bull of the crusade. The price is a little raised,' says the commissary-general of the crusade in his mandate, dated at Madrid on the 14th of September, 1801, but it is on account of the new expenses of government, and of the necessity of extinguishing the royal certificates which the scarcity of money in a time of war has compelled the king to issue.'"'* The prices of these bulls varied according to the rank of the purchaser. Thus, the general bull for the living cost a viceroy or his wife fifteen dollars; archbishops and all other dignitaries, noblemen, military men, magistrates, and gentlemen whose fortune amounted to 12,000 dollars, paid five dollars; capitalists of 6,000 dollars paid one dollar and a half; and all inferior persons, two and a half reals. For the bull de laitage, the four degrees of clergy were severally rated at six, three, one and a half dollars, and three reals. For the bull of composition, every one, without exception, paid two dollars and a half. The price of the bull for the dead was six reals to the first three classes above specified, and two reals for the lowest class. The average net receipts of the intendancy of Caracas for the years 1793 to 1797, was 1,369,550 dollars: the expenditure, estimated by the average of the same five years, was 1,485,793 dollars, leaving a deficiency of receipts to the amount of upwards of 116,000 dollars; so that this colony was an actual burden to the mother country. In 1804, the gross revenue amounted to 1,800,000 dollars; but the whole receipts were consumed by the expenses of administration. The same was the case with regard to the captain-generalships of Guatimala, Chili, Cuba, the Philippine and the Canary islands.† M. Lavaysse, * Depon's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 130–6. Three millions and a half of dollars, being nearly a sixth of the whole revenue, were annually remitted by Mexico to indeed, states, that the intendant of Caracas received annually about 1,200,000 dollars from the treasuries of Mexico and New Granada. "Thus," he says, "the expenses of that government amounted annually to nearly 750,000l.; for, of all the imposts levied in that country, not a farthing passed into the royal treasury of Spain." This writer states the average value of the agricultural produce annually exported from the provinces of Venezuela to Spain and Mexico, up to 1807, at about 2,000,000 dollars; but "I am sure,' he adds, "that the smugglers carried off annually, on an average, more than 2,500,000 in produce, consisting of cocoa, cotton, indigo, a little cochineal, arnotto, woods for dyeing and cabinetmakers, copper, hides, maize, salted and smoked meat and fish, oxen, horses, mules, asses, monkeys, parrots, &c., and, since 1801, a small quantity of sugar and coffee, besides about 6 or 700,000 dollars in specie. This increases the exports to about 5,200,000 dollars. The official statements of the intendancy of Caracast specified the importations, including the contraband trade, at only 5,500,000 dollars at the same period; but those statements are far below the truth. On an average, from 1789 to 1807, the annual importations * other Spanish colonies (viz. Cuba, Florida, Porto Rico, Louisiana, Trinidad, St Domingo, and the Philippine Islands), towards the expenses of their internal administration.-See HUMBOLDT, Pol. Essay, vol. iv. pp. 234, 240; DEPONS, vol. ii. pp. 149, 50. * "Ten years ago," M. Lavaysse says, "there was scarcely as much ugar made as sufficed for the local consumption. I believe I do not exaggerate when I say, that on an average, every individual, poor or rich, consumes at least one pound of it per day. It is mixed with almost all kinds of food and drink, and is indispensable for chocolate, which is taken three or four times a day.” + Though Caracas was governed by a captain-general, who was the supreme authority in all civil and military affairs, the intendant had the direction of all financial concerns. amounted to nearly 6,500,000 dollars, including smuggling. Previously to the French Revolution, we had half of this trade. The French merchants of Martinique, the Dutch of St Eustacia and Curaçoa, the Danish of St Thomas's, and the Swedish of St Bartholemew, had their share in this commerce. But, since the Island of Trinidad was taken by the British in 1797, they have obtained all the trade of that country, where they have established commercial connexions, even as far as the central point of South America, in Santa Fé de Bogota, the capital of New Granada, whose bishop, a dealer in human flesh, carried on, in 1788 and 1789, the negro trade, in conjunction with an English house at Dominica.”* The town of Caracas was founded by Diego de Losada in 1567.† The Spaniards, who were attracted thither by the reputation of the two gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta, were not at that time masters of the whole valley, and they preferred fixing on a site near the road to the coast. It is to be regretted, Humboldt thinks, that it was not built further to the east, below the junction of the Anauco and the Guayra, on that spot near Chachao, where the valley widens into an extensive plain. The bishopric of Coro was transferred to this city in 1636: it was made an arch * Lavaysse, pp, 273, 4. Forty-seven years after the foundation of Cumana, thirtynine after Coro, thirty-three after Barcelona, and fifteen after Barquesimeto. "In 1636," says Mr Semple (without, however, citing his authority), "the archbishopric (bishopric) of Venezuela was transferred from the sandy shores of Coro, to the delightful valley of Caracas, by the flight of the dean and chapter, their prelate having given them the example many years before. It was not, however, until 1693, that this transfer was finally ratified by the Spanish government. The inhabitants of Coro protested in vain against this desertion of their pastor. The pious father, as far as regarded his own convenience, had good sense and power on his side; but justice was certainly on the bishopric in 1803. Its climate has been called a perpetual spring. "What, indeed," says Humboldt, can we imagine more delightful, than a temperature which, during the day, keeps between 16° and 28.8° of Réaumur, and at night, between 12.8° and 14.4°,* and which is equally favourable for the cultivation of the plantain, the orange-tree, the coffee-plant, the apricot, the apple, and corn? It is to be regretted, however, that this temperate climate is generally inconstant and variable. The inhabitants complain of having several seasons in the course of the same day, and of the rapid transitions from one season to another. These oscillations are common in the temperate clime of Europe; but, under the torrid zone, Europeans themselves are so accustomed to the uniform action of exterior stimulus, that they suffer from a change of temperature of six degrees. Moreover, these variations act on the human frame, at Caracas, more violently than could be supposed from the mere indications of the thermometer. In this narrow valley, the atmosphere is in some sort balanced between two winds; one that comes from the sea-side, and is known by the name of the wind of Catia, because it blows from Catia to the west of Cape Blanco; and the other from the east, or the inland country. The wind of Catia is only apparently a western wind: it is more frequently a breeze originating in the east and north-east, which, rushing with extreme impetuosity, engulfs itself in the quebrada (ravine) de Tipe. It is loaded with moisture, side of the complainants. The effects of this transaction, however, are still felt; and a deadly animosity exists between the two cities, for which, I fear, much blood will yet be shed." This prediction has been but too fully realised. * Humboldt states the mean temperature of the year to be from 21 to 22° cent. ther.; that of the hot season, 24°; of the cold season, 19°; the maximum, 29°; the minimum, 11°. At La Guayra, the maximum is 35°, and the minimum, 21°. which it deposits as its temperature decreases, and the summit of the Silla is consequently wrapped in clouds when the Catia blows in the valley. This wind is dreaded by the inhabitants of Caracas, causing headaches to those persons whose nervous system `is irritable. I have known some who, to shun its effects, shut themselves up in their houses, as people do in Italy when the Sirocco blows. The wind of Petare, coming from the east and south-east by the eastern extremity of the valley of the Guayra, brings from the mountains and the interior a drier air, which dissipates the clouds, and the summit of the Silla then rises in all its beauty. Rains are extremely frequent in the months of April, May, and June: they are always brought by winds from the east and south-east. Hail occurs almost every four or five years. In the season of drought (December, January, and February,) the savannas and the turf that covers the steepest rocks are sometimes set on fire in order to improve the pasturage. These vast conflagrations, viewed from a distance, have a most singular effect, the inflamed tracts appearing, on a dark night, like currents of lava. The small extent of the valley in which Caracas stands, and the proximity of the high mountains of Avila, and the Silla, impart, Humboldt says, a stern and gloomy character to the scenery, particularly in the months of November and December. The mornings are then very fine, and the two domes of the Silla and the craggy ridge of the Cerro de Avila are seen relieved against a clear and serene sky. But towards evening, the atmosphere thickens, and streams of vapour, clinging to the evergreen slopes of the mountains, seem to divide them into separate zones. These vapours are afterwards condensed into large fleecy clouds, which descend and creep along the soil, so that the traveller can scarcely imagine himself to |