I have thus far sought to give an idea of my personal impressions during
a journey most memorable to me; and I am aware that I bring no new or
useful contribution from a scientific point of view. We had no
instruments of observation, not even an ordinary every-day compass,
enabling us to fix the cardinal points with certainty. Furthermore, had
we possessed more complicated instruments, we were too ignorant to use
them. Let these remarks be borne in mind should errors of appreciation
be noticed, as certainly they exist, in this disjointed narrative.
We wandered on with the definite aim of reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
Beyond that we did not venture to scrutinize too deeply the mysterious
and wonderful manifestations of Nature, but took them as they appeared
to our limited means of vision and understanding, and sought nothing
beyond.
However, before closing these pages, assuming that some kind reader’s
patience may have enabled him to accompany me thus far, it may not be
amiss to give some accurate data which I take from the admirable
monograph entitled ‘South America: an Outline of its Physical
Geography,’ published in the _Geographical Journal_ of April, 1901, by
Colonel George Earl Church, a book which might be called ‘South America
in a Nutshell,’ wonderfully accurate and concise, and worthy of the
highest praise.
The total length of the Orinoco is about 1,500 miles, but if measured by
its Guaviari branch it is several hundred miles longer. It reaches its
maximum height in August. To its point of junction with the Guaviare it
takes a north-west course. Ninety miles before its union with that
stream it receives its principal eastern affluent, the Ventuario. From
the Guaviare it runs north nearly as far as the Apure, where it suddenly
turns east. Between the Guaviare and the Meta the course of the river is
obstructed by the Maipures Rapids, which extend for a length of four
miles, with a total fall of about 40 feet. Below this the Atures Rapids
cover a distance of about six miles, falling about 30 feet. Navigation
is then free for about 700 miles, as far as the rapids of Cariben,
within six miles of the mouth of the Meta. The river at this point is
about a mile wide. Its course continues to the north, and at the mouth
of the Apure it is two miles wide in the dry season, and about seven
when in flood. At Cariben it rises 32 feet; but at the Angostura, or
‘Narrows,’ 372 miles from the sea, it has risen to 60 feet. It enters
the sea by its main trunk, the Boca Grande. About 100 miles above its
mouth it throws off a branch northward to the Gulf of Paria, also 100
miles in length. Six other considerable arms find their way to the ocean
across a vast delta about 7,000 square miles in area. The Boca Grande is
the deepest and main navigable entrance at all seasons, the muddy bar
usually maintaining a depth of 16 feet. The basin of the Orinoco covers
an area of 364,500 square miles.
The principal affluents flowing from the Andean slopes are the Apure,
the Arauca, the Meta, and the Guaviare.
The Apure is 695 miles long, of which 564 are navigable. The Apure in
its turn receives numerous tributaries, some of which are navigable for
short distances.
The Arauca, the Meta and the Guaviare, are also navigable.
The Casiquiare Canal unites the upper Orinoco with the Rio Negro branch
of the Amazon. It is about 300 miles long, with an average depth of 30
feet, and has a strong current in the direction of the Negro. The list
of affluents of the Orinoco and of its tributaries would be a very long
one, and would serve no useful purpose here.
Evidently the Orinoco and the Orinoco system, with their innumerable
ramifications in all directions, form a basis for the easy exploitation
of the vast sources of natural wealth which exist in the immense
territory through which their waters flow.
That territory lies within the borders of the Republics of Colombia and
Venezuela. Up to the present neither nation has seriously attempted to
utilize the valuable elements so bountifully offered by Nature. In the
matter of navigation, ocean-going steamers sail frequently as far as
Ciudad Bolivar. From this latter point river steamers ply once or twice
a month up the Orinoco, turning into the Apure as far as San Fernando de
Apure, and during the tonga-bean harvest follow the course of the main
river generally as far as the Caura, where the harvesters established
their central camps a good many years ago. An effort was made to
establish navigation on the Orinoco and its affluents above the rapids,
and also to run small steamers in the navigable part between the Atures
and Maipures rapids; but the French company, which held a charter
practically placing the whole region at its disposal, failed of its
object, after spending a considerable amount of money. During our
journey, in several places we could see, rotting in the sun, the
remnants of broken-down steamers, which appeared uncanny objects in
those surroundings. The rapids, acting as a barrier, have deterred
traders and explorers. The upper part of the Orinoco is the most
abundant in natural wealth. As I have had occasion to note in these
pages, india-rubber, _piazaba_, tonga bean, resinous and medicinal
plants, are found in practically unlimited quantities along the shores
of all the rivers above the rapids, and the small proportion which is
gathered is generally shipped through the Rio Negro by way of the
Amazon, as traders prefer that long and tedious journey to the
difficulties of the Orinoco Rapids.
Yet to give life to the Orinoco, to establish a stream of natural
products down its waters, and to facilitate the opening of the forests
and mountains beyond the rapids, it would not be necessary to carry out
work of a very stupendous nature, beyond the resources of the peoples
and the nations most interested in the work. A cursory glance at the
elements of the problem reveals the possibility of carrying out a plan,
the general outlines of which might be the following:
A line of steamers should be established plying at least twice a month
between Ciudad Bolivar and the highest accessible point for navigation
below the Atures Rapids.
The old road along the rapids, which extended from that highest point of
navigation to beyond Maipures where the river is again free and open,
should be reconstructed. A railway could be built along either shore,
the ground being mostly level and hard. It would not be necessary to
undertake great engineering works, and the road-bed itself would require
neither deep cuttings nor terracing, nor expensive culverts and works of
drainage, and the few bridges required, being of short span, would not
run into high figures.
Steam navigation should also be established beyond the rapids on the
rivers forming the upper basin. This could be done at first by means of
small steam-launches such as are used in the affluents of the Amazon
River, but the service should be carried out faithfully and
periodically, even though at first freight and passengers were lacking.
People in Spanish America are generally very sceptical as to these
enterprises, but once a feeling of confidence was created, explorers
would flock both from Colombia and from Venezuela, as they would know
that they would have an outlet for whatever products they might gather.
The Indians on the Vichada, and even those on the Meta, would supply
abundant labour, and the exports of natural products would soon furnish
all the freight that might be desired to make the whole arrangement of
steamers above and below the rapids, and the railway along the same, a
paying concern.
A line of steamers should also follow the course of the Meta River as
far as La Cruz, a port situated about ninety miles from Bogotá, thus
tapping the import and export trade of the most thickly-populated region
of Colombia, the inhabitants of which in the three provinces of
Santander, Boyacá, and Cundinamarca, are over 1,500,000 in number.
Supposing four steamers to be needed for navigation on the lower river
and on the Meta, to be bought at Ciudad Bolivar at a cost of £10,000
each, £40,000 would be required under this head. Taking the length of
the railway at 60 kilometres, including the bridges, at a cost of £2,000
per kilometre, £120,000 would be required for the railway; and supposing
that ten small steam-launches of twenty to thirty tons burden were
started for the rivers on the upper basin, £20,000 would be required—in
all, £180,000 for the whole undertaking.
The preceding figures are not imaginative, and might, perhaps, be
reduced in actual practice. If it has been possible to raise the capital
required for the construction of a railway of upwards of 200 kilometres
in length along the shores of the Congo, where climate, distance, and
natives combine to establish far more serious obstacles than exist on
the Orinoco, should it not be possible to find the capital for the
establishment of modern means of transportation in a region which offers
far brighter and surer prospects than the Congo? Let it be remembered
that from Colombia and from Venezuela civilized white, coloured and
Indian labour could be found in abundance, and that Europeans engaged in
the undertaking, and provided with steamers, could in two days, if on
the Meta, reach the high and healthy plateaus of Bogotá and find
themselves in a civilized community where they would lack none of the
luxuries or comforts of their own land; and that in the Lower Orinoco
they would have Ciudad Bolivar, to which the same remarks, barring the
advantage of climate, may be applied. The two Governments of Colombia
and Venezuela, equally interested in the development of the Orinoco
basin, might unite their efforts and guarantee in a form satisfactory to
European capitalists the paltry yearly amount required to pay the
service of interest and sinking fund on the £180,000. Taking the
interest at 6, with a sinking fund of 1 per cent., £12,600 yearly would
be required—that is to say, £6,300 for each Government. I know that at
the present moment such a task would be well-nigh impossible, but I also
know that if a sincere effort were made, notwithstanding the universal
feeling of distrust, it would be possible to create securities specially
applicable to this purpose, which would satisfy the most exacting
capitalist.
In the midst of the daily turmoil and agitation and sanguinary struggle
which constitutes the life of those democracies, these problems, urgent
and vital as they are, pass unheeded; and the more the pity, for in
their solution lies the basis of a permanent peace. Prosperity begets
abhorrence of internal revolutions. The development of Mexico is a case
in point, from which Colombia and Venezuela might take heed. Woe to them
if they do not! The world begins to sicken at the very mention of the
constant strife which converts into a positive hell those regions where
Nature has shown herself prodigal beyond measure in all her gifts. Not
only the valley of the Orinoco, with its boundless prairies, its dense
forests, and its innumerable affluents, but the uplands of the Andine
regions and the plains extending in Venezuela towards the North Atlantic
or Caribbean Sea, and in Colombia to the Pacific Ocean, are coveted by
nations where humanity is overcrowded by races which would fain
establish colonies in those regions. The development of humanity cannot
be stayed; the human wave, even as the stream of water contained by a
dyke, will sooner or later break through the walls that imprison it and
flood the surrounding country. It were well for men animated by real
patriotism in Colombia and in Venezuela to ponder over these
possibilities, so that the two nations might themselves open the
flood-gates for immigration without delay, so that the new-comers would
prove a fresh source of strength and power, helping to build up on the
basis of the now existing nations free and mighty commonwealths, rather
than as conquerors, who (whether they come from the North as wolves in
sheep’s clothing under cover of the Monroe doctrine, or from across the
ocean, driven by necessity stronger than all political conventionality)
would come as masters.
Now is our accepted time. The moments are counted during which the
danger may be averted and the inevitable turned to account; but, alas!
feuds and errors deep-rooted in medieval soil, luxuriant in this our
twentieth century, darken the minds of men, influence their judgment,
turn away their activity from the real aims that would lead their
nations to greatness, and force them into barbarous struggles which the
world regards with amazement and brands as crimes against mankind.