should be sent to the coast of Venezuela, to be distributed among the poorest inhabitants. So generous a supply was received with the warmest gratitude; and this solemn act of a free people, this mark of a national interest, of which the increasing civilization of our old Europe displays but few recent examples, seemed to be a valuable pledge of the mutual benevolence, that ought for ever to unite the nations of both Americas.

CHAPTER XV.

Departure from Caraccas.-Mountains of San Pedro and of Los Teques.-La Victoria.Valleys of Aragua.

To take the shortest road from Caraccas to the banks of the Oroonoko, we should have crossed the southern chain of mountains between Baruta, Salamanca, and the savannahs of Ocumare; traversed the steppes or Llanos of Orituca; and embarked at Cabruta, near the mouth of the Rio Guarico*. But this direct road would have deprived us of the opportunity of surveying the finest and most cultivated part of the province, the valleys of Aragua; of taking the level of an important part of the chain of the coast by means of the barometer; and of descending the Rio Apure as far as it's junction with the Oroonoko. A traveller, who has the intention of studying the configuration and

* See chap. xii, vol. iii, p. 446; and the sketch of the valley of Caraccas, and the map of the lower Oroonoko in the Atlas Geographique.

natural riches of a country, is not guided by distances, but by the interest which the regions he may traverse excites in his mind. This powerful motive led us to the mountains of Los Teques, to the thermal springs of Mariara, to the fertile banks of the lake of Valencia, and through the immense savannahs of Calabozo to San Fernando de Apure, in the eastern part of the province of Varinas. Following this road, our first direction was to the West, then to the South, and finally to the East-South-East, to enter the Oroonoko by the Apure in the latitude of 7° 36′ 23′′.

In a journey of six or seven hundred leagues, the longitude being determined by the timekeeper from the points of Caraccas and Cumana, it became indispensable to fix with precision, and by particular observations, the situation of these two places. I have given above in the tenth chapter* the result of the astronomical observations made at the first point of departure, Cumana; the second point, the northernmost part of Caraccas, is situate in 10° 30′ 50′′ of latitude, and 69° 25′ of longitude. I found

* See vol. iii, p. 313.

+ Mr. Ferrer, who made his observations at the Custom house, found for the latitude 10° 30′ 24′′; and by the timekeeper, setting out from Porto-Rico (and admitting this place to be in 68° 28′ 3′), for the longitude 69° 23'. Ob

the magnetic variation, on the 22d of January, 1800, out of the town, near the gate of La Pastora, 4° 38′ 45′′ North-East; and on the 30th of January, within the town, at the University, 4° 39′ 15′′; consequently 26′ more than at Cumana. The dip of the needle was 42.9°, cent. division. The number of oscillations, measuring the intensity of the magnetic action, during 10' of time at Caraccas, was 232; at Cumana, 229. We could not make very numerous observations: they are the result of an investigation of three months.

The day that we qnitted the capital of Venezuela, subsequently swallowed up by terrible earthquakes, we reached the foot of the woody mountains, that close the valley toward the South-West, where we slept, We followed the right bank of the Rio Guayra as far as the village of Antimano, by a very fine road, partly scooped out of the rock; and passed by La Vega, and Carapa. The church of La Vega

servations merely celestial give me for the Square of La Trinidad,

By lunar distances from the Sun and the stars, 4h 37/27/1 By occultations of satellites 4 37/537

We exclude a

See Recueil d' Obs. Ast., vol. i, p. 158-184. chronometrical determination, because of the tossing of the

boat, near Cape Codera, in a rough sea.

displays itself in a very picturesque manner on a range of hills covered with thick vegetation. Scattered houses are surrounded with datetrees, and seem to proclaim the easy circumstances of their inhabitants. A chain of low mountains separates the little river Guayra from the valley of La Pascua*, so much celebrated in the history of the country, and from the ancient gold-mines of Baruta and Oripoto. Ascending toward Carapa, we enjoy once more the sight of the Silla, which appears like an immense dome with a cliff toward the sea. This rounded summit, and the ridge of Galipano crenated like a wall, are the only objects, that in this basin of gneiss and mica-slate impress a character on the landscape. The other mountains are of a uniform and dull monotonous aspect.

A little before reaching the village of Antimano, we find on the right a very curious geological phenomenon. In hollowing the new road out of the rock, two large veins of gneiss were discovered in the mica-slate. They are nearly

* Valley of Cortes, or Easter Valley, so called because Diego de Losada, after having defeated the Teques Indians, and their cacique Guaycapuro, in the mountains of San Pedro, spent his Easter there in 1567, before entering the valley of San Francisco, where he founded the city of Caraccas. (Oviedo, p. 252.)