ZULIA
The Lake of Coquibacoa in the sixteenth century
and now—Wealth and importance of the State—Area
and population—Waterways—Forests—Mineral
wealth—Savannahs—Maracaibo—Harbour and
dredging schemes—Cojoro—Wharves and warehouses
of Maracaibo—Exports—Population—German
colony—Buildings—Industries—Tramways—_Coches_—Lake
steamers—Ancient craft—The comedy of the
bar—Railways—Communication with Colombia—Altagracia—Santa
Rita—A western Gibraltar—An eventful history—San Carlos de
Zulia—Sinamaica—Vegetable milk—Timber—Copaiba—Fisheries—The
“Maracaibo lights.”
When Alonso de Ojeda, first of all Europeans, entered what was then the
Lake of Coquibacoa, he was chiefly struck by the unusual appearance of
the Indian huts, built on platforms over the shallow waters, and were it
possible for any one to-day to cruise round the “lake” without observing
the port of Maracaibo, he might come away with the impression that the
greater part of the State of Zulia has not changed since the sixteenth
century. Strangely enough, this impression would not be far from the
truth as regards the extent of cultivation and settlement, and yet,
thanks to the great fertility of the soil in these steaming lowlands,
and to the commercial importance of the capital, the State of Zulia is
already one of the most important and wealthy in the Union of Venezuela.
The area within its boundaries amounts to some 23,000 square miles,
the greater part of which is inhabited (if we except the concentrated
populations of Maracaibo and the Goajira territory) by about 56,000
souls. Even if we take the total population the density is but 6·4 to the
square mile, in a State whose resources might support with ease ten times
that number, while its death-rate is one of the lowest in the republic.
Among the most valuable assets of the State are its abundant waterways.
Not only is the central part occupied by a brackish-water lake on which
small _goletas_ or schooners and steamers can ply, but through the level
plains around flow innumerable rivers, most of which are navigable for
the greater part of their length. The forests which cover much of the
area are at once a benefit and a hindrance to progress, the valuable
timber and natural products to be found there being only in part a
compensation for the obstacle they present to the increase of the much
more valuable cultivated fruits. It would be a matter for regret were the
forests to be indiscriminately cut down, but the absence of clearings is
not due to any prudential reasons of this sort.
While the other resources of Zulia have received more or less attention,
its mines, for one reason or another, have never been developed. Yet
indications of petroleum or asphalt and outcrops of coal are to be met
with all round the lake. The _salinas_ near Maracaibo are not mines
in the normal sense of the word, but in so far as their product is a
mineral, it may be said that this is an exception to the rule, the salt
of Zulia being well known in the Andes and Colombia.
The savannahs which here and there break the forest on both sides of the
lake, and especially on the lower slopes of the Serrania del Empalado to
the east, provide pasturage for many head of cattle, and in the north
goat-farming is extensively carried on.
The port through which all these products are, or might be, transmitted
to the outside world was first founded by Alfinger in 1529, but the
original town fell into decay, and the present city dates back to 1571,
when Don Alonso Pacheco founded it as Nueva Zamora; as usual, the Indian
name soon ousted the Spanish title. To-day it is the second port of the
republic, and has a larger export trade than La Guaira.
The beautiful bay, with its wharves and smooth roadstead, makes a
splendid harbour, but the difficult navigation of the mouth of the lake
presents a hindrance ever increasing in magnitude with the silting up of
the bar. Schemes have been advanced for dredging one of the four channels
and so providing a permanent entrance for the kind of steamer which at
present reaches Maracaibo. The alternative idea of utilising the fine
natural harbour of Cojoro on the Gulf of Venezuela and connecting this
with the capital by means of a railway, appears much more satisfactory,
since in this way the increasing volume of exports from Zulia and the
Andes could be brought to a port capable of accommodating the largest of
ocean-going steamers. The length of this line would be some 100 miles.
The foreign trade of Maracaibo is at present carried by the National boat
_Venezuela_ or by the boats of the American Red D Line, which in many
cases transfer them to other lines in Curaçao; the greater part of the
exported produce is carried by sailing-boats. The wharves and warehouses
are under public control, and there is a fixed scale of charges from 65
centimos per 100 kilos. for exported goods to B12.0 for imported goods
destined for merchants in Maracaibo or in transit to Colombia. The
last-named trade is very considerable, as all the foreign goods consumed
in the province of Santander enter through Maracaibo. The chief exports
are coffee, cocoa, quinine, copaiba-balsam, dye-woods, sugar, and hides.
If one ignores the fact that the great majority of the streets of
Maracaibo are as Nature made them, it is possible to admire the extent of
the city and flourishing aspect of the port, but on a hot afternoon (and
this is worse than La Guaira for heat) the dusty walk or drive to one’s
hotel does not add to the pleasure of the first experience of the place.
The city had a population of 34,740 at the last census, but there must
now be nearly half as many again living in the capital.
There are no Anglo-Saxons at present in Maracaibo, the larger business
houses being entirely managed, though not always owned, by Germans, from
all of whom, including the British Vice-Consul, Mr. Schröder, our party
met with the greatest kindness. The town being built for use rather
than ornament, there are no public buildings of particularly striking
appearance. The Legislative and Municipal Palaces in the Plaza Bolivar
and the spired church of the Immaculate Conception are among the most
noticeable buildings. There are hospitals and two clubs, and the Teatro
and Plaza Baralt, with many statues, keep in memory the name of one of
Maracaibo’s most famous citizens, who wrote the first comprehensive
history of Venezuela.
Factories for candles, soap, hats, boots, tanneries, and saw-mills are
among the more prominent industries of Maracaibo, whose products command
a sale in Colombia as well as in Venezuela.
The town has a well-equipped electric light plant, a tramway to the south
of the town, which is shortly to be electrified, another out to the Bella
Vista suburb, worked by steam, a more or less efficient water supply,
and restaurants, shops, and other means of administration to the public
comfort, not to mention _coches_ equal to those of Carácas. The chief
needs of the city are really efficient water supply, paving and drainage
systems; with these it ought to be, though hot, one of the healthiest
cities of the republic; as it is, the death-rate is high.
From Maracaibo steamers and sailing craft of all kinds travel to points
of the lake shore, and in some cases far up the larger rivers to the
ports of the Andine States and Colombia. The steamers plying on the
lake include some venerable hulks, whose passage through the water is
accompanied by painful groans and sobs from the ancient engines; one of
those which still makes the trip to Encontrados, on the Catatumbo, is
mentioned by Dr. Sievers as working when he visited the region in 1884.
The charges for freight and passengers are in inverse proportion to the
efficiency of the boats.
There are two main lines of steamers from the capital, one travelling
along the western side of the lake and then up the Catatumbo to
Encontrados, the port of Táchira; the other crossing diagonally to La
Ceiba, where the railway from Motatán in Trujillo reaches the shore. A
smaller boat travels round the southern end of the lake, connecting the
mouth of the Catatumbo and La Ceiba with Santa Barbara on the Escalante,
where a railway was once built part of the way to Mérida. There is a bar
at the mouth of the Catatumbo, and in consequence of this the smaller
steamer is always there awaiting the arrival of the large boat from
Maracaibo. If there is much cargo, some of it is transhipped outside the
bar and reloaded when the lightened vessel has successfully navigated the
shallow water. Often a whole day is wasted over this performance, and
one cannot help thinking that if the dredging of a channel would be more
expensive it would at least be less ludicrous.
Of the railways mentioned in connection with the lines of steamers, that
from La Ceiba is wholly in the State of Trujillo, but the others traverse
a considerable extent of the forests of Zulia before entering the Andine
States. The metre-gauge line from Santa Barbara was originally intended
to reach Mérida by way of the Chama Valley, but it only reached El Vigia,
on that river, and has now fallen into disrepair. The Encontrados line or
Gran Ferrocarril del Táchira, also a Venezuelan concern, has a 1·07-metre
track, and is intended ultimately to reach San Cristobal; passing as it
does through great stretches of virgin forest on the banks of the Zulia,
it has already done much to open up this country to cultivation, and ends
at present in the coffee-bearing foothills of the Andes. From Encontrados
a line of small steamers carries merchandise on up the Zulia River to the
Colombian port of Villamizar.
While the majority of settlements round the lake consist of a few
palm-leaf huts, or houses on piles in the ancient fashion of the
Indians, there are several towns of more or less importance. Altagracia,
immediately opposite Maracaibo on the eastern shore, is the largest of
these, and has a considerable importance on account of the agricultural
products of its surroundings, with a fleet of fishing-boats, whose
catches are sold in the town and thence shipped into the interior. Santa
Rita, not far to the south, is in the midst of a fine goat-farming
district, and the coco-palms along the lake shores are cultivated with
great profit.
At the extreme south-east corner of the lake there is a hamlet which
bears a famous name, and has itself been of note in Venezuelan history.
This is Gibraltar, founded by Gonzalo Piña Lidueña, afterwards Governor
of the province, in 1597. It is said that during the night when he camped
at this spot there was a total eclipse of the moon, reminding him of a
bivouac at Gibraltar in Spain, where he had last seen the phenomenon; as
a result he named the new settlement after the famous rock. The fertile
lands around were so excellent for cacao and tobacco that the place soon
became important, and substantial buildings were erected to accommodate
the increasing population. Before long it was sacked and reduced to ruins
by the Motilones Indians, but in 1666 was again so flourishing that the
pirate Henry Morgan considered it worth taking, and the town, which had
again grown up in 1678, was sacked a third time by Gramont. From one
cause and another, chiefly the disturbances during the revolution against
Spain, the place became deserted, and now only a few huts amid the ruins
of the old stone buildings mark the site of the city, while the cacao and
tobacco plantations have, through neglect, lost their prestige or been
swallowed up by forest.
San Carlos de Zulia, on the Escalante, is important by virtue of the
through traffic from the haciendas in the interior to the shores of the
lake, but it is not attractive, being, like the port of Encontrados, an
insanitary, unhealthy, riverside village rather than a town.
North of the cultivated lands on the west shore near Maracaibo, opposite
the entrance of the lake, we have open, dry lands where the salt-pans
are to be found, and on a lagoon in these plains stands Sinamaica,
interesting for the Goajiro population, who preserve their primitive
customs alongside the civilisation of the town.
In the forests south-west of the capital occurs the peculiar _arbol de
leche_, whose sap can be used in every way like cow’s milk, though it
is slightly thicker. Here and elsewhere the woods are full of valuable
timber (mahogany, ebony, lignum-vitæ) and of useful creepers and trees
like that which furnishes the copaiba-balsam. These represent to a great
extent the undeveloped resources of the State, and side by side with them
must be considered the many varieties of fishes inhabiting the waters of
the gulf and lake, only a few of which are caught at the present time.
No account of the Zulian region could omit a reference to the famous
“Maracaibo lights,” or _farol de Maracaibo_, the flash of which can be
seen far out at sea and is used by mariners out of range of any of the
lighthouses. This vivid and continuous lightning is to be seen nightly
over the south end of the lake, and is generally described as visible
over the mouth of the Catatumbo. The flashes seem, however, rather to
extend all along the line of the mountains, which rise a few miles from
the lake to a height of fourteen or fifteen thousand feet. A possible
explanation seems to be the following: As the atmosphere over the bare
mountains cools rapidly at sunset the heavily-charged hot air of the
basin-like depression of Maracaibo rises, so that masses of air at
different potentials meet at a great height and emit huge sparks visible
for hundreds of miles. Whether this be so or not, it is a fact that
the flashes are visible nightly from sunset until sunrise, with little
variation in brilliance.