XI VENEZUELA T the end of his "swing around the A circle" of South American countries (having begun with Brazil), the trav- eler comes to Venezuela—the huge republic that bulges out into the northernmost nub of the continent, where the terminal ranges of the Andes turn eastward to meet the great Guiana Highlands and form those high-flung ramparts that protect the fertile, low-lying Amazon plains from the Atlantic. This black, mountainous front runs along the Caribbean coast line for some fifteen hundred miles, broken at intervals, however, where the lovely blue of the tropical sea sweeps inland to meet the bright green of some great river basin. Southward, Venezuela spreads down over an irregularly shaped territory extending from twelve degrees north latitude to the equator. Her varied topography, too, pro- 400 VENEZUELA duces almost every change of climate, from the cold of the mountains—some of whose peaks reach high enough to earn the title of nevada—d own through the temperate zone of the Zlanos, or rolling plains that slope off into the great Orinoco basins, where wheat, corn, and cattle abound, and the country's great staples, coffee, cotton, and tobacco are grown, to the hot Orinoco jungles that trail off to the south, where rubber and cacao trees luxuriate without cultivation, and sugar cane, oranges, fruits, andpineapples thrive in the clearings. More than half of Venezuela's territory may be ignored from the commercial standpoint of to-day, for it is either Alaskan or Amazonian in character and can be re- served for later needs of the human family if, as Humboldt prophesied, the Amazon valley should become the feeding ground of mankind. No description has ever done justice to the beauties of Venezuela's landscape of moun- tain and valley and mighty rivers, of warm green pastures and blue skies, and the mystic shimmering white of an occasional snow- capped peat The country that so appeals to. the traveler's interest is nearly six bun- 401 THRQUGH SOUTH AMERICA died thousand 'square miles in area, and could include within its confines the States of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Its mountainous coast saw the begin- ning of the European invasion of the new world. Columbus, Vespucci, and Ojeda touched here. Ojeda gave the country its name. When, on his way west from the Orinoco, he rounded Cape San Roman and turned into the Gulf of Maracaibo, he saw Indian villages composed of houses built on piles in the water along the shores, which sug- gested something of & resemblance to Venice, and he called the place Venezuela (Little Venice); and soon the whole coast, and even- tually the country beyond, became so known —a region larger than all Italy and Spain combined. This coast and the white-walled cities nestling in the heights among the mag- nificent trees formed the storied Spanish Main. CumanI, in the middle east, is the oldest European settlement in South America; it was in its old church that Las Cans preached —the saintly priest who was the Indian's ablest champion in the early days of Spanish devastation, but who, with regret be it said, 402 VENEZUELA is reputed also to have been the father of African slavery in the new world, for it was he, so the chroniclers say, who suggested that negroes be imported to labor in the fields and mines and relieve the Indians of a burden they were both temperamentally and physi- cally unfitted to bear. Venezuela was the birthplace of the resistance to Spain's oppres- sion of her colonies, and of Miranda, Bolivar, Sucré, and the fiery young patriot, Yttflez- the men who led the van of that resistance. Through her land flows one of the world's greatest rivers, the Orinoco, with its four thousand miles of navigable waters. The vast productiveness of the country and its stores of mineral wealth are sufficient to sus- tain twenty times its present population of two millions and a half. And, finally, Vene- zuela is nearer to us than any other country in South America. A most agreeable route for the traveler leaving Colombian ports for Venezuela is by the steamers which zigzag around the Carib- bean Sea for ten days or more on the way to Europe, and touch at many of the once fa- mous old ports before reaching La Guayra, the sea gateway to Caracas. Immediately 40 SOUTH AMERICA after leaving Colombian waters and round- ing the Guaj Ira peninsula, the ship enters the great Gulf of Maracaibo, one hundred and fifty miles in extent from east to west, and sixty miles from north to south. Passing along in through a narrow strait, the almost equally large Lake of Maracaibo swells out before the traveler. This great body of water drains an extensive basin lying between two terminal spun of the Andes—the Sierra de Parija and the Sierra Mérida—and into it flow many rivers having their source in the surrounding mountains. Inside, on the east bank of the strait, lies the city of Maracaibo, now one of the most important centers on the north coast, for here is shipped the produce of the vast fertile region of western Venezuela—coffee, cacao, tobacco, castor beans, hardwood timber, and dyewoods. Much of the produce of the eastern slope of Colombia also finds its way to Europe and the States through this port; fully half of what is known in our markets as "Maracaibo coffee" is really a Colombian product. The tropical scenery of the plains sloping down to the lake, and the mountains, with their suggestion of snowy freshness, make 404 C •1 galuF VIEW OF MARACA3BO LOOKING WEST FROM THE CATHEDRAL. VENEZUELA the setting of this port one of the most interesting on the continent. A dozen or more of the peaks in the Mérida range are snow-capped, and two of them—Concha and Coluna—rise to a height of over fifteen thou- sand feet. Years ago a passing visitor to Maracaibo, mistaking the discomforts of the humidity and heat for general dissolution, pronounced the place "the graveyard of Eu- ropeans." Such hasty judgment is a great injustice, for the rate of mortality here is less than in many of the other tropical ports. Rounding the eastern enclosure of the Gulf, the Paraguana peninsula, the traveler comes upon the quaint old town of Coro, founded in 1527, and one of the very first of the European settlements. It was this town that the governor, sent out by the Germans to whom the King of Spain at first leted the country, made his capital, and from which he undertook his disastrous expeditions in search of El Dorado. Afterward, until 1576, it was the seat of Spain's government of the colony, and is now the capital of the State of Falcon. Here, also, Miranda made his first resistance to Spanish misrule at the beginning of the revolutionary war. Coro is but a few miles 405 THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA south of the Dutch Island of Curaçao, that most picturesque fragment of Amsterdam perched on a coral rock Sweeping out eastward over the sea, as if in continuation of the Mends range, is the Cordillera de Is Sills (the "Saddle Range"), which terminates abruptly at Cape Codera. Midway between this cape and Coro, lies the important seaboard city of Puerto Ca- hello. Its environment is not only remark- ably attractive—like an oasis to the traveler who has sailed along the bleak coast range for many hours—but it is to-day one of the finest harbors in the world, as it was in the days of the early navigators, who said of it that "a vessel is safe here, anchored by a sin- gle hair (co,bello) ." The city is connected by rail, over the Sills Cordillera, with the pros- perous little city of Valencia, some fifty miles distant, and thence, by waters of Lake Valencia, with Curs and other important in- land towns which are commercial centers of a large part of the region that slopes inland from the coast range. Puerto Cabello is, therefore, the export depot of the States of Carabobo, Lars, and Zamora, three of the most productive commonwealths of the Yen- 406 VENEZUELA ezuelan federal union. It was once & ren- dezvous of the buccaneers and, later, the scene of General Pt&s astonishing night attack on the Royalist forces during the revolution, when, with his small command, he forced the surrender of General Caizada's entire army. Today the city has a population of about ten thousand, and many modem improvements— electricity, water supply, well-paved streets, and a number of attractive new buildings, that harmonize, however, with the fine old plazas and colonial residences. Eastward, some sixty-five miles toward Cape Codera, and halfway the length of the Sills range, the traveler sights the great peak of Picacho rising from the water's edge to a height of over seven thousand feet. Along this promontory, on a narrow strip of beach, are scattered groups of sixteenth century houses, *hite and red-topped for the most part; some of them nestle inland in coves of the mountains or look over the blue Carib- bean from shelves of the cliffs above. This is La Guayra, the seaport of the republic's cap- ital. High above, overhanging the business center of the town, stands the ancient and picturesque Spanish fortress of early colonial 407 THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA days, and just below, on another bench of rock, is the old bull ring. Overlooking all, on a high bluff, are the ruins of the old castle which was the residence of the Captain- General during the Spanish régime.