THE STATES OF THE “CENTRO”
La Guaira—Heat—Port works—The Brighton of Venezuela—Sugar
plantations—Streets and _botiquins_—_Guarapo_—La
Guaira-Carácas Railway—A great engineering
feat—Carácas—Climate—Population—Streets—Buildings—The Salón
Elíptico—El Calvario—El Paraiso—“La India”—Water-supply—Trams
and telephones—Lighting—Industries—The Guaire
Valley—Coffee—Miranda—Ocumare del Tuy—Petare—Central
Railway—Vegetable snow—Carenero Railway—Rio Chico—Los
Teques—Great Venezuelan Railway—La Victoria—Sixteen-fold
wheatfields—Maracay—Grazing lands—Cheese—President Gomez’s
country house—Villa de Cura—An epitome of the State—Lake of
Valencia—Cotton—Carabobo—Valencia—Cotton-mills—Montalbán—Deserted
vineyards—Wild rubber—Puerto Cabello Railway—The port—Meat
syndicate—Club—Ocumare de la Costa—What is bad for man may be
good for cocoa—Mineral resources.
For obvious reasons the central region of Venezuela, round about the
capital, is that most frequently visited by Europeans, and generally even
those travellers who, at the call of science, commerce, or pleasure,
penetrate to other parts of the country first come into contact with it
at La Guaira, the chief port of the republic.
The first settlement in the neighbourhood was established some eight
miles to the westward, and was known as Caraballeda, the present town
being founded in 1588, shortly after the seat of government was removed
from Coro to Carácas. Standing as it does on a narrow strip of more or
less level land, at the foot of the cordillera which here rises from
the water’s edge to the height of about 5,000 feet, and extending up
the precipitous slopes of the bare mountain, the town is terribly hot
at times. In early days the roadstead must have been very unsafe, for
the swell running on this coast at all seasons prevents secure anchorage
outside the harbour.
The existing port works belong to an English company, and cost £980,000
to complete; and even so, the rise and fall from the swell is merely
reduced, not neutralised. The contract for the La Guaira harbour was
given to Messrs. Punchard & Co., who decided, in view of the fact that
the roadstead was open to the waves to north and east only, that a
straight east and west breakwater would prove most effective. The length
of this was to be 2,050 feet, and the design allowed for the enclosure of
90 acres of water of an average depth of 30 feet, 3,100 feet of quays,
and 18 acres of reclaimed land. There are seldom severe wind-storms, and
the strong swell with the resulting huge waves which break upon the coast
were the principal difficulties to be met. Unfortunately, as we have
said, the movement is not entirely kept back by the breakwater. The work
was commenced in December, 1885, but the first breakwater was destroyed
by a particularly heavy swell in December, 1887; the second was commenced
in July, 1888, and finally completed, more or less as it stands to-day,
in July, 1891.
A railway runs through the town from the suburb of Maiquetia, about a
mile and a half westwards, to the fashionable watering-place of Macuto,
three miles in the opposite direction. Here there is an esplanade,
gardens, and sea-baths, and as the coast, in contrast to La Guaira, faces
the direction of the prevalent winds, climatic conditions are pleasant.
In the season this Brighton of Venezuela is full of visitors.
Through La Guaira passes out the greater part of the produce of the
“Centro,” and much from other parts of the country, the principal exports
being coffee, cacao, cotton, hides, gold, rubber, pearls, feathers
(egrets’), and _alpargatas_ (sandals). There are factories turning out
cigars, cigarettes, hats, boots, and other articles for home consumption;
and at La Guaira the French cable enters the sea. Near Punta Caraballeda
there is the big Juan Diaz sugar-mill of Messrs. Boulton, surrounded by
bright green cane plantations; but save coconut-palms, little of value
grows along the greater part of this coast near the shore.
The narrow street behind the quay is chiefly occupied by _botiquins_,
some with abundant tropical and temperate fruits of which cooling
_refrescos_ can be made, with green milk-coconuts and barrels of diluted
_guarapo_ (sugar syrup) at a centimo a tumbler—not the pleasantest to
an unaccustomed palate but probably the most effective of Venezuelan
thirst-quenchers. After the hot sun on the quay the little tables under
the trees look particularly inviting, though it is only fair to say that
the unkempt appearance of this small fore street is more likely to strike
the new-comer than the more pleasant matters.
Communication with the capital is carried on by rail and road, the
former carrying the express freight, though the loaded donkeys and mules
leaving Maiquetia before sunrise show that the railway is not without
competition. The road is well engineered, and is about twenty-five
miles in length; the unmacadamised surface is, however, little used for
wheel-traffic. In a straight line Carácas is about eight miles from La
Guaira, but stands 3,000 feet above the port, and is separated from it by
a mountain range 5,000 feet high, over which climbs the old Spanish paved
road.
The British-built and owned La Guaira-Carácas railway accomplishes the
climb in about 23 miles, the ruling gradient being 1 in 27 to the head
of the pass at 3,200 feet, whence it descends 200 feet to the city. The
chief feature of the line is the small radius of the curves, some of
which are so sharp that it has been said that the guard at the rear of
the train can whisper to the driver. For much of the distance there is a
splendid view over the Caribbean, and as the line climbs higher up into
the gorge the train is often only a few feet from the edge of precipices,
with a vertical drop in some cases of over a thousand feet. De Lesseps
said that there was only one dangerous part of the line, but that
that extended from La Guaira to Carácas. The whole is a fine piece of
engineering, and, notwithstanding the theoretical risks, there has never
been an accident to a passenger train, thanks to the energetic management
and splendid system of _vigilantes_, or watchmen, ever on the lookout for
landslips as well as for faults in the permanent way.
Carácas stands on the north bank of the River Guaire, on the inner slope
of the coastal cordillera. The northern part of the city is thus higher
than the southern. Founded in 1567 by Diego de Losada, its equable
climate at the elevation of 3,000 feet and the fertile valley in which
it lay soon attracted the Government away from Coro, on the hot, barren
plains near the Gulf of Venezuela. The minimum temperature recorded in an
average year may be as low as 48° F. (this, of course, at night), but,
in general, days and nights are mild, and only in the middle of the year
is the air uncomfortably warm at any time of the day. The population was
estimated as 90,000 in 1904, and suburbs bring the total to over 100,000.
It would be obviously unfair to institute a comparison between a city
of this size and any of the better known capitals of Spanish-American
republics, but, considered purely on its own merits, the capital of
Venezuela has much to commend it, and undoubtedly exerts a peculiar
fascination over most of those who visit it.
[Illustration: PLAZA BOLIVAR: VALENCIA.]
The streets are narrow, though the one-storey buildings make this hardly
noticeable, and are paved in the outer parts of the city with cobbles,
in the centre with cement. Though most of the private or business houses
have one storey only, this does not apply to the public edifices, and
the distribution of these is as casual as in London. As is usual, the
principal square or plaza occupies the centre of the town, and round it
are grouped the cathedral, Federal Government offices, Palace of Justice,
Archbishop’s palace, the Casa Amarilla (containing the archives), the
G.P.O., and the principal hotel (the Klindt) of the city. The centre
of the plaza gardens is occupied by an equestrian statue of Bolivar in
bronze. The Capitol is south-west of the Plaza Bolivar, and is a large
building in semi-Moorish style, divided by a central patio into two
main portions. The southern part is occupied by the two Chambers of
the Legislature, while the northern houses the Executive. Part of the
Executive Palace, as it is called, is occupied by the Salón Elíptico,
containing portraits of famous patriots and statesmen of Venezuela,
conspicuous among the dark-haired Spanish or Venezuelan types being the
Irishman O’Leary. The dome is decorated with a picture of the battle
of Carabobo, and the roofs of the wings with representations of those
of Pinchincha and Boyacá, while to the east is a large picture of the
Congress of Angostura. The offices of the various departments are on the
first floor. Among the remaining buildings of note we may mention the
University, an imitation-freestone gothic structure south of the Capitol,
the Municipal Theatre, the Pantheon, and the presidential residence
(Miraflores).
On the hill of El Calvario west of the city is the Observatory and the
Independencia Park, from which a fine view of the city can be had in the
afternoon. On the south of the Guaire, which is crossed by two bridges,
is the Paraiso drive, with the villas of some of the wealthier residents.
Here the society of Carácas drives just before sunset, and we may note,
in passing, that the cabs (generally hooded victorias or small landaus)
are remarkably cheap and good. One carries a walking-stick when driving
to con the coachman, a tap on the right arm meaning a turn in that
direction, a poke in the middle of the back “stop,” and so on. Not far
from the plaza on the one hand and the Municipal Theatre on the other is
the restaurant “La India,” where the youth of Carácas indulge in cakes
and ale in the mornings, and chocolate (which is excellent), or less
innocuous liquids after the theatre. Tea, or at least afternoon tea, is
uncommon in Carácas as yet, though a growing British colony may change
matters in that respect. An enumeration of the plazas and monuments could
be of little service, and still less a list of the various hospitals and
charitable institutions, of which there are many. On the practical side,
however, it is worth noting that Carácas has two public slaughterhouses
in different parts of the city.
The water supply is mainly derived from the River Macarao, about fifteen
miles west of the town, whence it is brought by an aqueduct to El
Calvario and there filtered; there are also reservoirs for the north of
the city, deriving their supply from the streams of the Silla de Carácas.
There is an excellent service of trams and telephones, both started and
controlled by Britishers, and the electric supply for the former as well
as for lighting the city is derived from the falls of El Encantado and
Los Naranjos, on the Guaire below Carácas. A new plant is shortly to be
erected at Mamo. The city also boasts a brewery, foundry, and factories
for furniture-making, cigarettes, matches, &c. The remarks made in
reference to the trade of La Guaira apply equally to the capital, for
practically all the merchandise of the one passes first through the other.
The bottom of the Guaire Valley near Carácas constitutes economically
the most important part of the Federal district, for the inner slope
of the Cordillera here supports only small forest or grass, while the
more accessible parts of the seaward flank are barren and useless. The
sugar plantations of Juan Diaz have already been mentioned, but in the
neighbourhood of Carácas there are, or were, many of these, even though
the climate is sufficiently cool to have allowed the cultivation of wheat
in earlier days, when the Spaniards found it, as might the Venezuelans,
less costly than importation. There are fine coffee plantations also
in the neighbourhood of Carácas, and the elevation would point to this
as one of the best coffee districts of the country; indeed, the yield
obtained on some haciendas here is said to have been as much as twenty
pounds to the tree.
East and south of the Federal District lies the State of Miranda,
including all the hills to Cape Codera and the edge of the Llanos as
far as Uchire. The capital is Ocumare del Tuy, though this is not the
largest town. Its name at the time of its foundation in 1692 was Sabana
de Ocumare, but its proximity to the River Tuy led to the adoption of the
present name as a distinction from Ocumare de la Costa. Coffee is grown
on the hills in the neighbourhood, with cacao lower down, and sugar and
beans in the valleys. The importance of the town is rather political than
commercial at present, though the Central Railway may some time reach it
and make a centre for the traffic from the Llanos, which lie southward.
Petare was the largest town in Miranda at the last census, having then
a population of nearly 7,000. It was founded on the Guaire, some seven
miles east of Carácas, in 1704, and is a locally important manufacturing
town, turning out principally _alpargatas_, cigarettes, and starch, the
last named made from yuca or manioc.
This town was the first terminus of the Central Railway of Venezuela,
which was projected by Guzman Blanco to travel south-eastward from
Carácas down the Guaire to its junction with the Tuy, then up the larger
river westwards and down the Aragua to Valencia. At present it has only
reached Santa Lucia, rather more than thirty miles from Carácas, and
the direct German line has done away with the necessity of carrying it
through to Valencia. The prosperous nature of the country under Guzman
Blanco made the enterprise extremely promising, but the long series of
revolutions and counter-revolutions since his day have kept the freight
down to a minimum. Better days may be in store for the line, however,
when the owners of the rich coffee, cocoa, and sugar lands which it taps
rise to their opportunities, and an extension to Ocumare should bring it
an ever-increasing amount of traffic in the produce of the Llanos.
All the way along the Valley of the Guaire the hills are, in the season,
white with the coffee-bloom, and the small patches of yuca, maize, and
bananas may yet become big and profitable plantations. Beyond Santa Lucia
the Guaire joins the Tuy, and here, in a broad, flat-bottomed valley full
of sugar and cacao, stands Santa Teresa.
If we follow down the fertile valley of the Tuy we come at length to the
barren, sandy stretch along the coast and its fringe of mangroves, where
we encounter the second railway (a rather primitive affair) in the State.
The line crosses the river at right angles, and connects the port of
Carenero with the little town of Higuerote, a few miles to the south,
and with the flourishing manufacturing town of Rio Chico, south of the
Tuy; beyond them it is continued to Guapo, on the way to the Llanos of
Guárico. Rio Chico is therefore about twenty-four miles by rail from its
port, even though the open sea is but four miles away. Here we are down
at sea-level, and the mean annual temperature is 82° F. Its position at
the edge of the rich alluvium of the Tuy brings it large quantities of
coffee, cocoa, beans, and maize, which are easily transmitted by rail
to Carenero, and thence conveyed in little schooners or steamers to
La Guaira for use in the country or for export. More important to its
welfare are the cattle of the Llanos, whose hides are similarly passed
on through Carenero to La Guaira, while the carcasses provide the raw
material for the manufacture of soap and candles, which, with the making
of alpargatas, constitutes the chief industry of the town.
Returning to Santa Teresa, we can traverse the plantations to Ocumare,
the capital, and beyond to Cúa, named after a famous Indian cacique.
Beyond this there are no towns of importance east of the State boundary,
but a road over the watershed leads to Los Teques, at the head of the
Guaire. This stands at a considerably greater altitude than Carácas, and
is chiefly of importance to-day as a health resort, though when Faxardo
first visited the Indians after whom the place is named, in the sixteenth
century, he was attracted by the copper-mines of the district, now no
longer worked.
Los Teques is the first town of importance on the Great Venezuelan
Railway (a German line) west of Carácas, but it is the last in the State
of Miranda. The train climbs up a picturesque gorge to Los Teques, then
passes through a tunnel, and begins to cross by equally picturesque loops
and zigzags the head of the Tuy, finally dropping down into the fertile
valley of Aragua, from which the next State takes its name. The western
terminus of the line is Valencia, but the first large town reached is La
Victoria (much beloved of ex-President Castro), the capital of Aragua.
All along the line are evidences of the agriculture and sylvan wealth
of the land, in coffee and sugar-plantations, and patches of forest of
valuable timber. La Victoria is a well-built, handsome town. It was
founded in 1593 and had a population of over 14,000 at the last census.
The barracks form an imposing block of buildings, and there are factories
on a small scale for cigarettes, paper, sandals, boots and shoes, and
candles. The tobacco and wood for the two first come from plantations
and forests close at hand, and the considerable traffic from the Llanos,
as well as the pasture-lands of the Aragua Valley farther west, supply
the raw materials for the other articles. There is a mill here also
which uses the cotton of the drier parts of the valley, near the Lake
of Valencia. The railway, both before and after La Victoria, passes
many cane plantations with small refineries and distilleries, turning
out the raw sugar and spirit which constitute an important part of the
trade of the town. A good deal of wheat used to be grown here, the fields
producing as much as 3,000 pounds to the acre, a sixteen-fold return,
which would surely pay well to-day, when the heavy duty on imported flour
(about 1d. per lb.) is considered.
Maracay, also on the railway, near the east end of the Lake of Valencia,
is in a splendid farming and stock-breeding country. There are rich
grazing lands planted with pará grass, forest for timber, and coffee,
sugar, indigo of excellent quality, and tobacco, as well as cotton,
can be grown in the vicinity. The dairies of Maracay produce a famous
cream-cheese, known by the name of the town throughout Venezuela, and the
hogs of Maracay are very different from the skinny animals generally seen
in the tropics. President Gomez has a ranch here, to which he retires
whenever allowed a respite from cares of State.
South of Maracay at a distance of about fifteen miles is the main pass
across the Serrania Interior to the Llanos, and in this pass stands the
important town of Villa de Cura, founded in 1730. It is a well-built
town, standing between two rivers flowing in opposite directions; the
valley itself is dry compared to that of Aragua, but has many big
cattle-ranches, so that here, as at Maracay, cheese and hides form the
principal articles of commerce. Since it derives a certain amount of
profit from the cacao and coffee of the mills near by, it forms in itself
an epitome of the wealth of the State of Aragua, which, with its fertile
valleys, combines the products of the hills and forests with those of the
neighbouring Llanos.
The beautiful Lake of Valencia, with its many islands, lies partly in
Aragua and partly in the neighbouring State of Carabobo. The dry, sandy
shores are mainly utilised for cotton-growing, an industry which, like
many others in Venezuela, has never received the attention which it
deserves, because an ample return on capital can be had in a multitude of
enterprises for a minimum expenditure of labour and forethought.
In Carabobo we begin to leave the more densely populated region of the
Centro, and find something of the wildness of virgin territory away
from the towns. Thus we have timber and dye-woods and uncultivated
rubber exported as well as the products of the pastoral and agricultural
industries.
The capital of the State is Valencia, once greater and more important
than it is now, much of the produce of Aragua which formerly passed
through the city being carried eastward by the Great Venezuelan Railway,
while the Bolivar Railway now carries direct to and from Barquisimeto
goods which in earlier days came in and passed out through Valencia. The
industry of the inhabitants has saved the place from absolute decay, and
the population at the last census was over 54,000.
As we have already seen, Valencia is connected with the capital by rail,
and there is a cart-road for slow traffic, while the Telephone Company
has a line as far as Puerto Cabello, passing through Valencia. For its
internal comfort, the city has a good supply of water brought by aqueduct
from the hills, tramways, electric light, hotels, and plazas. The public
buildings include the State Capitol and Municipal Theatre, and there is
a column in the Plaza Bolivar commemorating the battle on the _campo_
from which the State takes its name. The large cotton-mills testify to an
attempt to develop the resources of the neighbourhood; flour-mills and
cigarette-factories deal with some of the produce of the fertile valleys
to the west. Coffee, sugar, alcohol, live beasts and hides, with other
agricultural products, all find their way to the markets of Valencia; nor
should the marble quarries of the hills be forgotten, since the country
may one day use more of its own ornamental stones in place of importing
them over the high tariff wall.
Twenty-three miles westward from Valencia (which by the way, is unusually
hot for its elevation) is the town of Montalbán, higher up in the hills,
with a population of nearly 9,000. It was named after Montalbán in
Aragon, and rejoices in a mean annual temperature of 73°F. On the fertile
river banks the Montalbanians used once to grow excellent grapes, as well
as wheat and indigo of fine quality. With the introduction of coffee in
1813, it was found more profitable to devote the land to that, and the
cultivation of the fruit, for which it was formerly famous, has died out.
The river-valleys and mountain-slopes of Carabobo are often
forest-covered, and wild rubber is sufficiently common to be collected.
From all the western region of the State the produce of field and farm
is brought by road to Valencia, and thence, if intended for export, sent
down the English railway to Puerto Cabello.
This line was begun during the construction of that from La Guaira to
Carácas, but presented in some respects a less difficult task, since
the highest point to which it must rise to cross the watershed of the
coastal cordillera is only 1,950 feet above the sea. The original scheme
of ordinary traction was changed to include a short piece of 8 per cent.
grade with a rack engine, working on a cogged centre rail, the rest of
the descent is then easily accomplished.
Puerto Cabello has one of the best harbours in Venezuela, which possesses
the additional merit of being entirely natural. The name is a witness
to the excellence of the shelter, since the Spaniards changed Borburata
to Cabello in token of the fact that in calm waters of the harbour a
ship would be held with a hair (Sp. _Cabello_). On the outer side are
the red iron-roofed buildings of the Venezuela Naval Dockyard, next door
to the fortress, the submarine dungeons of which have too often been
occupied by innocent men, both in colonial and republican times. Through
Puerto Cabello is exported most of the produce of Carabobo, Yaracuy,
and the Llano States of Cojedes and Portuguesa, with some from Lara,
Trujillo, and Mérida. The new buildings of the Venezuela Meat Syndicate
are near the station, an enterprise which seems likely, when once fairly
started, to give Puerto Cabello an increasing importance, in addition
to encouraging improvement in stock-farming. The various members of the
staff make up a small English colony, who are largely responsible for the
presence of English papers in the waterside club, a pleasant place to
spend the sultry evenings.
Round about the port there are numbers of attractive villas and
plantations, but the most fruitful land is in the neighbourhood of
Ocumare, some twenty miles eastward along the coast. The town is situated
near the mouth of a deep valley, and, but for the sea breezes, would be
unbearably hot. As it is, the climate which would, untempered, be so
unpleasant for men, is excellent for cocoa, and that of Ocumare has a
deserved fame. From the higher lands behind come cattle and cereals to
swell the trade of the town, whose population has increased greatly since
the last census.
The agricultural resources of the “Centro” have received, as we have
seen, a moderate share of attention, and if they are not developed to
anything approaching a full extent, the region is nevertheless one in
which less remains to be done than elsewhere in the republic. There are
said to be “mines” of all manner of metals unworked as yet, particularly
in the west, but without months of work by a mining engineer it would be
impossible to verify such a statement. At present all that can be said is
that it may be true, and perhaps some day the copper, silver, iron, and
gold of the Centro will be established realities, and not mere words in
“accusations” of territory for mining purposes.
[Illustration: MARACAIBO BAY.]
[Illustration: SAN TIMOTEO: LAKE OF MARACAIBO.]