This capital, placed in so charming a climate, compared to many others in the same latitude, has bean subjected to a scourge, which no beauty of situation, or salubrity of the air, can ever compensate. In the year 1812 the whole city was nearly destroyed by an awful earthquake. On the 26th of March, in that year, the population of Leon de Caraccas amounted to fifty thousand souls; in a short space, even in the passing of a moment, these devoted people were reduced to thirty eight thousand, and as if an enormous mine had been exploded under the city, the earth was upheaved to a tremendous height, and twelve thousand persons were swallowed up, or perished amid the ruins of their houses.
The survivors have been ever since busily engaged in repairing the damages, and rebuilding the city, which is now rapidly advancing to its former state, and the population annually increasing.
La Guayra, a small town situated on the coast of the Spanish Main, is the port of Caraccas, in 10° 36' 19" north latitude, and 67° 6' 45" west longitude, at the foot of the chain of mountains which terminate abruptly in precipices on the coast, and which form the sides of the valley in which the capital is built. From the city to the port, it requires a journey of two hours on the mules of the country, which are very safe and swift. The road is kept in excellent repair, and is fortified by draw-bridges, thrown over the natural clefts, and by small batteries. The harbour itself is rather a roadsted than a haven, and contains a newly formed mole, protected by strong batteries. The wall of rocks rise perpendicularly from the back of the town, and forbid all access, excepting by the regular road. At La Guayra the sea is always agitated, and the vessels are laden and discharged with much difficulty; so much so, that mules are not embarked, the mulattoes and negroes carrying the cacao and other merchandizes to the vessels, by wading into the water.
The flat space on which La Guayra stands is only about 900 feet in breadth, from the precipice at the back to the sea, and the whole aspect of the place is arid, gloomy and unpleasant.
This town is surrounded on the sea side by works and batteries, some of which are very strong, and contain within their limits two streets, parallel to each other, with 8000 inhabitants.
It may be said, that this port is one of the hottest places in Spanish America; the yellow-fever had, however, only commenced its destructive ravages within ten or twelve years, before which time, it was unknown; some are of opinion, that it was brought there after the port was opened to foreign commerce, by the seamen from the United States; others, that it was caused by the overflowing of the river Guayra, which filled the cellars and deep places with water, that soon became stagnant, and exhaled putrid effluvia. However it may be, the inhabitants and strangers who reside at La Guayra, have suffered dreadfully of late years from this disorder.
The annual amount of the commerce of this port, which is the principal one of the province, has been estimated (in peaceable times) to arise to the sum of 346,600l., in the exportation of cacao, indigo, cotton, coffee and hides; and the importations of European and other goods to 511,700l. sterling in the same period.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FEATURES, &C. OF THE COUNTRY
The coast of Caraccas which extends for an immense length, is exceedingly rocky and mountainous, affording views of some of the most tremendous precipices in the world, that near the capital, called the Precipice of the Silla, being of the height of 8000 feet above the sea, which washes its base.
The chain of the Andes, traversing the whole territory in the direction of its shores, elevates itself the most in the western parts; and is lost in the sea opposite to the great island of Trinidad, which is itself very mountainous.
The average height of the Cordillera of Caraccas may be estimated at 4500 feet, though it occasionally exceeds 8000; its breadth varies from ten to twenty leagues, and it forms some extensive and beautiful valleys. Owing to this elevation of the land, the heat is not so insupportable as might be imagined from its situation; along the coast it is very great; but ascending gradually into the higher regions, the traveller finds it sensibly diminish, and observes with delight, the vegetable productions of different countries, concentrated in a small space. The great valley or plain of the Orinoco bounds the Cordillera to the south, and far from possessing those elevated lands which characterise the southern portion of the New World, Nature has here spread the country into immense flats, or savannahs, known by the name of Los Llanos (the Plains).
In these plains innumerable herds of cattle are fed, attended by the slaves or servants of the owners, who reside in the towns and villages. These people, living entirely in the desert, have become little better than so many wandering savages; they pass the greater part of their time on horseback, and are said to infest the roads on the borders of the savannahs with their robberies. The heat in the valley of the Orinoco is intense, the thermometer rising even to 115°.
The seasons are divided into rainy and dry, the rainy season lasting from March to November, not however, without ceasing, as there are many days in that period, in which no rain falls; during the time of incessant rain, it does not descend in drizzling misty showers, but comes with such volume and rapidity, that streams, which have been dried to their very channels, now assume in the short space of a few hours, the appearance of large rivers; the plains bordering the Orinoco, and its tributary streams, are inundated by seas of fresh water extending three or four hundred miles in length.
Rivers.– There is no country in the world which possesses more numerous rivers than Caraccas, most of which rise in the Andes and its dependent branches; every valley is traversed by its river; the ridge which divides the provinces as it were into two distinct portions, furnishes abundance of sources on both its declivities. Those which arise on the northern side of this ridge, run from south to north, and fall into the bosom of the Spanish main. Of these the Manzanares, Tuy, Guiges, Tocuyo, Aroa, Yaracuy, Unara and Neveri, are the largest.
The southern flank and main chain of the Andes afford rivers which traverse the great Llanos in a southern direction, and swell, by their junction with the Orinoco, the majestic body of that grand river; of these, the Mamo, Pariagou, Pao, Chivita, Zoa, Cachimamo, Arauca, Capanaparo, Sinaruco, the Apura and the Meta, are the principal; and the Parima, Siaba, Joa Parana and the Cassiquiari, fall into this river on its southern bank, the latter forming a communication with the still more majestic stream of the Maranon.
The Orinoco, or Oronoco, is not only amongst the largest, but the finest of South American rivers, and is chiefly distinguished by its very singular and intricate course. Its sources are not well known, but according to La Cruz, it rises in a small lake called Ipava, in 5° 5' north-latitude, and thence winding upon itself, enters the lake of Parima to the south-east, and issues by two outlets towards the north and south; on the western shores of the lake; receiving the Guaviara, it bends north, then north-east, and embracing the Meta, the Apura, the Arauca, and the other large streams above-mentioned, with thousands of smaller ones, falls into the Atlantic ocean, by numerous estuaries, opposite the island of Trinidad, its chief mouth being considerably to the south-east of that island. This noble river communicates with the Maranon, and it is supposed, that a stream called the Siaba flows from the south-west of the lake Parima into the Negro, and that to the south-east of the same lake, the Rio Blanco, or Parima, joins the Rio Negro also, this last communicating with the Maranon by means of the Joa Parana.
The river Cassiquiari, long conjectured to be a strong branch of the Orinoco, but now known to be an arm of the Negro, communicates also with the Amazons, its streams having been visited by M. de Humboldt, who encountered great perils in the undertaking, by the force of the current and other obstacles. The whole country for 300 miles was a complete desert, in which the ants and mosquitoes were so exceedingly troublesome as almost to deter the traveller from proceeding. He entered the Orinoco, by the Cassiquiari in 3° 30' north-latitude, and mounted the current of the great river as far as Esmeraldas, the last Spanish settlement in that quarter. The mouths of the Orinoco are very dangerous to navigators; the largest is six leagues in width, and seven of them are navigable for large vessels. The isles formed by these are of very great extent,