The Indians use very little salt with their food, but the creoles and negroes live almost entirely on salted meat and fish. Salt being a royal monopoly, the revenue derived from Araya is considerable.
A small village is established on the peninsula of Araya, where the Indians keep large flocks of goats. This strip of land was the first place where the Spaniards began to found a town; and it contains springs and masses of petroleum; this substance existing also on its coasts, at Cape de la Brea, Punta Soto, and Guararitto. A stream of naptha issues from the bed of the sea, near these shores, and forms a visible spot, 1000 feet in diameter, among the weeds, with which the beach is covered.
Nueva Barcelona, the chief town of the province of the same name, is situated in a plain on the left bank of the river Neveri, half a league distant from the sea, in 10° 10' north latitude, and 64° 47' west longitude; ten leagues by land from Cumana.
This city was founded in 1636, by Juan de Urpin, who had been a canon, doctor, and counsellor of laws in St. Domingo, and a private soldier in the fort of Araya; he gave the name of New Catalonia to the province, which was afterwards changed to that of the city. It is meanly built, though it has a regular appearance; the streets are very dirty in the rainy season, and very dusty in the hot weather; and the immense quantity of hogs bred in this place renders the town disgustingly dirty, from the filth which they spread over the footways; and it was not till the year 1803, that some measures were taken to put a stop to this nuisance.
Barcelona contains one parish church and a convent of Franciscans, with a population of 14,000 souls, half whites and half mulattoes and negroes.
Such is the trade in live and dead cattle in this city, that the inhabitants have not turned their attention to the cultivation of the land, though excellently suited for cotton, cacao, and maize. Barcelona is the emporium for the contraband goods of Trinidad, and from hence they are dispersed through all the inland provinces.
The value of this trade has been computed at 400,000 dollars annually. Hides, tallow, oxen, mules, jirked and salted beef, form the great commercial articles of this port; this trade is chiefly carried on with the Havannah and West India Islands.
In the jurisdiction of Barcelona, which declared itself independent in the year 1811, commence those immense plains that stretch with those of Caraccas, as far south as the Orinoco. They are covered with excellent pasturage, and feed innumerable herds of cattle and mules, which are mostly kept on the banks of the rivers. Such immense quantities were killed before the breaking out of the present commotions, that the trade was at one time very considerable, the inhabitants of Barcelona being noted for their skill in salting meat; but just after the first symptoms of this struggle, the plains became infested with robbers, who deprived the owners of their beasts, and greatly lessened the value of the trade.
The other towns of Cumana are chiefly missionary establishments seated near the rivers, and on the great plains, the greater part of the country being yet in a state of nature. Of these towns the principal one is Cumanacoa, twelve leagues distant from Cumana, on a plain surrounded with lofty mountains, which was founded in 1717, by Domingo Arias, on his return from the Guaripiche river, where some Frenchmen had attempted to plant a colony; it was at first called San Baltazar de las Arias, but soon lost that appellation, for its present one. The climate of this place is mild, and even cold, although it is not more than 630 feet above the sea, owing probably to the abundance of rain, to the frequency of thick fogs, and to being surrounded by humid forests.
The dry season begins here in the winter solstice, and lasts till the vernal equinox. Light showers are frequent in April, May and June; the dry weather again commences, and lasts to the end of August, when the winter rains set in, which only cease in November; and during this interval, the country is deluged with water.
The environs of Cumanacoa are very fertile, and are chiefly cultivated with tobacco, with which article it supplies the whole province. Indigo is also grown here and in this town; the population amounts to about 2300 souls.
The road from Cumana over the Imposible, through the forest, to Cumanacoa, passes by the mission of St. Fernando, of the Chayma Indians. It is described as highly picturesque. The forest consists of trees, whose trunks are of the largest dimensions, and which are clasped in every direction by creeping or parasitical plants, of which the lianas reach to the very summits of the trees, and pass from one to another, at the height of more than a hundred feet, displaying beautiful festoons of dark green leaves, intermixed with the most fragrant and splendid flowers. Under these arcades, which scarcely admit the rays of the sun, the traveller proceeds, viewing, at intervals only, the deep blue of the sky. The parrots, macaws, and innumerable tribes of birds of the most brilliant plumage, are continually hovering about, and here the oriole builds his bottle-shaped and pendant nest. The screaming of the parrots actually drowns the roar of small cataracts which here and there fall from the rocky mountains.
On quitting this forest path to go to St. Fernando, the country is open for a short space, and the road is now lined with the bamboo or guadua, whose elegant form, agitated by the slightest winds, strikes the European traveller with the most agreeable sensations. We shall describe the village of St. Fernando, as a type of all the other missionary settlements, which are too numerous to name.
The huts of the Indians are built of mud or clay, strengthened by the stems of the lianas, and are disposed into streets, very wide and straight, and crossing each other at right angles, the whole appearing very neat. The gardens are either in, or at a short distance from the village, and each family possesses one which they cultivate, together with a large plot of ground, common to all, and called the conuco, at which the grown-up young men and women are obliged to work one hour in the morning and one in the evening. In the missions near the coast, this conuco is generally an indigo or sugar plantation, the profits of which are divided by the priest, for the support of the church and the village.
The great square of San Fernando is situated in the centre of the village; in it is placed the church, the priest's house, and the Casa del Rey, or king's-house, destined for the accommodation of travellers. The priest governs the people in their spiritual and temporal affairs, but the parish officers are always chosen from among the Indians; a matter of necessity, as no whites are to be found in these settlements. They have their governor, alguazil, mayor and militia officers, and the company of archers have their colours, and perform their exercise at stated periods, shooting at a mark.
The villages in which the Europeans or Creoles are settled, and in which Indians are occasionally found occupying a distinct part, are called doctrinas, and differ entirely from the missions. Of these there are many on the side of the country nearest the coast, the missions being mostly in the interior.
Near Cumanacoa, is the great mountain called Tumiriquiri, where an enormous wall of rock rises out of the forest, and is joined on the west by the Cerro de Cuchivano, where the chain is broken by an enormous precipice more than 900 feet in width, filled with trees, whose branches are completely interlaced with each other. The Rio Juagua traverses this crevice, which is the abode of the jaguar, or American tiger, of a very formidable size, being six feet in length. They carry off the horses and cattle in the night from the neighbouring farms, and are as much dreaded as the most ferocious of the feline race are in the East Indies. Two immense caverns open into this precipice, from which flames occasionally rush out that may be seen in the night at a great distance.
The great mountain of Tumiriquiri is situated on the road to Caripe, the chief mission of the Chaymas, which passes over the summit of a lower part of the chain, which bears the general name of the Cocollar. From the summit of this last chain, at more than two thousand feet in height, the eye wanders over the immense plains which reach towards the banks of the Orinoco, in the ravines alone of which can be distinguished any trees, and these but thinly scattered; the remainder of the surface is covered with an uniform coat of long waving grass, intermixed with flowering shrubs.
From this point the traveller ascends towards the Tumiriquiri; the road is partly traversed on horseback, but soon becomes too steep and slippery for these animals.
The round summit of the Tumiriquiri is covered with turf, and is elevated more than 4400 feet above the ocean. This elevation gradually diminishes towards the