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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But, Though
The Province Of Caracas, In Its Vast Extent, Includes Several Spots
Very Favourable To The Cultivation Of European Corn, I Believe That
In General This Branch Of Agriculture Will Never Acquire Any Great
Importance There.
The most temperate valleys are not sufficiently
wide; they are not real table-lands; and their mean elevation above
The level of the sea is not so considerable but that the
inhabitants cannot fail to perceive that it is more their interest
to establish plantations of coffee, than to cultivate corn. Flour
now comes to Caracas either from Spain or from the United States.
The village of Turmero is four leagues distant from San Mateo. The
road leads through plantations of sugar, indigo, cotton, and
coffee. The regularity observable in the construction of the
villages, reminded us that they all owe their origin to monks and
missions. The streets are straight and parallel, crossing each
other at right angles; and the church is invariably erected in the
great square, situated in the centre of the village. The church of
Turmero is a fine edifice, but overloaded with architectural
ornaments. Since the missionaries have been replaced by vicars, the
whites have mingled their habitations with those of the Indians.
The latter are gradually disappearing as a separate race; that is
to say, they are represented in the general statement of the
population by the Mestizoes and the Zamboes, whose numbers daily
increase. I still found, however, four thousand tributary Indians
in the valleys of Aragua.
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