas alone 10,000 people were killed. The ecclesiastics, recognising their interests to be largely bound up with the royalist cause, attributed these disasters to the wrath of Heaven at the revolution, and one who preached in this strain in Carácas is said to have been threatened with death by Bolivar, who exclaimed, “If Nature opposes us we will fight her and make her obey us!” For his antagonism to the new régime the Archbishop of Carácas was expelled and Madariaga put in charge in his place. An expedition to Guayana had been planned, but was abandoned after the earthquake, when Miranda was made Dictator by Congress. The royalist leader Monteverde reached La Victoria in June, and some four weeks later, for obscure and, it was widely suggested, discreditable pecuniary reasons, Miranda, with 4,000 men, capitulated to the Spanish force of 3,000 on July 25th. Monteverde sent him to Puerto Rico, but for which Bolivar and others would have shot him as a traitor at the first opportunity. He finally died in prison in Spain in 1816.

Had Monteverde shown more discretion and mercy this reverse of the patriots would probably have had far more lasting results, but he speedily showed himself treacherous, and, in direct violation of the terms agreed upon with Miranda, he sent eight of the revolutionary leaders, including Madariaga, to Spain. He imprisoned 1,500 more, and, refusing to apply any part of the new Spanish Constitution to Venezuela, proclaimed martial law; as a result, war to the death was declared by the patriots in the following year.

The Simon Bolivar who has been referred to above was the direct descendant, six generations removed, from Simon de Bolivar, a Biscayan of noble rank who reached Venezuela in 1588. This man entered the service of his adopted land immediately upon his arrival, for he was the special commissioner dispatched in 1589 by the then Governor to Spain to urge the need of reforms and to obtain permission for the initiation of projects calculated to open up and settle the country. The Simon Bolivar of the revolution was born on July 24, 1783, in Carácas; he went to the Court of Madrid as a youth, and there acquitted himself well, but, shortly after his return to his native country in 1802, lost his young wife. Possibly this bereavement helped to harden his character, and so to acquire for him that reputation for cruelty and obstinacy which marred the early history of his work as liberator of his native country and of half of South America.

The young soldier found himself in Cúcuta (southward of the Lake of Maracaibo) early in 1813, and was instructed by the revolutionary Government in Santa Fé de Bogotá to proceed with the conflict, but to wage war against armed Spaniards only. On June 8th he declared a war of vengeance to the death against Spain in Mérida, and marching northwards, won victories at Niquitao, Los Horcones, and Taguanes, finally reaching and taking Carácas. Meanwhile, Juan Bautista Arismendi had taken the Island of Margarita; and Mariño, Bermudez, Piar and Sucre took Maturín and Cumaná in August, leaving only Coro, Maracaibo, Guayana, part of Barinas, and the plaza of Puerto Cabello in the hands of the royalists.

Following these successes, Bolivar was made Dictator, with legislative and executive powers, and arrangements were made for the formation of a Congress similar to that of New Granada. Later in the year the Dictator marched on Puerto Cabello, where his proposal for an exchange of prisoners met with an offer of two Spaniards for one Venezuelan, with the exception of one Jalon, whom Monteverde refused to release; at the same time the Spanish leader killed four of the prisoners. Reinforcements reached him from Cadiz about this time, but they were defeated by the patriots, who later in the year gained other victories over Ceballos.

Early in 1814 Monteverde was compelled by his officers to give up his command and retire to the Antilles; but to counterbalance this, just after the meeting of the popular assembly in Carácas came the rising of the Mestizos, or half-breeds of the Llanos, under Tomas Boves, on behalf of the royalists, a new factor which delayed the settlement of the struggle for years. After Boves’s victory over the patriots at La Puerta, when another force was advancing on Ocumare, Bolivar was guilty of the barbarity of massacring all the Spaniards in Puerto Cabello. After several battles, the total results of which were indecisive, Boves finally defeated Bolivar and Mariño by sheer force of numbers in the Aragua valley and forced them to fly to Carácas. On July 6th Bolivar evacuated the town, and with its inhabitants retreated to Barcelona overland, where upon the royalists and llaneros entered it two days later and Boves claimed the supreme power in Venezuela, although this had been vested by the Spanish Government in Cajil. Murmurings against Bolivar now made themselves heard, and Ribas and others of his generals wished to assassinate him in revenge for their defeats; he was, however, permitted to retire in safety to the Antilles. Later Boves occupied Cumaná with massacre and defeated the patriot leaders in Urica, sending his lieutenant, Morales, to Maturín. Meanwhile, after the restoration of Ferdinand VII., an expedition of 15,000 men was sent from Spain under Morillo; with the capitulation to him of Margarita early in 1815 the outlook for the republic was black indeed.

STATUE IN PLAZA BOLIVAR: CARÁCAS.

Once again the barbarities of the new Spanish leader acted as a goad to the jaded spirits of the patriots, for after breaking his promises of amnesty in Margarita he proceeded to show no mercy to any patriot families met with in Carácas or on his way to New Granada, where also his barbarous conduct brought him an unenviable notoriety. Bolivar had recaptured Santa Fé with the remnant of the Venezuelan patriot army, but the beginning of 1816 found him in Jamaica planning his great campaign, with a view to forming fifteen independent republics in South America, including the Great Colombia, which afterwards became for a short time a reality.

With a view to the fulfilment of these dreams he secured help in Haiti, and later in the year reached Margarita. His associates included MacGregor and Ducoudray-Holstein, Crossing to Carúpano, he sent Mariño to Guaira, Piar to Maturín, and with Anzoátegui and other leaders he himself marched to Ocumare; here, however, he was cut off by royalist forces, and, retreating, joined Zaraza and Monágas with their guerilla troops in the Llanos, and finally with Piar defeated the royalists in the battle of El Juncal, near Barcelona. The net result of the campaign in the earlier part of the year was, however, adverse, and when, after joining Bermudez in Bonaire, he crossed again to Paria, he was threatened with death by the newly arrived leader and Mariño. As a result he returned to Haiti on August 22nd, but came back later in the year at the request of Piar and other generals.

Early in 1817 Mariño and Bermudez again came to an agreement with Bolivar, but when he and Arismendi were defeated at Clarines, on their way to Carácas, Mariño again became subordinate, and, to his lasting disgrace, left General Freites without support in Barcelona, where he and 300 refugees were massacred in the Casa Fuerte on April 7th by the royalists. Shortly after these events a Congress was formed in Cariaco, by which Bolivar was made one of the Executive, but Mariño Commander-in-Chief; the latter was at this time in Margarita, which was now first named Nueva Esparta.

Meanwhile, Bolivar had moved southward to Guayana, and a fresh invasion of royalists soon drove the other leaders in Cariaco to join him there. After a victory at San Felix by Piar the prisoners and monks were massacred, but by whose orders could not be definitely ascertained. The city of Angostura was evacuated by the Spanish on July 17th, and Guayana Vieja on August 3rd. During the succeeding months Páez was fighting with Morillo in the plains of Barinas; Mariño, by the intervention of Sucre, finally acknowledged Bolivar as commander-in-chief, and Piar, for insubordination and ostensibly also for the massacre of San Felix, was condemned by court-martial. On September 3rd an order was issued for the sequestration of royalist property to pay for the war, and in November Bolivar left Angostura for Calabozo. After one reverse he retired into the province of Barinas, where Páez joined him; and finally, early in 1818, he defeated Morillo at Calabozo, though Páez was in April forced back on San Fernando de Apure with a few men.

With insubordination and murmurings among his own generals, decreased troops and depleted treasure, and without the encouragement of decisive victories to make good these deficiencies, the outlook for Bolivar and for the cause in which he was fighting might well have disheartened him at this time. In March, however, Colonel Daniel O’Leary had arrived with the troops raised by Colonel Wilson in London, consisting largely of veterans of the Napoleonic wars. These tried soldiers, afterwards known as the British Legion, were destined to play an all-important part in the liberation of Venezuela, and Bolivar soon recognised their value, spending the time till December in distributing these new forces to the best advantage.

Elections were arranged in the autumn, and on February 15, 1819, Congress was installed in Angostura. Bolivar took the British Constitution as his model, with the substitute of an elected president for an hereditary king, and was himself proclaimed provisional holder of the office. The hereditary form of the Senate was, however, soon given up.

The early part of the year was spent in local marchings and counter-marchings, but in June Bolivar set out, accompanied by Colonel James Rook and the British Legion, on his famous march to New Granada. Pushing through swamps and forests and marching over interminable plains, they met and defeated the advance guard of the enemy in the defile of Paya. The first week in July found them crossing the Páramo of Pisva on the road to Bogotá, where many men perished from the cold. The rest of the month saw them victorious in many battles, in which the British Legion and the llaneros made themselves conspicuous. With 2,000 patriots Bolivar defeated 3,000 royalists in the battle of Boyacá on August 7th, taking many prisoners. On reaching Bogotá he made Santander vice-president of New Granada and left the prisoners in his charge, a confidence which the latter abused by shooting the most prominent, on pretext of an attempted escape. In the meantime there was the normal disaffection in the east, where Arismendi had been made vice-president, in the place of Zea, in Angostura. On hearing of Bolivar’s successes, he immediately wanted to resign; Bolivar, however, ignored his attempted insubordination, and made him commander-in-chief in the east.

On December 17, 1819, Bolivar formally inaugurated the Great Colombian republic, consisting of the three Departments of Venezuela, Cundinamarca, and Quito. A new capital with the name of Bolivar was to be built near the boundary of Cundinamarca and Venezuela, and the first united Congress was to assemble in Rosario de Cúcuta. Although this Declaration was not formally ratified for two years in Quito, 1820 marks the close of the first period of Venezuela’s independence, from the Declaration of July 5, 1811, to its inclusion in the Great Colombia, a part of which it remained till 1830.

With the commencement of the second period we come to an entirely new condition of affairs. While Spain was desirous of attempting a reconciliation with the northern colony, she did not realise that the Mestizos, and therefore the population of Venezuela generally, were now in favour of independence, and after their period of successful fighting, were not willing to accept less than a recognition of their freedom in some part, at least, of the territory. While the attitude of the Spanish authorities was thus foolishly lacking in appreciation of all that had happened in the last ten years, their general in command in Venezuela, Morillo, showed himself most conciliatory and even magnanimous. On November 25th, owing to his efforts, the armistice of Trujillo was declared. On the following day came the “regularisation” of the campaign, by which it was determined that hostilities should not recommence till April 28th of the next year, and on the 27th of the month the opposing leaders met in the little village of Santa Ana, north of Trujillo.

By the beginning of 1821 Bolivar had returned to Bogotá, and there he nominated a plenipotentiary to carry on negotiations with Spain, claiming for his part recognition of the absolute independence, either of Colombia with its three divisions or of the part of the territory which had now been liberated. He authorised the republic’s representative, however, to give up the recognition of Quito, if necessary, but either that or Panama was to be included. Finally, the republic asserted its willingness to enter into an alliance with Spain, but its unalterable opposition to union or to the rule of any European sovereign.

Spain, in spite of this clear statement of the case of the republic, persisted in regarding the revolution as a mere insurrection, and the first negotiations broke down. Meanwhile, in January, the province of Maracaibo had declared itself independent and part of Colombia. Later, one of Bolivar’s generals occupied the town of Gibraltar, on the Lake of Maracaibo, an act of zeal on his part which was nevertheless a violation of the terms of the armistice of Trujillo. Bolivar wished to submit this matter to arbitration, but before anything had been arranged the date for resumption of hostilities came round, and the last stage of the struggle began.

The royalists, at this time held the province of Cumaná, and Carácas between the towns of Unare and Guanare, and at both ends of the region they were attacked simultaneously. They succeeded in driving Bermudez out of the capital, but Bolivar was in Tinaquillo, not far to the west, with 6,500 men, his generals being Páez, in command of the Bravos de Apure and Británico battalions; Cedeño, with one brigade of the La Guardia, and the Tiradores, Boyacá and Vargas battalions; Playa, with the other brigade of the La Guardia, a regiment of English Rifles, the Granaderos, and Vencedores de Boyacá; and Anzoátegui, with one cavalry regiment under a Llanero leader. Mariño was Bolivar’s chief-of-staff.

On June 24, 1821, the Spanish leader, La Torre, occupied the plain of Carabobo with 5,000 men (six columns of infantry and three of cavalry). The patriot army, in order to reach them, had to follow a narrow mountain path over the Alto de Buenavista, under the fire of the royalists, and Páez was dispatched on a flanking movement to the right. Meanwhile Bolivar, having descended this exposed path, had to defile a second time to cross a small stream between the two hills. The enemy descended to dispute his passage, which was effected under cover of a hot fire from the infantry on both sides. The Apure battalion crossed first and were nearly driven back, but the British crossed just in time to allow them to re-form, while the Tiradores speedily came over to their assistance, the hollow square formed by our countrymen having held the ground at the critical moment of the day. By this time the cavalry were across and the field was won, for the Spanish troops were unable to withstand the attack of the llaneros, once these were in their natural element in the open plains. La Torre and Morales made good their escape, owing to the gallant stand made by the first Valencey battalion, while of the patriots, Bolivar wrote that only 200 were killed or wounded. La Torre fled to Puerto Cabello, and Bolivar marched on to Carácas.

Casual fighting continued for two years more, but the power of Spain was finally broken at Carabobo, and the last royalist adherents capitulated in Puerto Cabello on October 8, 1823.

In the meantime the Constitution of Great Colombia had been adopted by the Congress of Cúcuta in August, 1821, but before long Venezuela found her position in the Union far from satisfactory. The discontent found voice in the municipality of Valencia in 1826, Páez being one of the leaders of the separatists. Bolivar arrived in Puerto Cabello from the west in 1827, having previously written to Páez, whose loyalty to his old chief made him bow to his opinion. This, however, would not suffice to make up for the bad state of agricultural industries and of the country generally, and the murmurings broke out afresh. In 1828 Bolivar was given dictatorial power by the Congress of Colombia, while on the other hand plots were formed by the malcontents to assassinate him. In the following year, during Colombia’s squabbles with Peru, Carácas and Valencia repudiated Bolivar, and on January 13, 1830, Páez declared Venezuela independent of Colombia.

The last Colombian Congress met in the “conference of Cúcuta,” and Bolivar finally retired from power on March 1st. Valencia even demanded his expulsion. The sentimental attempt, carried through in spite of practical opposition, to form so large a single State of three groups of settlements, separated by wide areas without roads or other means of communication, seems but another instance of the frequent inability of a gallant soldier to play a worthy part in the politics of the land he has served. It was, nevertheless, a melancholy period of the history of Venezuela when the liberator of half of South America, as well as of his own land, was left to retire broken-hearted to Santa Marta in New Granada, where he died of phthisis on December 17, 1830, and was buried in the little church of the town.

But though Bolivar was unhonoured in his death, the main object to which he had devoted his life was attained, and, as we shall see, after twelve years his services were duly recognised by the country and town which gave him birth. The next period of Venezuelan history lasts to 1864, during which the centralist Constitution was in force, to be changed afterwards to the federal type which exists to-day.

One of his generals, Monágas, still remained loyal to Bolivar’s views, and for some years continued his efforts to persuade the powers that were in Venezuela to join themselves again with Colombia. In April, 1831, however, the new Congress assembled and formally elected General José Antonio Páez as President of the republic; an embassy was dispatched to Bogotá, and Carácas was declared the capital on May 25th. Early in the following year their independence was formally recognised by Colombia, and measures were taken to provide for the efficient administration of the country, which was divided into three districts, the Oriente, Centro, and Occidente, the supreme courts of each being at Cumaná, Valencia, and Maracaibo respectively.

The third Venezuelan Congress met in January, 1833, and proceeded to incorporate the wandering soldiers of the revolution into a regular army, and to arrange the division of the public debt and other agreements with Colombia and Ecuador.

At the end of 1834 there were four candidates for the presidency, of whom Doctor José Maria Vargas was elected in 1835; a good omen for the country, inasmuch as Vargas was a scholar, not a soldier, and his claim to the confidence of his country rested on more solid grounds than those of his military opponents. He was only prevailed upon with difficulty to stand, or to act when elected, but displayed a praiseworthy loftiness of motive while in office. Mariño, however, showed his shallow and selfish nature once more in raising discontent amongst those who considered that might should triumph over right rather than the reverse; Vargas resigned early in 1836, and for the rest of this presidential term the vice-president carried out the duties of the office.

In 1839 Páez was again elected President, and in that year did much to increase the prosperity of the country and to raise its position in South America. The cart-road from La Guaira to Carácas was opened, and another commenced between Puerto Cabello and Valencia. The liberty of the press was so far increased that A. L. Guzman was able to start the journal El Venezolano in opposition to the existing Government, and in support of the Federal ideal of the newly formed Liberal party, the Centralists being known as the Oligarca. In the following year a colonisation scheme was put forward, and a national college for girls opened, while an attempt was made to found a national bank in 1841. This year also saw authority given to the executive to take measures for the education and civilisation of the aborigines, and to put in hand the standard works on the geography and history of Venezuela by Codazzi and Baralt.

In 1842, the last year of Páez’s second presidency, the gradually increasing appreciation of Bolivar’s services to his country culminated on April 30th in a decree of public honours to the “Libertador,” as he was now styled, and burial in state in Carácas. The Venezuelan boats Constitucion and Carácas, H.M.S. Albatross, the Dutch warship La Venus, and the French frigate Circe, accordingly left La Guaira, bearing a deputation of influential men, including Vargas, and reached Santa Marta on November 16th. The people of Nueva Granada recognised willingly the prior claims of Carácas, as Bolivar’s birthplace, and his body was borne back on the Constitucion. A permanent triumphal arch had been erected in his honour at the foot of El Calvario, and the remains were laid to rest in the chapel of the Holy Trinity in Carácas Cathedral, being transferred later to the Pantheon.

General Carlos Soublette was elected President in 1843, in which year France formally recognised the republic, while Spain followed in March, 1845. A further honour was done to the Liberator by renaming Angostura Ciudad Bolivar on May 31, 1845.

The foreign trade of Venezuela had tripled since 1830, the debt had been reduced from 9,372,448.44 pesos to 2,085,595.72 pesos, and General Urdaneta was in London, endeavouring to raise a loan to enable the Government to free the slaves. The country was, therefore, in a fair way of prosperity, but opposition to the centralist form of government was not decreasing. It would seem, notwithstanding, that under wise rulers this grievance could have been redressed without the first of that series of revolutions which, beginning not many years later, made Venezuela a byword in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

In 1847 General José Tadeo Monágas was elected President, and commenced his period of office by sentencing Guzman, the editor of El Venezolano, to death, subsequently commuting the penalty to banishment. For this act of tyranny he was censured by Congress in the following year, and retaliated by dissolving the Assembly with armed force, not without bloodshed. As a not unnatural result, Páez attempted to start an insurrection against him in Calabozo, but was forced to fly to Colombia, and a similar rising in Maracaibo died out. The death penalty for political offences was abolished by Congress, but Páez, on landing in Coro in an attempt to continue his revolt, was overpowered and capitulated; he broke his terms, however, and was imprisoned in the fortress of Cumaná.

THE UNIVERSITY: CARÁCAS.

By the end of 1850 Tadeo Monágas, having acquired power as a member of the Oligarca, avowed himself a Liberal at the end of his presidency. General José Gregorio Monágas was elected to succeed him, a man of whom Tejera says that he was affable in temper, of a generous spirit, and capable of noble actions. In 1854 he promulgated the decree abolishing slavery within Venezuelan territory, March 24th.

The year 1855 saw J. T. Monágas re-elected. In this term the country was divided into provinces identical with the States of to-day, though in some cases the names differed. In 1857 it was reported that Guayana had been sold by the President, and this rumour, with his repeated abuses of power, led to the revolution of Valencia under General Julian Castro, Governor of Carabobo, March 5, 1858.

This was the first serious internal dissension in Venezuela, but here we have only the revolt of the people against a tyrant, not the attempt of an individual to make himself master of the country on selfish grounds. Taking as their motto Union de los partidos, y olvido de lo pasado, the revolutionaries forced Monágas to take refuge in the French Legation, Julian Castro being acclaimed Provisional President. Unfortunately, despite the motto, one of his earliest acts was to imprison Monágas, in direct violation of the promises given to the French and British Legations, which led to an imbroglio with the two countries.

Meanwhile the seat of government was removed to Valencia, though Carácas again became the capital after a few weeks, when, following the success of Julian Castro’s rising, he being a Conservative, the Liberals, with Zamora and Falcón as leaders, landed in Coro on July 24th. Castro was shortly afterwards captured and imprisoned, but the Conservatives proclaimed Pedro Gual President, with Manuel Felipe Tovar as Vice-President. Battles were fought between the Centralists and Federalists in the streets of Carácas, and at Santa Ines and San Carlos, but finally Falcón was defeated on March 17, 1860, and Tovar elected as constitutional President. Throughout 1861, however, Páez was actively working against him, and finally, in 1862, was declared dictator.

In 1863, after a conference between the dictator’s secretary and General Guzman Blanco, leader of the Federals of the Centro, the “convenio de Coche” allowed the National Assembly to nominate Falcón President and Guzman Blanco Vice-President, while Páez left for the United States. After the elections public works of some magnitude were authorised and a £1,500,000 European loan. Finally, on March 28, 1864, the new Federal Constitution was adopted, whereby the United States of Venezuela came into being, consisting of twenty sovereign States, with a Federal two-chamber Legislature, an Executive of President and six ministers, and judicial power in the hands of a high Federal court holding jurisdiction in international affairs. The death penalty was abolished, with imprisonment for debt, the rights of meeting and of a free press were established, and in other respects the Constitution took the general form which it has to-day.

At the close of Falcón’s presidency the Centralists again attempted forcibly to gain power under the leadership of the changeable J. T. Monágas, by whom Carácas was occupied in June. He died in November, and J. R. Monágas was chosen provisional President in 1869. The Federalists meanwhile were endeavouring to regain their position by force of arms, with the result that Monágas was never elected, and on April 27, 1870, Guzman Blanco was able to call together a Congress which nominated him provisional President. Owing to continued disturbances he was only formally elected towards the end of 1872. In 1874 an Act was passed reducing the presidential period from four years to two, and Francisco Linares Alcantara was elected in 1877, but the fatal series of individual revolutions now begins with Gregorio Cedeño, by whom Carácas was occupied in February, 1879.

Guzman Blanco was immediately recalled from Europe and hailed as Director Supremo de la Revindicacion Nacional, being made provisional President by the new Congress, and formally elected in 1880, and again in 1882, doing much to advance the reputation of his country during these years. General Joaquin Crespo, a llanero, who had been Minister of War since 1870, succeeded him for the period 1884-6, but in the latter year Guzman Blanco, again President, was dispatched by Congress to Europe as plenipotentiary. Doctor Rojas Paul and R. A. Palacio successively occupied the presidential chair till 1892, by which time Venezuela’s trade had reached an amount never touched before or since, and the country was generally in a prosperous condition.

Despite the advance made by Venezuela during the period from 1880 to 1892, throughout which Guzman Blanco was either actually or virtually President, his rule was at times unduly autocratic, and his affection for statues of himself and for high-sounding titles, such as “El Ilustre Americano,” seems strange in a man with so great business ability both on behalf of his country and himself. In time he might have raised Venezuela to a position comparable to that of Mexico under Diaz, but as it was the less attractive and dignified side of his character began, for the time being, to undermine the affection and esteem in which he had been held by his countrymen, and a desire for a change of control became general. It is hardly necessary to add that the Venezuelans of to-day remember only the beneficent aspects of his periods of office.

Unfortunately, the example of Cedeño, and the successful internal revolutions of earlier days, had not been forgotten, and now Crespo secured his re-election by force, his first act being to restore the presidential period to four years. In 1898 he was succeeded by José Andrade, formerly Venezuelan Minister at Washington, and though his period of office was short it was important as marking the settlement of a dispute which, after lasting for over sixty years, nearly led to a rupture between this country and the United States.

From the early days of the independence of Venezuela continual protests had been made by the representatives of the republic against the alleged encroachments of residents and officials from British Guiana. Briefly, the contentions raised by the two parties were: on the part of Venezuela, that the Dutch, to whom we were successors, had only claimed jurisdiction on the east side of the Essequibo River; on the part of Great Britain, that the Dutch had in 1759 and 1769 put forward the claim that their territory included, not merely the Essequibo River but the whole of the basin drained by that river and its tributaries. This claim was never rebutted by the authorities in Madrid.

So the dispute dragged on, the British Government refusing to consent to arbitration of the boundary unless it was previously agreed by Venezuela that such parts of the Essequibo Valley as had been effectively occupied by British colonists were recognised as their territory. In April, 1895, the arrest by the Venezuelan authorities of two inspectors of the British Guiana Police on the Cuyuni River brought matters to a crisis. The inspectors were soon released, but Crespo appealed to Washington for protection against any claim for indemnity. President Cleveland took up the cause of Venezuela on the ground that any action by Great Britain would constitute an infringement of the Monroe Doctrine, and in December, 1895, sent his two famous messages to Congress, in which he declared that any forcible action by this country would constitute a casus belli with the United States. For a time great excitement prevailed in Carácas, associations being formed for the boycott of British goods and for national defence. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed on both sides and diplomatic relations were resumed in 1897, the matter being submitted to arbitration, and finally settled by the award of the tribunal of Paris on October 3, 1899.

Hardly had this long-standing and vexatious external dispute been cleared up when the prosperity of Venezuela was once again threatened by internal dissension. Cipriano Castro, a Tachiran, had in May declared his intention of avenging a real or intended slight received from the Government, and, after marching through the Andes at the head of the so-called Ejercito Restaurador, fighting several successful battles on the way, he entered Carácas late in October. The executive power, which he immediately assumed, was only confirmed by an Asamblea Constituyente in February, 1901.

In March of that year a new Constitution was decreed, whereby the presidential period was extended to six years, and Castro was duly elected to the office. In 1902 the “Matos” revolution broke out, under the general of that name; this appears to have been a genuine popular revolt, and almost proved successful when in the autumn of the year a tactical mistake on the part of the revolutionists left Castro master of the country.

No attempt was made to compensate foreigners for the damage to property suffered by them during these various revolutions, and in view of the accumulation of claims the powers chiefly concerned—Great Britain, Germany, and Italy—declared a blockade of the ports of Venezuela in January, 1903, which had the desired effect of persuading Castro’s Government to agree to the arbitration of the various claims by third parties. Though the allied Powers demanded that their claims should be settled first, the counter-demand of Venezuela, that all the Powers, peaceful and otherwise, should be treated alike, was upheld by the Hague Tribunal, and protocols with all the countries were signed within a few months.

A second change of the Constitution was decreed in April, 1904, whereby it was made possible for Castro to be again declared provisional President, and in June of the following year he was elected for the term 1905-11, with General Gomez again as one of the Vice-Presidents, the other being José Antonio Velutini.

Once securely possessed of the presidency, Castro’s rule became that of a Dictator, and though his strength of purpose might well have made him a national hero had he been animated by love of country, his selfish abuse of power rendered his period of office a time of retrogression throughout the republic. Vicious reprisals for real or fancied slights and equally capricious distribution of rewards to those who obeyed his behests, while they produced as much satisfaction as discontent amongst individuals, left the thoughtful man with a feeling of insecurity which was fatal to any real advance in commercial or general prosperity. An equally whimsical expenditure of money on public works of questionable utility tended only to aggravate the dissatisfaction amongst the wiser heads of the community.

When, after nearly five years of despotism, he started for Europe in 1909, leaving, it was said, secret instructions to assassinate General Gomez, of whose popularity he was jealous, the discontent found vent in a general acclamation of the latter’s coup d’état, whereby he secured his safety, the admiration of the soldiery, and the presidential power, without deliberately shedding Venezuelan blood, A new Constitution was promulgated in November, 1909, reverting in general to the form of 1864, and in April, 1910, the elections established General Juan Vicente Gomez as Constitutional President for the current term.

Since that time the centenary of the independence of the republic has been celebrated in Carácas, at which period the ex-Dictator’s carefully planned attempt to occupy the country was frustrated by the seizure of his ships as piratical vessels in Haiti. The new President has shown himself eager to promote the welfare of the country and to encourage commerce, Consuls have been appointed to stations where, since the time of Guzman Blanco, there have been none; the application of foreign capital to the development of the resources of the country has been encouraged, with due regard to the rights of the inhabitants; and, more than all, the spirit of the country at large, wearied with the fifty revolutions of the last eighty years, is opposed to further civil strife, and inclined to maintain that internal peace the benefits of which are already being enjoyed.

CHAPTER VI
MODERN VENEZUELA

Boundaries—Frontier with Brazil—Colombia—British Guiana—Internal subdivision—States and territories with their capitals—Density of population—Constitution—Departments of the executive—Jefes Civiles—Legislature—Senators and deputies—Administration of Justice—Laws relating to foreigners—Marriage—Public health—Philanthropic institutions—Education—Coinage—Multiplicity of terms—Towns—Typical houses—Furniture—Hospitality—Food—Clothing—Army and Navy—Insignia—Busto de Bolivar—The Press.

The United States of Venezuela, as constituted to-day, are bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by the United States of Brazil, on the east by the Gulf of Paria, the Atlantic Ocean, and British Guiana, on the west by the republic of Colombia.

The boundary between Brazil and Venezuela was determined by a Joint Commission in 1880 as follows: From Mount Roraima, south and west along the watershed of the Sierra Pacaraima, to Cerro Mashiati, thence southwards along the Sierra Parima, and the Sierras de Curupira, Tapira Peco, and Imeri to the bifurcation of the Rivers Baria and Cauapury on the Rio Negro.

The Colombia-Venezuelan frontier was submitted to arbitration in 1891, and the King of Spain made the award thus: From Los Mogotes or Los Frailes islands to the highest point of the Oca Mountain separating the Valley of Upar, the province of Mairacaibo, and Rio del Hacha, thence along the watershed of the sierras of Perija and Motilones to the source of the Rio de Oro. Thence across the Rivers Catatumbo, Sardinata, and Tarra to the mouth of the La Grita on the Rio Zulia; from that point along the previously recognised line to the junction of the Quebrada de Don Pedro with the Táchira, and up that river to its source. Thence across the range and Páramo of Tama to the River Oira; down this to its junction with the Sarare, and along the latter, through the Laguna de Desparramadero, to the junction with the Arauca, down that river to a point equidistant from Arauca and the meridian of the junction of the Masparro and Apure. Thence in a straight line to Antiguo Apostadero, and down the Meta to the Orinoco. Then down the mid-stream of the Orinoco, reserving a right of way for Venezuelans on the left bank between Atures and the Maipures rapids to the mouth of the Guaviare, up the latter to the junction with the Atabapo; then up this to a point 36 kilometres west of Pimichin, and so across to the Guainia (or Rio Negro), following this down to Cocuhy.

The British Guiana boundary was submitted to arbitration in 1897, and the Paris tribunal, in 1899, awarded as follows: From the coast at Punta Playa in a straight line to the junction of the Barima and Mururuma; thence along mid-stream of the latter to its source. From this point to the junction of the Rio Haiowa and the Amacura, and along mid-stream of the latter to its source in the Sierra Imataca. Then south-west along the spur to the main range of the sierra opposite the source of the Barima; then along the watershed south-east to the source of the Acarabisi and down it to the Cuyuni, westward along this river to its junction with the Wenamu (Venamo) and up the latter to its most westerly course. Thence in a straight line to the summit of Mount Roraima.

The political divisions of the country established in 1856 were adopted, with some slight changes, in the Constitution of November, 1909, when General Gomez assumed the presidency. The divisions for which these were substituted were less convenient for administrative purposes, but were in general form the same—that is to say, States divided into districts, a Federal District and Territories. There are now twenty States with their own Legislatures, the Federal District of Carácas under the Central Government, and two Territories. The population of these is given in [Appendix A].

The Federal District includes the country round Carácas, and the coastal region between Naiguatá and Cabo Blanco, with the islands to the north. The States are distributed as follows:—

Zulia (capital, Maracaibo), includes all the lake region; Táchira (capital, San Cristobal), Mérida, and Trujillo are the Andine States; Lara (capital, Barquisimeto), Falcón (Coro), and Yaracuy (San Felipe) include the Segovia highlands and the coastal regions in front; Carabobo (Valencia), Aragua (La Victoria), Miranda (Ocumare), and Sucre (Cumaná) are in the Caribbean hills; Nueva Esparta includes Margarita and the other islands immediately to the north and east (capital, Asunción); Monágas (Maturín), Anzoátegui (Barcelona), Guárico (Calabozo), Cojedes (San Carlos), Portuguesa (Guanare), Zamora (Barinas), and Apure (San Fernando) are wholly or mainly Llano States; and nearly half the territory south of the Orinoco is comprised within the State of Bolivar and governed from the city of the same name. The Delta-Amacuro Territory includes the delta proper and the similar region to the south of it; its capital is Tucupita, on the Caño Macareo: the Amazonas Territory, with its capital on the Orinoco at San Fernando de Atabapo, includes the Upper Orinoco basin and the adjacent districts, an enormous, almost unknown area.

THE FEDERAL PALACE: CARÁCAS.

The density of the population in the country as a whole (according to the Anuario Estadístico, 1910, census of 1891) is 2·27 per square kilometre, or 5·88 to the square mile. Some idea of the meaning of these figures may be gathered from a comparison of the population of Monágas, where there are 6·68 inhabitants to the square mile, over an area almost equal to that of Belgium, with that of the latter country, Monágas having 74,500 inhabitants and Belgium nearly 7,500,000. The Federal district stands highest, with 151·94 to the square mile; and, making due allowance for the greater density of the population in the higher lands, the figures decrease in proportion to the distance from this centre. Thus the coast States adjoining the Federal districts, with the island of Margarita, are the most thickly populated, the Segovia highlands, Andine States, and region of Paria next, with the northern lowlands and the Llanos, having a density of population approximately equal to that of the whole country, while the Guayana region and the Delta territory range as low as 0·41 to the square mile. It should be remembered, however, that no exact figures are available for the nomadic tribes who people the remoter districts of Venezuela.

The Constitution of the Republic is modelled upon that of the United States of America; the President, elected by a college of fourteen members of Congress for a term of four years, is the head of the nation; under him are the three great departments of the administration—executive, legislative, and judicial, these being again regarded as National, Federal, and Municipal, according to their powers. Each State of the Union has its own Legislature and President, who is a Federal officer, while the territories are governed directly by the national Executive.

The national Executive exercises its functions through the following departments: Ministry of the Interior, for Home Affairs; Ministry of Hacienda (Finance); Ministry of War and Marine; Ministry of Fomento (National Development, Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry); Public Works Department; Ministry of Education; the special province of each being sufficiently indicated by the name. There is also a Government Council of ten members appointed to advise the President, who has his State Secretary and Chaplain; the presiding officer of this Council takes charge during the absence, or in case of the death, of the President. The executives of the State Governments are similarly constituted, but here both President and Government Councillors are Federal officers, while the District Jefaturas Civiles are also supported at Federal charges. It should be explained that there are Jefes Civiles (Commissioners of Police and Chief Magistrates) for each district, while under these as municipal officers are the Jefes Civiles of rural districts and towns (municipios).

The legislative power is vested in the National and State Legislatures and the Municipal Councils. The Congress of the United States of Venezuela consists of two Chambers—one of Senators and the other of Deputies. The Deputies (1 to 35,000 of the population, or portion of this number greater than half) are elected by the citizens of each State and serve a term of four years; they must be Venezuelan by birth and over twenty-one years of age. Two Senators are elected by each State Legislative Assembly, and they also remain in office for four years; the Constitution requires all to be Venezuelan by birth and over thirty years of age. In case of dispute a joint session is provided for, and Bills finally sanctioned by both Chambers become law, and are thereupon communicated to the President as head of the Executive for publication in the Gaceta Oficial and administration by his officers.

Justice is administered by the Corte Federal y de Casacion, whose members are appointed by Congress, and by lower courts and tribunals throughout the country; the territorial judges are national functionaries, but judicial powers in the State are wielded by Federal officers, while the municipal courts are the same throughout the country.

The law prohibits foreigners from taking any part in politics, but in other matters they have equal rights with Venezuelans, as regards personal liberty, free correspondence, safety of life and limb, &c. There are three principal general codes—civil, criminal, and commercial, the last named including special regulations for foreign companies. A new revised mining code was sanctioned on June 29, 1910.

The laws make marriage a civil contract with or without a religious ceremony, but in the country districts the people seem to prefer no ceremony at all to one not conducted by a priest; and as the latter are few and their fees often exorbitant, it results that more than two-thirds of the births in any year are (most unjustly) recorded as illegitimate.

While sanitation and hygiene have not as yet received sufficient attention to reduce the death rate in what appears to be a naturally healthy country to its possible level (see p. 36), a large number of officials are employed in the departments of public health, and the authorities are now in possession of data which have made them thoroughly alive to the needs of the country in this particular. Arrangements have already been made with a British firm for an up-to-date system of sanitation of the capital. There were, in 1908, 52 philanthropic institutions in the republic under Government control, consisting of the following: 27 hospitals, 2 leper asylums, 2 lunatic asylums, 9 homes for blind and aged persons, and 12 orphanages. The number of inmates at the close of that year was 3,244, but, as might be expected, the remoter regions of the country are absolutely unprovided for, and many parts of the central and western regions are as yet without establishments for public assistance.

In a similar manner provision is made, more or less adequately, for education in the central area, and, in fact, throughout the old province of Venezuela; but outside this the number of establishments decreases to nil in the Amazonas territory, while in the 40,000 square miles of the Delta there are only 2 municipal schools. There are in the republic 1,404 elementary schools with 48,869 pupils, 102 institutions for secondary education with 2,189 pupils; and for higher and technical education there are 31 institutions with 2,441 students, including 2 Universities (Carácas and Mérida), 1 school of engineering, 6 seminaries of philosophy and divinity, 8 schools of fine arts, and 14 of arts and crafts. Of all these establishments rather less than nine-tenths are supported by public money, though more than half of the secondary schools are private. The proportion of males to females is in general about as 10 is to 8; but there is no provision for women in the Universities, and save for the schools of fine arts the proportion of females to males in the higher departments is below the average for all classes of instruction.

The currency of Venezuela is established upon a gold standard, with the result that there is none of the depreciated coinage which constitutes one of the curses of the neighbouring State of Colombia. The monetary unit is the bolivar, equivalent to the French franc, the London rate of exchange being generally 25.25; this is divided into 100 centimos, and the system is therefore in theory extremely simple; since, however, there is in practice a multiplicity of terms and coins, it is a matter of time for the visiting foreigner to become sufficiently familiar with both to carry on business with promptitude and confidence. The coins issued by the Government of Venezuela are of gold, silver, and nickel, in the following values: gold, 100 bolivars, 25 bolivars, and 20 bolivars; silver, 5, 2½, and 2 bolivars, 1, ½, ¼, and ⅕ bolivar, the limit of legal payments in silver being restricted to sums under 50 bolivars; nickel, 12½ centimos and 5 centimos, with which sums may be paid not exceeding 20 bolivars. The three principal banks, i.e., the Banco de Venezuela, Banco Carácas, and Banco de Maracaibo, have the right at present to issue notes, but these, though current at par in the region where the banks are situated, are often refused in more remote districts. The following gold coins are also current in practice; American gold pieces of 20, 10, and 5 dollars, the dollar being reckoned as 5 bolivars; old Spanish onzas; and those issued by different Latin-American States both before and after secession from Spain, at the nominal value of 80 bolivars, but in both cases there is a premium on gold coin which renders the 20-dollar piece worth 104 bolivars and the onza 82 bolivars. Finally, the English sovereign is readily accepted in Carácas, the premium varying from 4 to 10 per cent. according to circumstances.

As an outcome of this condition of affairs the ordinary traveller in Venezuela has, for the purpose of petty commerce, to be acquainted with three methods of reckoning. In La Guaira and Carácas and other towns affected by commerce with the United States and the West Indies dollars and centavos represent respectively 5 bolivars and 5 centimos, and English-speaking Venezuelans always use American monetary terms; in the towns, however, the bolivar is often voluntarily used as the unit in speaking, and will always be so used on request. In the country the old Spanish nomenclature is everywhere employed, having the real as the unit, equivalent to 25 centimos, with its subdivisions the medio (12½ centimos) and the cuartillo (6¼ centimos). In Maracaibo and the Andine States, for large sums, the onza is employed as a unit, or more commonly the morrocota (20-dollar gold piece). Finally, in commerce on a large scale and for all accounts, pesos and centavos are employed, representing respectively 4 bolivars and 4 centimos; there are no coins corresponding to these sums, and in writing the dollar sign is used, a practice bound to lead to some confusion when the sign is occasionally used in the correct way. Thus, a tradesman will present a bill for $12.50—i.e., 12½ pesos or 50 bolivars, the proper market price for the article supplied, and will receive from a new-comer (who may think the figure dear, but remembers that he is buying goods imported under a heavy tariff) the sum of $12½, which gives an unscrupulous seller an extra profit of 12.50 bolivars. Throughout the country, however, people know the Venezuelan terms, and can be asked to explain any account, verbal or otherwise, in bolivars or centimos.

The metric system is in general use throughout the civilised parts of the country.

As in all Spanish and most American cities, the towns of Venezuela are regularly laid out, with a plaza or square as centre, from which roads diverge towards the four cardinal points. Round the plaza are generally the Government offices, the church, and other principal buildings or private houses; the ground within the square is either occupied by gardens or trees or (in the smaller towns and villages) is grass-covered. Away from the centre the streets show little sign of arrangement in the buildings, old Spanish houses of imposing design standing out here and there, conspicuous among the smaller, more modern edifices.

The doors of the houses open directly on to the pavement, if there is one, and a wall with a few windows, and sometimes none, is all that meets the eye of the passer-by. Inside, however, in all the older and better-built modern residences the short passage opens into a patio, generally full of palms, trees, and flowers, and having a fountain in the centre. Round the patio there is a covered veranda with doors opening into living-rooms and bedrooms on the different sides. From beautiful and elegant courts like this there is every grade to the bare yard, with perhaps only one or two banana-plants. At the back are the kitchens, and in general a second patio, without trees or shrubs, and having stalls for the horses or mules on one side; there are generally several pigs and numerous chickens running about here.

In the country places the furniture of the houses is very simple: a few chairs, some or all of which may be home-made and of hide stretched over wooden frames of all shapes, tables, and one or two stands for glasses, &c., complete the inventory for the ordinary rooms; pictures are rare and not infrequently are limited to lithograph calendars and coloured advertisements received from the more advanced business houses.

The stranger is not as a rule invited to join the family circle, but if he is admitted, on account of introductions from mutual friends, he will find the traditions of Spanish hospitality carried out to the full, and all that the house affords is at his disposal. The elaborate lace edging of the linen, particularly of the pillow-cases, is another characteristic shared in common with other Spanish peoples.

Maize forms the staple grain of the country, though in the east especially cassava is an equally important foodstuff, and sometimes entirely replaces corn, for a large proportion of the people. The maize flour is generally made with water into cakes (arepa), rather like curling-stones in shape, about 4 inches in diameter, which are lightly baked and brought to the table warm: a variation of these, generally considered somewhat of a luxury, are known as bollas, which are sausage-shaped rolls of fine maize flour. In the Andes dark-coloured bread (pan de trigo) of native wheat flour is generally eaten, and in every large town white bread made from imported flour can be had. The cassava root has its poisonous juices extracted in a long straw tube which contracts in diameter as it is extended in length, thus providing the necessary pressure; the dry material is ground to the consistency of oatmeal, and made into large flat cakes, which, when baked, are often two feet across and extremely hard. The broken cake as placed on the table is often soaked in water to soften it. Cassava bread, like arepa, is of more than one quality, according to the fineness to which the material is ground.

In the coast regions carne seca (dried beef) forms an important item in general diet, while carne de chivo (goat’s flesh) is a staple in Coro. Fresh meat is of course the rule in the towns, and fowls are everywhere abundant; the sancoche de gallina, a kind of rich stew made of chicken with herbs and oil, is very good if properly prepared. For other articles of diet, yams and frijoles (beans) are the commonest vegetables, with potatoes in the Andes, while fruit preserves and similar sweets are found everywhere. Last, but not least, the cheeses of the Llanos and foothills (of which queso de mano is perhaps the best) and the ubiquitous papelon (brown unrefined sugar) are an important item in the country fare.

OVEN: LA RAYA.

AN ANDINE POSADA: LA RAYA.

A refreshing and sustaining drink known as guarapo also consists of raw sugar and water, and this with the aguardiente, distilled from the fermented syrup, and coffee are to be seen everywhere. Cacao is less common, but is naturally largely drunk in the neighbourhood of the plantations. A light beer is made at the Carácas and Maracaibo breweries, and there is a multitude of sweet non-alcoholic drinks manufactured from fruits.