Transcriber's Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text
enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=).
Additional Transcriber's Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
SPANISH AMERICA
* * * * *
THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES
_Demy 8vo, cloth._
1. =CHILE.= By G. F. SCOTT ELLIOTT, F.R.G.S. With an Introduction by
Martin Hume, a Map, and 39 Illustrations. (4th Impression.)
2. =PERU.= By C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S. With an Introduction by
Martin Hume, a Map, and 72 Illustrations. (3rd Impression.)
3. =MEXICO.= By C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S. With an Introduction by
Martin Hume, a Map, and 64 Illustrations. (3rd Impression.)
4. =ARGENTINA.= By W. A. HIRST. With an Introduction by Martin Hume,
a Map, and 64 Illustrations. (4th Impression.)
5. =BRAZIL.= By PIERRE DENIS. With a Historical Chapter by Bernard
Miall, a Map, and 36 Illustrations. (2nd Impression.)
6. =URUGUAY.= By W. H. KOEBEL. With a Map and 55 Illustrations.
7. =GUIANA: British, French, and Dutch.= By JAMES RODWAY. With a Map
and 36 Illustrations.
8. =VENEZUELA.= By LEONARD V. DALTON, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S., F.R.G.S.
With a Map and 36 Illustrations. (2nd Impression.)
9. =LATIN AMERICA: Its Rise and Progress.= By F. GARCIA CALDERON.
With a Preface by Raymond Poincaré, President of France, a Map, and
34 Illustrations. (2nd Impression.)
10. =COLOMBIA.= By PHANOR JAMES EDER, A.B., LL.B. With 2 Maps and 40
Illustrations. (2nd Impression.)
11. =ECUADOR.= By C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S.
12. =BOLIVIA.= By PAUL WALLE. With 62 Illustrations and 4 Maps.
13. =PARAGUAY.= By W. H. KOEBEL.
14. =CENTRAL AMERICA.= By W. H. KOEBEL.
"The output of the books upon Latin America has in recent years been
very large, a proof doubtless of the increasing interest that is felt
in the subject. Of these the South American Series edited by Mr.
Martin Hume is the most noteworthy."--TIMES.
"Mr. Unwin is doing good service to commercial men and investors by
the production of his 'South American Series.'"--SATURDAY REVIEW.
"Those who wish to gain some idea of the march of progress in these
countries cannot do better than study the admirable 'South American
Series.'"--CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL.
* * * * *
[Illustration: BRONZE STATUE OF BOLÍVAR IN THE PLAZA, CARÁCAS,
VENEZUELA.
Vol. II. Frontispiece.]
SPANISH AMERICA
ITS ROMANCE, REALITY
AND FUTURE
BY
C. R. ENOCK, C.E., F.R.G.S.
AUTHOR OF "THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON," "PERU,"
"MEXICO," "ECUADOR," ETC.
WITH 26 ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP
VOL. II
T. FISHER UNWIN LTD
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE
* * * * *
_First published in 1920_
(_All rights reserved_)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
IX. THE LANDS OF THE SPANISH MAIN: COLOMBIA
AND VENEZUELA 11
X. THE LANDS OF THE SPANISH MAIN: VENEZUELA
AND GUIANA 32
XI. THE AMAZON VALLEY: IN COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA,
ECUADOR, BOLIVIA, PERU AND BRAZIL 74
XII. BRAZIL 111
XIII. THE RIVER PLATE AND THE PAMPAS: ARGENTINA,
URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY 158
XIV. THE RIVER PLATE AND THE PAMPAS: ARGENTINA,
URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY 202
XV. TRADE AND FINANCE 236
XVI. TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW 254
INDEX 303
ILLUSTRATIONS
BRONZE STATUE OF BOLÍVAR IN THE PLAZA, CARÁCAS,
VENEZUELA _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
A SEAPORT ON THE AMERICAN MEDITERRANEAN, SANTA
MARTA, COLOMBIA 14
TRANSPORTING MACHINERY IN THE COLOMBIAN ANDES 22
THE MAINLAND FROM TRINIDAD, AND VIEW IN THE
DELTA OF THE ORINOCO 34
INDIANS AT HOME, GUIANA 52
GEORGETOWN, BRITISH GUIANA 64
IN THE PERUVIAN MONTAÑA 78
UNCIVILIZED FOREST INDIANS OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON 90
INDIANS OF THE NAPO, PERUVIAN-AMAZON REGION 96
THE BAY OF RIO DE JANEIRO 112
PALM AVENUE, RIO DE JANEIRO 128
A COLONY, RIO GRANDE 132
A VIEW IN SAO PAULO 140
COFFEE HARVEST, BRAZIL 150
BUENOS AYRES 160
MAR DEL PLATA 166
MONTEVIDEO: THE PLAZA 178
MONTEVIDEO: THE HARBOUR 178
THE PAMPAS, ARGENTINA 204
THE CITY OF CORDOBA, ARGENTINA 206
IGUAZU FALLS 210
A CHACO FLOOD 214
BRINGING HOME YERBA 220
PACKING YERBA 220
STREET IN MEXICO CITY. CATHEDRAL IN DISTANCE 264
CHAPEL OF THE ROSARIO, MEXICO 266
SPANISH AMERICA
CHAPTER IX
THE LANDS OF THE SPANISH MAIN
COLOMBIA AND VENEZUELA
A sea-wall of solid masonry, a rampart upon whose flat top we may walk
at will, presents itself to the winds and spray that blow in from the
Gulf of Darien upon the ancient city of Cartagena, and the booming of
the waves there, in times of storm, might be the echo of the guns of
Drake, for this rampart was raised along the shore in those days when
he and other famous sea rovers ranged the Spanish Main, over which
Cartagena still looks out.
Cartagena was a rich city in those days, the outlet for the gold and
silver and other seductive matters of New Granada, under the viceroys,
and the buccaneers knew it well, this tempting bait of a treasure
storehouse and haven of the Plate ships. This, then, was the reason for
the massive sea-wall, one of the strongest and oldest of the Spanish
fortifications of the New World, which Spain had monopolized and which
the sea rovers disputed.
There is a certain Mediterranean aspect about Cartagena, which was
named by its founder, the Spaniard, Pedro de Heredia, in 1533, after
the Spanish city of Carthage, founded by the Phœnicians of the famous
Carthage of Africa. The steamer on which we have journeyed has crossed
the American Mediterranean, as the Caribbean has been not altogether
fancifully termed, for there is a certain analogy with the original,
and passing the islands and entering the broad channel brings into
view the ancient and picturesque town, with the finest harbour on the
northern coast of the continent, a smooth, land-locked bay, with groups
of feathery palms upon its shores.
Backed by the verdure-clad hills--whereon the better-class residents
have their homes, thereby escaping the malarias of the littoral--the
walls and towers of the town arise, and, entering, we are impressed by
a certain old-world dignity and massiveness of the place, a one-time
home of the viceroy and of the Inquisition. There are many memories
of the past here of interest to the English traveller. Among these
stands out the attempt of Admiral Vernon, in 1741, who with a large
naval force and an army--under General Wentworth--arrived expecting an
outpost of the place, which Drake had so easily held to ransom, to fall
readily before him. The attempt was a failure, otherwise the British
Empire might have been established upon this coast.
Colombia, like Mexico, has been a land of what might be termed vanished
hopes and arrested development. But the old land of New Granada, as
Colombia was earlier termed, has not the weight of wasted opportunity
and outraged fortune which now envelops the land of New Spain, which
in our generation promised so much and fell from grace. Colombia, by a
slower path, may yet reach a greater height than Mexico as an exponent
of Spanish American culture.
But a century ago, at the time Colombia freed herself, in company
with her neighbours, from the rule of Spain, her statesmen as well
as her neighbours hailed her as a favoured land upon which fortune
was to shine, which was to lead in industrial achievement, to redress
the balance of the Old World, to offer liberty and opportunity
to the settler, riches to the trader, to be a centre of art and
thought. At that time, indeed, New Granada was the leading State in
all the newly born constellation of Spanish America, and during her
earlier republican period one of her orators, with that command of
grandiloquent phrase with which the Spanish American statesman is
endowed, spoke as follows:
"United, neither the empire of the Assyrians, the Medes or the
Persians, the Macedonian or the Roman Empire can ever be compared
with this colossal Republic!"
The speaker--Zea, the vice-president--was referring to the Republic of
_La Gran Colombia_, formed, under Bolivar, of Venezuela, Colombia and
Ecuador--a union which was soon disrupted and which neither geography
nor human politics could have done aught but tend to separate. The
union, like that of Central America, fell asunder amid strife and
bloodshed.
But let us take the road to Bogota, the beautiful and in many respects
highly cultured capital of Colombia.
We do not, however, take the road, but the river, starting either from
Cartagena by the short railway to Barranquilla, the seaport at the
mouth of the Magdalena River, or direct from that port, and thence by
the various interrupted stages of a journey that has become a synonym
of varied travel to a South American capital.
Barranquilla is an important place--the principal commercial centre of
the Republic. Here we embark upon a stern-wheel river steamer of the
Mississippi type, flat-bottomed, not drawing more than three to five
feet of water. The smaller boat, though less pretentious, may sometimes
be the better on the long voyage upstream, and may pass the bigger and
swifter craft if haply, as occurs at times, that craft be stranded on a
shoal. For the river falls greatly in the dry season.
[Illustration: A SEAPORT ON THE AMERICAN MEDITERRANEAN, SANTA MARTA,
COLOMBIA.
Vol. II. To face p. 14.]
Journeying thus, we reach La Dorada, six hundred miles upstream, in
about nine days, for there are many obstacles against time on the
way, such as the current, the taking-in of fuel, the sand bars, which
prohibit progress by night, slow discharge of merchandise and so
forth. The heat may be stifling. A gauze mosquito bar or net is among
the equipment of the prudent traveller, as is a cot or hammock, and
rugs against the chill and damp of the nights. Also food, for the
commissariat on board often leaves much to be desired. In Colombia the
traveller requires clothing both light and heavy, as indeed in almost
all Spanish American countries. Quinine, moreover, must always be among
his equipment.
At Puerto Berrio, five hundred miles up the river, a railway runs to
the interesting city of Medellin, in the mountains, the second city in
importance in Colombia.
There are, from La Dorada, various changes to be made before Bogota
is reached. We must change to the railway that runs to--near--Honda,
circumventing the rapids, a line about twenty miles long. Here we have
a choice of routes and methods. We may proceed on mule-back through
magnificent scenery and the refreshing atmosphere of the Andes, with
tolerable inns, or we may take the steamer again to Giradot, on the
Upper Magdalena, and then a further trajectory of eighty miles by rail.
Seven changes are necessary in this journey from Cartagena to the
capital--ocean-steamer to train, thence to river-steamer, from that
to the train again, thence to river-steamer once more, thence to the
train, and again to another train--doubtless a record of varied travel.
The remote and famous city of Santa Fé de Bogota, founded by Quesada in
1538, the old viceregal capital of New Granada, the "Athens of South
America" as some of its admirers have termed it, stands pleasingly
upon its _Sabana_, or upland plain--one of the largest cultivated
mountain plateaux in the world--at an elevation of 8,600 feet above
sea-level, higher than the famous city of Mexico. It is in the heart
of the Tropics, but four degrees north of the Equator, and its equable
climate, a result of the offsetting of latitude by altitude, is in many
respects delightful.
Here the typical Spanish American character is stamped on the city
and reflected in the life of its people, where Parisian dress rubs
shoulders with the blanketed Indian. Here the aristocracy of Colombia,
implanted by Spain, centres. One street may be lined with the handsome
residences of the correct and elegant upper class, folk perhaps
educated in foreign universities, men of the world, passing by in silk
hat and frock-coat--attire beloved of the wealthy here--or in motor-car
or carriage, which whirls past the groups of half-starved, half-clothed
(and perhaps half-drunken) Indian or poor Mestizo folk, whose homes
are in the hovels of a neighbouring street and whose principal source
of entertainment is the _chicheria_, or drinking-den, such as exists
in profusion. And without desiring to institute undue comparisons--for
wealth and misery go side by side in London or New York, or any city of
Christendom--it may be pointed out that despite the claim of Bogota to
be a centre of literary thought and high culture, little more perhaps
than a tenth of the population of Colombia can read and write.
There are handsome plazas, with gardens and statuary, but few imposing
public buildings, although a certain simplicity is pleasing here. The
streets generally are narrow, and the houses low, as a precaution
against earthquake shocks. The _Capitiolio_, the building of the
Legislature, is spacious and handsome. Upon a marble tablet, upon its
façade, in letters of gold, is an inscription to the memory of the
British Legion, the English and Irish who lent their aid to Colombia
and Venezuela, under Bolivar, to secure independence from Spain a
century or more ago.
The story of the British soldiers in this liberation is an interesting
one.
"With insubordination and murmurings among his own generals,
decreased troops and depleted treasure, and without the encouragement
of decisive victories to make good these deficiencies, the outlook
for Bolivar and for the cause in which he was fighting might well
have disheartened him at this time. In March, however, Colonel Daniel
O'Leary had arrived with the troops raised by Colonel Wilson in
London, consisting largely of veterans of the Napoleonic wars. These
tried soldiers, afterwards known as the British Legion, were destined
to play an all-important part in the liberation of Venezuela, and
Bolivar soon recognized their value, spending the time till December
in distributing these new forces to the best advantage.
"Elections were arranged in the autumn, and on February 15, 1819,
Congress was installed in Angostura. Bolivar took the British
Constitution as his model, with the substitute of an elected
president for an hereditary king, and was himself proclaimed
provisional holder of the office. The hereditary form of the Senate
was, however, soon given up."[1]
Before the Conquest Bogota was the home of the Chibchas people--Tunja
was their northern capital--the cultured folk of Colombia, who,
although inferior to the Incas of Peru, had their well-built towns and
a flourishing agriculture and local trade, their temples of no mean
structure, with an advanced religion which venerated and adored the
powers of Providence as represented by Nature; who worked gold and
silver and ornaments of jewels beautifully and skilfully, such things
as Quesada's Spaniards coveted--a culture which knew how to direct the
Indian population, but which, alas! fell before the invaders as all
other early American cultures fell.
To-day, as then, the high mountains look down upon the Sabana, and the
rills of clear water descend therefrom. Still the beautiful Mesa de
Herveo, the extinct volcano, displays like a great tablecloth from a
giant table its gleaming mantle of perpetual snow, over 3,000 feet of
white drapery. Still the emerald mines of Muzo yield their emeralds,
and still the patient Indian cultivates the many foods and fruits which
Nature has so bountifully lavished upon his fatherland.
Colombia, like Peru or Mexico, or Ecuador or other of the sisterhood
of nations in our survey, is a land of great contrasts, whether of
Nature or man. The unhealthy lowlands of the coast give place to the
delightful valleys of higher elevations, which in their turn merge
into the bitter cold of the melancholy _paramos_, or upland passes,
and tablelands of the Andes. Or the cultivated lands pass to savage
forests, where roam tribes of natives who perhaps have never looked
upon the face of the white man.
Every product of Nature in these climates is at hand or possible,
and the precious minerals caused New Granada to be placed high on
the roll of gold-producing colonies of the Indies. The coffee of the
lowlands, the bananas, shipped so largely from the pretty port of Santa
Marta, the cotton, the sugar and the cocoa, grown so far mainly for
home consumption; the coconuts, the ivory-nuts--_tagua_, or coróza,
for foreign use in button-making largely--the rice, the tobacco, the
quinine, of which shipments have been considerable; the timber, such as
cedar and mahogany; the cattle and hides, the gold, silver, platinum,
copper, coal, emeralds, cinnabar, lead, the iron and petroleum--such
are the chief products of this favoured land.
Many of the mines and railways are under British control, but in
general trade German interests have been strong, and the German has
identified himself, after his custom, with the domestic life of the
Republic. A rich flora, including the beautiful orchids, is found here,
as in the neighbouring State of Venezuela.
Two-fifths of Colombia is mountainous territory, the plateaux and spurs
of the Andes, between which latter run the Magdalena and Cauca Rivers.
The roads are mule-trails, such as bring again and again before us as
we experience their discomforts the fact that Colombia, in common with
all the Andine Republics, is still in the Middle Ages as far as means
of rural transport are concerned. Yet the landscape is often of the
most delightful, and the traveller, in the intervals of expending his
breath in cursing the trails, will raise his eyes in admiration of the
work of Nature here.
Especially is this the case when, in the dry season, travel is less
onerous and when nothing can be more pleasing than the varying
scenery. Here "dipping down into a delightful little valley, formed
by a sparkling rivulet whose banks are edged with cane, bamboo and
tropical trees, inter-wreathed with twining vines; there, circling
a mountain-side and looking across at a vast amphitheatre where the
striking vegetation, in wild profusion, is the gigantic wax-palm,
that towers sometimes to a height of 100 feet; then, reaching the
level of the oak and other trees of the temperate zone, or still
higher at an altitude of 10,000 or 11,000 feet, the _paramos_, bare
of all vegetation save low shrubs, which might be desolate were it
not for the magnificent mountain scenery, with the occasional view of
the glorious snow-peaks of the Central Cordillera.
"At times the road is poor: now and then, cut into the solid rock of
the mountain-side, towering sheer hundreds of feet above you, while a
precipice yawns threateningly on the other side, it may narrow down
to a scant yard or two in width; it may, for a short distance, climb
at an angle of almost forty-five degrees, with the roughest cobble
paving for security against the mules slipping; or in a stretch of
alluvial soil, the ruts worn by the constant tread of the animals
in the same spot have worn deep narrow trenches, characteristic of
Andean roads, against the sides of which one's knees will knock
roughly if constant vigilance be not exercised; worse yet, these
trenches will not be continuous, but will be interrupted by mounds
over which the mules have continually stepped, sinking the road-bed
deeper and deeper by the iterated stamping of their hoofs in the same
hollow, till deep excavations are formed, which in the rainy season
are pools filled with the most appalling mud. Such is a fair picture
applicable to many a stretch of so-called road in Colombia.
"The 'hotel accommodations' on the way are poor, of course; one
stops at the usual shanty and takes such fare as one can get, a
_sancocho_ or _arepas_, eked out with the foods prudentially brought
along. It is in such passes as the Quindio, too, when one reaches
the _paramos_, thousands of feet in altitude, and far above the
clouds, that one experiences the rigorous _cold_ of the Tropics.
The temperature at night is nearly always below forty degrees;
occasionally it drops to freezing-point, and one feels it all the
more after a sojourn in the hot lowlands. No amount of clothing then
seems adequate. Travellers will remember the bitter cold nights they
have passed in the _paramos_."[2]
This bitter atmosphere is experienced, let us remember, on or near
the Equator. But we are led on to the beautiful Cauca Valley perhaps,
whence, if we wish, we may continue on through the pretty town of Cali,
and up over the tablelands of Popayan and Pasto, and, passing the
frontier, so ride on to Quito, the capital of Ecuador--a journey which
will leave us with sensations both painful and pleasurable.
[Illustration: TRANSPORTING MACHINERY IN THE COLOMBIAN ANDES.
Vol. II. To face p. 22.]
"If you cannot withstand the petty discomforts of the trail for the
sake of the ever-shifting panorama of snow-peaks, rugged mountains,
cosy valleys, smiling woodlands, trim little valleys, then you are
not worthy to be exhilarated by the sun-kissed winds of the Andes, or
soothed by the languorous tropical moonlight of the lower lands, or
to partake of the open-handed hospitality which will greet you.
"Such is the fame of the Cauca Valley that it was long known
throughout Colombia simply as _the_ valley, and that is now its
legal name. It is the valley _par excellence_. The name is used to
designate especially that stretch, about 15 to 25 miles wide and
150 miles long, where the Cauca River has formed a gently sloping
plain, at an altitude of 3,000 to 3,500 feet above sea-level, between
the Central and the Western Cordilleras. A little north of Cartago
and a little south of La Bolsa, the two ranges hem it in. The Cauca
is one of the real garden spots of the world. No pen can describe the
beauty of the broad smiling valley, as seen from favourable points
on either range, with its broad green pastures, yellow fields of
sugar-cane, dark woodlands, its towns nestling at the foothills, the
Cauca River in the midst, silvered by the reflected sun, and looking
across the _lomas_ of the rapidly ascending foothills, with cameo-cut
country houses, topped by the dense forests of the upper reaches of
the mountains, rising to majestic heights. From some places in the
western range will be seen the snow-clad Huila in icy contrast to the
blazing sun shining on the luxuriant tropic vegetation beneath.
"The best developed parts of the hot and temperate zones of
Cundinamarca are along the Magdalena Valley and the routes of the
Girardot Railway, the road to Cambao and the Honda trail. In the
warmer zone there are good sugar plantations: in the temperate zone
is grown the coffee so favourably known in the markets of the world
under the name of Bogota: it attains its perfection at an altitude
of about 5,000 feet, and nowhere else in Colombia has such careful
attention been given to its cultivation. The Sabana itself, by
which name the plateau of Bogota is known, is all taken up with
farms and towns--there is scarcely a foot of undeveloped land. The
climate is admirably adapted to the European-blooded animals, and the
gentleman-farmer of Bogota takes great pride in his stock. The finest
cattle in Colombia, a great many of imported Durham and Hereford
stock, and excellent horses of English and Norman descent are bred
here. This is the only section in Colombia, too, where dairying on
any extensive scale is carried on, and where the general level of
agriculture has risen above the primitive. The lands not devoted to
pasture are utilized chiefly for wheat, barley and potatoes.
"To offset bad water, the food supply is excellent, and of wonderful
variety. That is one of the beauties of the climate of the Sabana.
One gets all northern fruits and flowers, blooming the year round,
and vegetables as well as quite a few of the tropical ones. It is an
interesting sight to see tropical palms growing side by side with
handsome northern trees, like oaks and firs. Some of the Sabana roads
are lined with blackberries, and one gets delicious little wild
strawberries; apples, pears and peaches are grown, though usually of
a poor quality, not properly cultivated. Even oranges can grow on
the Sabana, and from the nearby hot country they send up all manner
of tropical fruits and vegetables. Then there is no dearth of good
cooks: the epicure can enjoy private dinners and public banquets
equal to any in the world. The one lady who reads this book will
be interested to know that the servant problem is reduced to a
minimum in Bogota; good domestics are plentiful and cheap--five to
ten dollars a month is high pay. In the houses of the well-to-do
the servants are well treated and lead happy lives; they have ample
quarters of their own, centring around their own _patio_; and enough
of the old patriarchal regime survives to make them really a part of
the family."[3]
* * * * *
Descending from the mountainous part of the country, we reach, to the
east, that portion of Colombia situated upon the affluents of the
Orinoco, a region which we may more readily consider in our description
of that great river, lying mainly in the adjoining Republic of
Venezuela. Here stretch the _llanos_, or plains, and the forests which
are the home of the wilder tribes, for Colombia has various grades of
civilization among her folk, of which the last are these aboriginals,
and the middle the patient Christianized Indians, who constitute the
bulk of the working classes. These last have the characteristics, with
small differences, of the Indian of the Cordillera in general, of whom
I have elsewhere ventured upon some study.
In Colombia, although in some respects the Republic is pervaded by
a truly democratic spirit as between class and class, power and
privilege, land and education are in the hands of a small upper class.
This condition does not make for social progress, and in the future
may seriously jeopardize the position of that class. Wisdom here, as
elsewhere in Spanish America, would advise a broader outlook. Political
misrule in the past has been rampant, although revolutions of late
years have been infrequent.
There are innumerable matters in Colombia which the observant traveller
will find of the utmost interest, but upon which we cannot dwell here.
Our way lies back to the Spanish Main, whence we take steamer along the
coast to the seaports of Venezuela.
Colombia is in a unique geographical position upon the South American
Continent, in that it is the only State with an Atlantic and Pacific
coast; added to which is the hydrographic condition which gives the
country an outlet also to the fluvial system of the Amazon, by means of
the great affluents the Yapura and the Negro, as also the Putumayo--if
that stream is to be regarded in Colombian territory, for the region is
on the debatable ground claimed by three countries, Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru.
Indeed, this portion of South America, one of the wildest parts of the
earth's surface, is of great hydrographic interest, and looking at the
map, we see how these navigable streams bend north, east and south,
with the peculiar link of the Casiquiare "Canal" or river, uniting
the fluvial systems of the Orinoco and the Amazon. (It is--but on a
vaster scale--as if a natural waterway existed between the Thames and
the Severn, or the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence.) This "Canal"
lies but 150 miles from the Equator, a few miles from the border of
Colombia, in Venezuela. Beyond, to the north-east, is Guiana, the land
of Raleigh's El Dorado. Doubtless this region, in the future--far-off
it may be--will become of much importance, and what is now savage
woodland and danger-haunted waterways may some day be teeming with life
and activity.
The conditions as regards navigability are, of course, relative in many
instances here. Again, the region is not necessarily altogether an
uninhabited one, for the rubber-stations have been increasing rapidly
of late years.
A somewhat forbidding coast presents itself as our steamer, casting
anchor, comes to rest in the waters of La Guayra, the principal seaport
of Venezuela.
Here a bold rocky wall, apparently arising sheer from the sea, a
granite escarpment more than a mile high, cuts off all view of the
interior, and, reflecting the heat of the tropic sun, makes of the
small and somewhat unprepossessing town at its base one of the hottest
seaports on the face of the globe, as it was formerly one of the most
dangerous from the exposure of its roadstead.
But, as if in some natural compensation, there lies beyond this rocky,
maritime wall one of the most beautiful capital cities of South
America--Caracas, reached by yonder railway, strung along the face of
the precipice, and affording from the train a magnificent panorama of
the seaport and the blue Caribbean.
La Guayra, ranged like an amphitheatre around the indentations in the
precipice in which it lies, with its tiers of ill-paved streets, has
nevertheless some good business houses, and the Republic expended a
million pounds sterling upon its harbour works, executed and controlled
by a British company.
Looking seaward from its quay walls, we may recall the doings of the
old buccaneers of the Spanish Main, and of other filibusters, who from
time to time have sacked the place since its founding in the sixteenth
century. Upon these quays are filled bags of cocoa and coffee, and
mountains of hides, brought down from the interior, and other products
from plain and field and forest of the hinterland, for La Guayra
monopolizes, for State reasons, much of the trade that might more
naturally find outlet through other seaports.
The little railway which bears us up and beyond to Caracas winds, to
gain elevation and passage, for twenty-four miles, in order to cover
a distance in an air-line between the port and the capital of about
six. We find ourselves set down in what enthusiastic descriptions of
this particular zone love to term a region of perpetual spring; and
indeed, at its elevation of 3,000 feet, the city is alike free from
the sweltering heat of the coast and from the cold of the higher
mountainous districts beyond.
A handsome plaza confronts us, with an equestrian statue of Bolivar.
The plaza is mosaic-paved, electrically lighted, shaded by trees
and, in the evening and on Sunday, the military bands entertain the
people after the customary Spanish American method. Some showy public
buildings, and a museum with some famous paintings are here; there are
pleasing suburbs, luxurious gardens and well laid-out streets, and this
high capital takes not unjustifiable pride to itself for its beauty and
artistic environment and atmosphere--conditions which deserve a wider
fame.
When we leave the Venezuelan capital and travel over the wide territory
of the Republic, we find it is one of the most sparsely populated
of the Spanish American nations. Conditions in internal development
and social life are very much like those of Colombia, with highlands
and lowlands, river and forest, cultivated plain and smiling valley,
malarial districts and dreary uplands. We find the rudest Indian
villages and the most pleasing towns: the most ignorant and backward
Indian folk, the more docile and industrious Christianized labouring
class, and the highly educated, sensitive and oligarchical upper class.
Again, we find the same variety of climate, products and the gifts of
Nature in general. We see great plantations of coffee, especially in
that fertile region of Maracaibo, which Colombia in part enjoys, and
which gives its name to the superior berry there produced for export.
We see broad estates, in their thousands, devoted to the production
of the _cacao_, or chocolate, and similar areas over which waves the
succulent and vivid green sugar-cane, whereon sugar is produced often
by old-fashioned methods. These products yield returns so excellent
that the growing of cotton, on the vast lands suitable thereto, are
in large degree neglected, and must be regarded as an asset for the
future, whenever local labour may become better organized or more
plentiful.
Agriculture in this varied Republic, as in its neighbour, Colombia, has
been kept backward by the same lack of labour, largely a punishment for
the decimation of the labouring folk in the civil and other wars that
have so often laid waste both man and land.
Maracaibo, lake and district, of which we have made mention, is in some
respects a curious region. Let us look at the map. We remark a great
indent on the coast of the Spanish Main. It is the Gulf of Venezuela,
continuing far inland to what is termed Lake Maracaibo. The gulf is
partly closed by the curious Goajira Peninsula.
From the appearance of the dwellings of the Indian on this lake-shore,
the name of Venezuela, or "Little Venice," was given to the mainland
here; the lake-dwellings are built on piles driven into the water.
When the first Spaniards visited the coast, under Alonzo de Ojeada--on
board with him was Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine who gave his name
to America--they were struck by the curious appearance of the Indian
settlements, and from so accidental a circumstance was the region
baptized. The same type of dwelling still characterizes the lake, and
were it not for the busy and important town of Maracaibo, the traveller
might almost fancy himself back in the sixteenth century, coasting with
the early explorers.
Indeed, as far as the Indians of the peninsula are concerned, we
might still be in these early times, for these sturdy descendants
of the Caribs, whom the Spaniards came to dread, have maintained
their independence to this day, and although they trade with the
white folk, resist all attempts at governmental control. This is a
curious circumstance upon the coast, which was the first part of South
America to be discovered, although it might be conceivable in the far
interior--especially in view of the proximity of the busy and populous
city on the lake, a port of greater importance than La Guayra in some
respects, full of modern life and trade. Maracaibo was at one time one
of the principal educational centres of South America. Unfortunately
the bar at the mouth of the harbour unfits the place for the entry of
large vessels.
In this district lie the important petroleum fields, which have been
made the seat of recent enterprise for the production of that coveted
oil of commerce.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Venezuela_, Dalton, South American Series.
[2] _Colombia_, Eder, South American Series.
[3] _Colombia_, op. cit.