Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The
Virgin-Forests Near The Sea, In The Eastern Part Of New Andalusia,
Present Valuable Resources For The Establishment Of Dockyards.
The
wood of the mountains of Paria may vie with that of the island of
Cuba, Huasacualco, Guayaquil and San Blas.
The Spanish Government at
the close of the last century fixed its attention on this important
object. Marine engineers were sent to mark the finest trunks of
Brazil-wood, mahogany, cedrela and laurinea between Angostura and the
mouth of the Orinoco, as well as on the banks of the Gulf of Paria,
commonly called the Golfo triste. It was not intended to establish
docks on that spot, but to hew the weighty timber into the forms
necessary for ship-building, and to transport it to Caraque, near
Cadiz. Though trees fit for masts are not found in this country, it
was nevertheless hoped that the execution of this project would
considerably diminish the importation of timber from Sweden and
Norway. The experiment of forming this establishment was tried in a
very unhealthy spot, the valley of Quebranta, near Guirie; I have
already adverted to the causes of its destruction. The insalubrity of
the place would, doubtless, have diminished in proportion as the
forest (el monte virgen) should have been removed from the dwellings
of the inhabitants. Mulattos, and not whites, ought to have been
employed in hewing the wood, and it should have been remembered that
the expense of the roads (arastraderos) for the transport of the
timber, when once laid out, would not have been the same, and that, by
the increase of the population, the price of day labour would
progressively have diminished.
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