Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Was Reserved For Our Times To See The Whites Direct
This Attention Towards Themselves; And Examine, From Motives Of
Distrust, The Elements Of Which Their Own Caste Is Composed.
Every
enterprise in favour of independence and liberty puts the national
or American party in opposition to the men of the mother-country.
When I arrived at Caracas, the latter had just escaped from the
danger with which they thought they were menaced by the
insurrection projected by Espana.
The consequences of that bold
attempt were the more deplorable, because, instead of investigating
the real causes of the popular discontent, it was thought that the
mother-country would be saved by employing vigorous measures. At
present, the commotions which have arisen throughout the country,
from the banks of the Rio de la Plata to New Mexico, an extent of
fourteen hundred leagues, have divided men of a common origin.
The Indian population in the united provinces of Venezuela is not
considerable, and is but recently civilized. All the towns were
founded by the Spanish conquerors, who could not carry out, as in
Mexico and Peru, the old civilization of the natives. Caracas,
Maracaybo, Cumana, and Coro, have nothing Indian but their names.
Compared with the three capitals of equinoctial America,* (*
Mexico, Santa Fe de Bogota, and Quito. The elevation of the site of
the capital of Guatimala is still unknown. Judging from the
vegetation, we may infer that it is less than 500 toises.) situated
on the mountains, and enjoying a temperate climate, Caracas is the
least elevated. It is not a central point of commerce, like Mexico,
Santa Fe de Bogota, and Quito. Each of the seven provinces united
in one capitania-general has a port, by which its produce is
exported. It is sufficient to consider the position of the
provinces, their respective degree of intercourse with the Windward
Islands, the direction of the mountains, and the course of the
great rivers, to perceive that Caracas can never exercise any
powerful political influence over the territories of which it is
the capital. The Apure, the Meta, and the Orinoco, running from
west to east, receive all the streams of the llanos, or the region
of pasturage. St. Thomas de la Guiana will necessarily, at some
future day, be a trading-place of high importance, especially when
the flour of New Grenada, embarked above the confluence of the Rio
Negro and the Umadea, and descending by the Meta and Orinoco, shall
be preferred at Caracas and Guiana to the flour of New England. It
is a great advantage to the provinces of Venezuela, that their
territorial wealth is not directed to one point, like that of
Mexico and New Grenada, which flows to Vera Cruz and Carthagena;
but that they possess a great number of towns equally well peopled,
and forming various centres of commerce and civilization.
The city of Caracas is seated at the entrance of the plain of
Chacao, which extends three leagues eastward, in the direction of
Caurimare and the Cuesta de Auyamas, and is two leagues and a half
in breadth. This plain, through which runs the Rio Guayra, is at
the elevation of four hundred and fourteen toises above the level
of the sea. The ground on which the city of Caracas is built is
uneven, and has a steep slope from north-north-west to
south-south-east. To form an accurate idea of the situation of
Caracas, we must bear in mind the general direction of the
mountains of the coast, and the great longitudinal valleys by which
they are traversed. The Rio Guayra rises in the group of primitive
mountains of Higuerote, which separates the valley of Caracas from
that of Aragua. It is formed near Las Ajuntas, by the junction of
the little rivers of San Pedro and Macarao, and runs first eastward
as far as the Cuesta of Auyamas, and then southward, uniting its
waters with those of the Rio Tuy, below Yare. The Rio Tuy is the
only considerable river in the northern and mountainous part of the
province.
The river flows in a direct course from west to east, the distance
of thirty leagues, and it is navigable along more than three
quarters of that distance. By barometrical measurements I found the
slope of the Tuy along this length, from the plantation of
Manterola* (* At the foot of the high mountain of Cocuyza, 3 east
from Victoria.) to its mouth, east of Cape Codera, to be two
hundred and ninety-five toises. This river forms in the chain of
the coast a kind of longitudinal valley, while the waters of the
llanos, or of five-sixths of the province of Caracas, follow the
slope of the land southward, and join the Orinoco. This
hydrographic sketch may throw some light on the natural tendency of
the inhabitants of each particular province, to export their
productions by different roads.
The valleys of Caracas and of the Tuy run parallel for a
considerable length. They are separated by a mountainous tract,
which is crossed in going from Caracas to the high savannahs of
Ocumare, passing by La Valle and Salamanca. These savannahs
themselves are beyond the Tuy; and the valley of the Tuy being a
great deal lower than that of Caracas, the descent is almost
constantly from north to south. As Cape Codera, the Silla, the
Cerro de Avila between Caracas and La Guayra, and the mountains of
Mariara, constitute the most northern and elevated range of the
coast chain; so the mountains of Panaquire, Ocumare, Guiripa, and
of the Villa de Cura, form the most southern range. The general
direction of the strata composing this vast chain of the coast is
from south-east to north-west; and the dip is generally towards
north-west: hence it follows, that the direction of the primitive
strata is independent of that of the whole chain. It is extremely
remarkable, tracing this chain* from Porto Cabello as far as
Maniquarez and Macanao, in the island of Margareta (* I have
spoken, in the preceding chapter, of the interruption in the chain
of the coast to the east of Cape Codera.), to find, from west to
east, first granite, then gneiss, mica-slate, and primitive schist;
and finally, compact limestone, gypsum, and conglomerates
containing sea-shells.
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