THE CITY AND STATE OF BOLIVAR
An enormous area—How to reach it—Ciudad Bolivar—Climate—San
Felix—Falls of the Caroni—Trade of San Felix—Quality
of “roads”—Upata—Guasipati—Balatá industry—Extravagant
exploitation—Former importance—The goldfields—El
Callao—The discovery—Callao Bis—Big dividends—The common
pursuit—Venamo Valley—High freights—Poor quality of
labour—Unsystematic working—Goldfields of Venezuela,
Ltd.—Savannahs—Stock-farming—Sugar—Old settlements—An ancient
bridge—Tumeremo and the balatá forests—Killing the goose
that lays the golden eggs—The Caroni—An opportunity for a
pioneer—Up the Orinoco—The “Gates of Hell”—The Caura—Rice and
tonka-beans—_Lajas_—Rubber of the Nichare—Falls of Pará—André’s
journeys—Mountains of the upper Caura—The Waiomgomos—Reticence
regarding names—Ticks—Caicara—The Cuchivero—Savannahs and
_sarrapiales_—Sarsaparilla—Climate of the Orinoco Valley.
Less than two miles up-stream from the ancient citadel of Guayana Vieja,
the boundary of the Delta territory crosses the Orinoco, and the right
bank of the river becomes the northern limit of the State of Bolivar
under the Constitution of 1909. This State includes a vast unexplored
region, in addition to the gold-producing district bordering on British
Guiana, and occupies in all 238,000 square kilometres, or 90,440 square
miles, mainly covered with virgin forest.
The capital of this huge State is the city of Angostura, named in 1846
Ciudad Bolivar, in honour of the Libertador. Its intercourse with the
outside world is carried on solely through Port-of-Spain, in Trinidad,
from which shallow-draught river steamers run over in about two days,
once a week in the busy season, when the rubber, balatá, and other forest
products from the interior are being exported in largest quantities, and
once every ten days at other times; from the city smaller steamers ply up
the Orinoco and the Apure to the borders of Colombia.
Founded in 1764 by the then Governor of the Orinoco province, Don Joaquin
Moreno de Mendoza, on the slope of a granite hill overlooking the
river, the new city received the name of San Thomé de la Nueva Guayana,
as opposed to Guayana Vieja down the river. Later the name changed,
naturally, to Angostura, from the fact that the river at this point
narrows down to 800 metres, a physical feature which accentuates the rise
of the Orinoco to such an extent that in the rains the water-level rises
some 40 feet, flooding the lower parts of the city. There is a gradual
descent from the fort and cathedral behind the town, with the cemetery
again behind them, to the waterside, where there is a good road along the
river-front, having the principal private houses and the large stores,
many of which are owned by German firms; elsewhere there are scattered
mansions dating back to colonial times, with massive walls as protection
from the heat. The granite on which the city is built seems to absorb
the heat throughout the day, and the radiation after sunset renders the
atmosphere unusually oppressive for a town in so fine a position. The
mean annual temperature is 86·6° F.
Ciudad Bolivar is the official port of entry, not only for the hinterland
of Guayana but also for the eastern gold-mining region, the port of which
is in reality passed on the way up the river, and is known as San Felix
or Puerto Tablas, a few miles eastward of the mouth and falls of the
Caroni. A special permit is occasionally granted for passengers to land
at this point without first visiting Bolivar, but normally all passengers
and goods perform the eight-hours journey between San Felix and Bolivar
twice over, in order to pass through the custom-house at the latter.
The falls of Caroni, near Las Tablas, have been made famous by many
travellers since the days of Raleigh, who was struck with the magnificent
spectacle of their huge body of water descending a sheer 60 feet over
black polished granite to join the greater river of which it is a
tributary, after its hundreds of miles of comparatively quiet travel from
the slopes of the Sierra Pacaraima, on the borders of Brazil. East of
Caroni lie the two most populous districts of Bolivar, those of Piar and
Roscio, containing numerous towns and fairly well provided with roads.
The district of Heres has in the aggregate a larger population than
either of the more easterly divisions, but over two-thirds of the whole
of this is accounted for by the congregation of souls in the capital, so
that from a general point of view the goldfield area is the most densely
populated of all, and included 22,392 of the total of 55,744 in the State
at the census of 1891.
San Felix receives its second name of Las Tablas from the elevated
plateau behind the town, over which the road climbs to the interior.
It is a busy little town, though small, with an hotel, a few
stores, telegraph office, and custom-house; the last is rather a
coastguard-station, as we have seen that all duties are collected in
Bolivar. There is a British consular agent in the port. With the enormous
possibilities of the water-power present in the Caroni falls, it seems
strange that the place has not developed ere this into a flourishing and
important city, instead of the small terminus town that it remains. As
it is, the size of the place is no criterion of its commercial standing,
for all the imports and exports of the two eastern districts pass through
San Felix, and the freight paid there amounts alone to £200,000 annually.
Merchandise proceeds southwards on ox-wagons and mule-carts, which carry
in cotton goods and hardware and bring back balatá and hides, with the
small amount of gold at present produced. The 215 kilometres to Guasipati
may take any time from ten days to two months for the wheel traffic,
according to the kind used and the season of the year, for the “road”
is exceedingly primitive. Bridges are rare, and the route is a mere
track cut through the forest or winding over sandy plains, without any
attempts at surveying, metalling, or draining, so that deep mud-holes are
frequently formed, wherein the wagons may stick for two or three days
before they are hauled out with block and tackle. In these circumstances
it is not surprising that the ordinary traveller hires a mule for the
journey from San Felix, and so covers the distance to Guasipati in about
twenty-five hours’ actual riding.
The road to Guasipati passes through Upata, the capital of the Piar
district, which is about ten and a half hours distant from Las Tablas.
After one and a half hours across sandy, open ground, with stunted
trees, the edge of the forest is reached, and the road continues through
this for some seven hours more, beyond which two hours’ riding across
open savannah is required to reach Upata. This is a small agricultural
town with a population of less than 3,000, forming a market for the
neighbouring villages and haciendas, and possessing a hotel, telegraph
office, and a few shops.
After Upata the main road to Guasipati crosses the Orinoco-Cuyuni
watershed, and winding all the way across open savannahs on which are
grazing large herds of cattle, with villages here and there, finally
enters the capital of the Roscio district, about fifteen hours’
continuous riding from Upata. Needless to say, the journey from San Felix
is not necessarily one of two long stages, and those who do not mind
putting up with the discomforts of small posadas may take four or five
days over the journey.
In 1891 Guasipati had a population of over 3,000, and was then and
subsequently the centre of the balatá industry, large quantities of
the gum being obtained from the neighbouring forests. Unfortunately,
the local operators adopted the extravagant and lazy habit of cutting
down the trees in place of tapping them, and the source of supply has
consequently retreated into the forests away from the town. For this
and other reasons, notably the decreased activity in the goldfields,
Guasipati has of late years decreased in size, but it is still the
district capital, with the chief courts and registry offices, and
possesses a fine plaza and church, hotel, telegraph office, and numerous
stores.
While the botanical and zoological resources of the region have proved,
as is usual, more satisfactory in the long run than mineral wealth, the
principal attraction and chief source of revenue was originally, and
to some extent still is, the gold of the El Callao region to the south
of Guasipati. The town of that name lies some twenty-five kilometres,
or three hours’ ride, from Guasipati, on the right bank of the River
Yuruari. The town is built on and around the site of the famous mine
of the same name, which is said to have been worked by Indians in very
early times. The hills above the town are covered with dense tropical
vegetation, the second growth which has replaced the former forests,
whose trees supplied the fuel used in working the mines. The commencement
of recent work and the discovery of the various alluvial and reef
deposits is attributed to more than one source, but the most probable
story is that which follows:—
The Spanish monks had a station at Tupuquen, on the left bank of the
river some four miles above El Callao, and prospectors from this
settlement followed up the rich alluvial valley of a small tributary
known as the Mocupia, founding there the settlement of Caratal, where
there are still many prospecting shafts working free gold from a depth of
about 20 feet, with the ruins of various mills erected at a later date,
during the boom of the early eighties, including that of the notorious
Callao Bis. From Caratal the prospectors spread over the surrounding
country and found numerous rich deposits, the chief being El Callao,
about two miles from Caratal. In 1842 a Brazilian named Pedro Ayares
visited Tupuquen, and recorded the existence of auriferous sands in the
river, but primitive washings were not established there till 1849, when
good returns were obtained. After many years of prospecting and handwork
the El Callao company was formed, and a mill was erected, yielding the
following results:—
------+---------------+-----------------+-----------------
Year. | Tons crushed. | Gold produced. | Average per Ton.
------+---------------+-----------------+-----------------
| | Oz. | Oz.
1871 | 315 | 3,219·60 | 6·25
1874 | 3,963 | 17,187·68 | 4·33
1876 | 12,419 | 42,542·05 | 3·42
1878 | 9,673 | 49,638·88 | 5·13
1881 | 24,978 | 72,254·62 | 2·89
1884 | 30,936 | 177,055·16 | 5·72
1886 | 73,708 | 118,040·20 | 2·45
1889 | 57,301 | 52,971·35 | 0·91
1892 | 52,910 | 31,945·27 | 0·60
------+---------------+-----------------+-----------------
paying in dividends, from 1871 to 1892, 48,332,200 francs, or £1,933,288.
Since that time little of importance has been done, and at the present
time the mine is practically shut down, after having been involved in
endless lawsuits.
That there is good reason to suppose that the region contains vast
mineral wealth can hardly be denied, in view of the widespread
indications of gold, so general that it is almost a daily occurrence
to see men, women, and boys setting out with pan, pick, and shovel,
carried on a donkey’s back, to try their fortune at some fresh alluvial
discovery. A big rush of men took place to the Venamo Valley, on the
borders of Guiana, in December of last year, and the field there is now
being opened up, some sixty or seventy miles southward of Callao, and
accessible by water only. One of the chief drawbacks to development of
any part of the district is the high cost of transport—the freight from
San Felix by ox-cart is 9 cents per lb., or over £30 per ton—and this
is followed by a scarcity of labour, which is almost entirely derived
from West Indian coloured settlers and immigrants, often of a very low
type, so that it is necessary to pay B6.00 per day for the lowest class
of unintelligent manual labour, and up to B16.00 for skilled (_i.e._,
indifferent fitters’) work. These difficulties may, and doubtless will,
be overcome in time; but the country moves forward slowly, if at all,
and the early attempts at working the mines appear to have been too
careless and unsystematic to offer much encouragement to immigration of
a good class of settler. Mills were put up on any rich strike, and when
that was worked out the company died, without any attempt to find any
other sources of ore. Among many companies that have been thus floated
from time to time may be mentioned the Nacupai, Chili, Potosi, Union,
Victory, and Choco. Practically the only mine now worked regularly is the
Goldfields of Venezuela, which has absorbed many of the old companies and
employs modern methods under the direction of a superintendent of many
years’ experience of the peculiarities of the country.
Outside the forest-clad hills of the auriferous territory there are
immense stretches of savannah, which are divided up into ranches, and
have been found excellent for cattle-breeding, though as yet the horses
raised there are of very indifferent quality; the stocks are small,
however, and much extension is possible in the industry, which is
hardly so important at the present time as the cultivation of sugar.
Many plantations and mills are to be found in the eastern districts
of Bolivar, and the large quantities of rum and _papelon_ (raw sugar)
produced give a good return, the local demand for these commodities being
considerable.
There are still some ruins, and in some cases modern villages, to mark
the sites of the old Spanish settlements, among which may be mentioned
Tupuquen, Carapo, Sicapra, and Cura; the last named must once have been a
place of considerable importance, as near by are traces of a bridge over
the Yuruari, the only one on record, and of a brick and tile factory.
It is said to have been the port for small trading boats coming up the
Essequibo and the Cuyuni from Dutch Guiana; the old Dutch bells found
near by are adduced as evidence in support of this statement. The place
is now entirely abandoned and in ruins.
Some six hours’ ride south of El Callao is the town of Tumeremo, which
is rapidly coming to the fore as the centre of the balatá industry. At
present it is near the forests, which are of enormous extent; but the
system of wholesale destruction of the trees still prevails, and it is to
be feared that the history of Guasipati will be repeated here, and that
the industry will perish by a suicide’s death at no very distant date.
[Illustration: CARRYING THE TILES ON OX-BACK; NEAR TOVAR.]
Famous as are the falls of the Caroni, the upper course and tributaries
of this great river are practically unknown. For some fifty miles from
its mouth, until the savannahs finally give place to forest, villages
may be found on the sites of the old Capuchin Missions. The chief
tributary is the Paragua, but this and the minor affluents are alike
known chiefly from the casual information of the Indians who inhabit the
forests along the banks. Yet there may be extensive savannahs in the
uplands, and the geology of Guayana would lead one to expect to find
gold, while the forests undoubtedly contain great wealth of timber and
vegetable products, all waiting to reward the industry of the pioneer
bold enough to take his lot in these remote regions.
Above Bolivar the Orinoco has a tranquil course for some distance between
llanos on the north and granite hills and savannahs on the south. Above
Moitaco, however, there is a sharp S bend, with many islands, where the
current gradually increases in strength as one approaches the Puerto or
Boca del Infierno (Gates of Hell), where the whole stream rushes through
a narrow gorge with such force as to occasionally drive back the river
steamers. Beyond this to the mouth of the Caura the main river, though
full of rocks, is wide and the current less rapid.
Like most of the Guayana tributaries of the Lower Orinoco, for the last
forty or fifty miles before it joins the main river the Caura flows
through wide savannahs, broken here and there by wooded hills, and by
the belts of trees along the river banks. In these more fertile belts
clearings have been made at a few spots, with one or two miserable
huts, whose occupants cultivate the sugar, rice, bananas, manioc, sweet
potatoes, and yams of these tiny plantations.
Higher up the forests begin, and, as far as is known, the upper valley
of the Caura is all forest, with very few savannahs. In these forests
the tonka-bean (_sarrapia_) grows to perfection, and the collecting
of these, and of a certain amount of copaiba-balsam and cedar-wood,
constitutes the chief industry of the Caura settlements. Of late years
the tonka-bean has gone down in value, and the inhabitants have turned
their attention more to rice-farming, for which the Caura lowlands are
well fitted. Most of the produce is used locally, but a small surplus is
shipped to Ciudad Bolivar.
The dense forests are not absolutely unbroken, however, for here and
there are bare open spaces of flat granite rock, known as _lajas_; it is
to these that the foresters come often to crush and dry the tonka-beans.
Up the Nichare, a western tributary of the Caura above the Raudales of
Mura, there is said to be much rubber of good quality, but it remains
practically untouched for want of population in the region.
Some 130 miles up the Caura from its mouth are the falls or rapids of
Pará, with a total descent of apparently about 200 feet, according to
André, the author of the only reliable account of the Upper Caura. Some
day, as he suggests, the falls may provide power for saw-mills and a town
whose prosperity is founded upon the natural wealth of the surrounding
forest; at present all is wild, and almost unknown. There is a portage
over the falls, by way of an island in the middle, and then begins the
Merevari, as the Caura above Pará is called.
The two chief tributaries on the west bank are the Nichare, already
mentioned, and the Erewato, above Pará, once colonised by the early
missionaries and afterwards the line of a short cut to the Upper Orinoco;
now the valley is unknown to Europeans.
Two days’ journey in canoes above the big rapids is the gorge of Ayaima,
where the great stream is forced to rush through a channel 30 feet wide,
between walls of granite. Above this the flat-topped, steep-sided peak of
Achaba, and beyond it those of Arichi to the west and Améha to the east,
may be seen. On his adventurous journey André reached the last of these,
where he experienced one of the severe thunderstorms of the region,
interpreted by the Waiomgomos as the angry voice of the spirits of the
mountain.
These Waiomgomos are found in their original haunts round the head-waters
of the Caura, and there they are said to go about with faces and bodies
painted bright red, wearing only the _guayuco_ or _buja_. It is strange
that they are very reluctant to give their Indian names to outsiders, and
always on approaching the bounds of civilisation adopt a Spanish name.
The forests and savannahs of the Lower Caura, like most of the districts
near the Orinoco, are frightfully infested with bush-ticks, mosquitoes,
and sandflies; higher in the hills these pests decrease, but they
effectually prevent absolute enjoyment of an exploring trip where they
are found.
Beyond the Caura’s mouth the main river is devoid of special interest to
Caicara, where it comes sweeping round a hill, leaving a fine backwater
behind as a safe anchorage for boats—the reason of the former importance
of the town, now, alas! only a village of mud and wattle huts. Its
commerce is confined to rice, tonka-beans, and hides, the latter from the
savannahs which stretch away southwards in all directions to the hills.
The Cuchivero, which enters the Orinoco fifteen miles east of Caicara,
is, in part at least, far better known than the Caura, and, though
smaller, is a more important river at the present time, since the
savannahs of the Cuchivaro support many cattle, and there are _hatos_
here and there as far as the Raudal Seriapo. These savannahs are of
guinea-grass, broken here and there by _chaparral_, moriche-palms, or
_morros_—_i.e._, small rocky hills covered with trees, amongst which the
_Dipteryx odorata_ is common, giving to the wooded mounds the name of
_sarrapiales_.
The waters of the Guaniamo, a tributary of the Cuchivero, are said to be
noticeably affected by the quantity of sarsaparilla on the river’s banks,
and the whole upper valley of the Cuchivero is rich in rubber, copaiba,
quinine, mahogany, “cedar,” and other valuable forest products. According
to Major Paterson, traces of gold, cinnabar, and silver are found in the
hills. In the distant south are the typical mushroom peaks of Guayana,
showing that here also the geology is similar to that of the goldfield
area, and the minerals may therefore also be alike.
It is not pleasant travelling in the Cuchivero forests, Major Paterson
tells us. The trees grow over loose rock, and the crevices under the
tangled roots may often cause nasty falls; and there are the ubiquitous
mosquitoes and sandflies, to make matters worse. But higher up the
insects become fewer, and from the occasional savannahs or _lajas_
splendid views may be obtained of the hill ranges to the south, between
the Caura and the Ventuari. The Indians of these forests are presumably
the Piaroas, said to be a peaceable, mild race.
The climate of all the lower Orinoco Valley is far from pleasant in the
rains, but in the dry season, which lasts from October to March, an
easterly breeze blows both morning and afternoon, the sweltering interval
during the lull at midday serving only to accentuate the pleasant
comparative coolness of the rest. The nights then are often chilly, owing
to the heavy dews.