COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
Lack of adequate means—Postal service—A small but
growing system—Methods of carriage—Unusual uses of
mailbags—Telegraphs—Telephones—Railways—Bolivar
Railway—Later lines—Tramways—Abundant
water-power—“Roads”—_Carreteras_—Bridle-paths—P.W.
D.—Waterways—Less than they seem—Importance—The
Orinoco—Ports—Shipping—Steamship lines.
Those who know something of Venezuela away from the few ports and towns
generally visited by Europeans will doubtless consider the title of
this chapter a misnomer. Indeed, it is the lack of adequate means of
communication between the different parts of the republic which hinders
more than any single cause its progress and development. Revolutions
and internal dissensions have been the immediate trouble, but these, if
not caused, are at least fostered, by the absence of better roads than
bridle-paths and of more permanent lines of communication than single
telegraph wires; though in justice it must be said that in times of peace
the last-named service is far ahead of the other branches.
Venezuela is included in the Postal Union, though owing partly to the
custom of “farming” the stamps, the cost of transmission of letters
in the interior is twopence-halfpenny and from Venezuela to foreign
countries fivepence.
The Post Office is considered as a branch of the Ministry of National
Development, and employed 358 officials in 1909. The G.P.O. in Carácas
is well administered, and from this the quality of the service ranges
through the principal offices of each State to the two hundred rural
offices scattered up and down the more frequented parts of the republic.
More and more money is being spent annually in an endeavour to make the
service thoroughly efficient, and in 1908-9 the expenditure under this
head was B 848,444, or £33,602. In 1908 the number of interior postal
packets carried was about 4,500,000, 2,750,000 letters were received
from, or dispatched to, foreign countries, with 18,500 parcels; the
number of letters dispatched abroad was rather smaller. The comparison
between 4,500,000 and 4,500,000,000, the number of letters handled by
our own Post Office some years back, makes the Venezuelan service seem
insignificant, but at least it exists and is capable of expansion to an
efficient system of communication throughout the country.
In the _Centro_ the mails are, of course, carried by train between the
big towns, and the deliveries are fairly punctual, while the service to
the seaports is sufficiently good; elsewhere, however, the mail-trains
of mules wander casually along the “roads,” the postbags often forming
only an insignificant part of the loads; in more outlying parts still
the mails are carried on foot. On one occasion the author with a friend
was guided along about thirty miles of obscure track by the “postman”
(aged sixteen), who had one U.S.A. mailbag, which during part of the
journey was occupied jointly by the letters and tins of sardines
and other provisions for the long tramp; the letters did not appear
to suffer greatly, but this familiar use of a mailbag of a foreign
Government seemed somewhat unorthodox, even though it be less so than the
application of the striped remains to sail-patching, many of the small
sloops and goletas being wafted on their way by means of fragments of
mailbags, generally Uncle Sam’s.
But though the postal service outside the principal towns and most
populous districts is very primitive, the telegraph service, with its
cheap rates, is well managed and efficient.
The first telegraph line in the country was that between La Guaira and
Carácas, opened in 1856; in 1909 there were 7,839 kilometres of wires in
the country and 179 offices, with a staff of 800 men. In the financial
year 1908-9 the cost of the service was B 2,041,385, or £80,847, and
394,792 messages were sent in 1908, at a total charge of B 936,657
(£36,429); more than half of these were official.
In addition to the Government lines there are a few private wires along
the railways, and telegraphic communication with the outside world is
carried on by means of the French cable, which runs from La Guaira to
Curaçao.
Such telephone lines as exist are mainly in the hands of private
companies or individuals, and only 10 of the 120 lines existing are
owned by the State. The British Telephone Company in Carácas has a very
efficient exchange there and trunk lines to the chief towns of the
_Centro_, and also a telephone service in Ciudad Bolivar.
Means of transport are in much the same condition as lines of
communication—that is to say, there is in existence the nucleus of
a complete system; but “the end is not yet,” and to-day one must be
prepared for anything in travelling over wide areas in Venezuela.
In and around Carácas, and between most of the large towns of the
_Centro_, one may travel with as much ease and comfort as in parts of
Europe, and better than on a certain line running out of London, but
beyond, though there may be in some directions roads on which carts
can be used, one is more often reduced to the means of locomotion
of sixteenth-century England. Outside the _Centro_ there are a few
comparatively short lines, which can hardly be regarded as forming part
of the railway system of Venezuela, though they may one day become part
of it.
There are in all eleven railways in the country, but one has practically
ceased to exist, and it is a long time since any train ran on it. The
total number of passengers carried in 1908 was 413,000, and nearly
184,000 tons of freight.
Of the eleven lines the oldest, strangely enough, is not in the _Centro_,
though, being connected with the main system by steamer, it may be
considered as part of it. This is the Bolivar Railway, which commenced
in 1873 as a line from Tucacas to the copper-mines of Aroa, and was
subsequently extended to Barquisimeto. It has a 24-inch gauge, and its
present length is 176·5 kilometres. The La Ceiba line was authorised
in 1880, and has a ·91-metre gauge, with a present length of 81·5
kilometres; the same year saw the commencement of the La Guaira-Carácas
Line, already described in an earlier chapter. Two years later a
1·07-metre line was commenced from the port of Guanta to Barcelona and
the Naricual coalmines. In 1884 the Maiquetia-Macuto street railway
was built to afford easy communication with the chief watering-place
of Venezuela; it has the same gauge (·91-metre) as the Carácas line
and is 8 kilometres in length. The railway from Carenero to Rio Chico
was commenced in 1884, and is now 50 kilometres long, but, like the
La Ceiba line, this is not part of the central system. The Central
Railway, originally planned in 1885 to connect Carácas and Valencia by a
circuitous route, never accomplished that end, and merely affords a means
of communication between Carácas and the towns of Miranda, and is now 42
kilometres in length, with a gauge of 1·07 metre. The Puerto Cabello and
Valencia line was commenced in the same year and is 54 kilometres long,
while the Gran Ferrocarril de Venezuela, the German line, was contracted
for in 1888, and at one and the same time obviated the extension of the
Central, as originally planned, and completed the nucleus railway system
of Central Venezuela as it exists to-day. It has a total length of 179
kilometres. The short line connecting Coro and La Vela was built in 1893,
and is, like the Táchira line, commenced at the same time, owned in the
country; the latter has a length to-day of 114·5 kilometres and is of
the standard Venezuelan gauge, 1·07 metre. The Santa Barbara-El Vigia
line was the last to be commenced (1896), but it has already fallen into
disrepair, and of the 60 kilometres little, if any, remains in usable
condition.
In Carácas a system of electric tramways not only provides rapid transit
from one part of the city to the other but also runs out southwards to
the suburb of El Valle. There are also lines of varying motive power
and efficiency in Valencia, Puerto Cabello, Maracaibo, Ciudad Bolivar,
Barquisimeto, Carúpano, and Cumaná. In view of the quantity of available
water-power in the mountain districts of Venezuela, one imagines that
electric traction will one day be very widely used, but, like many of the
possibilities of Venezuela, this lies almost entirely in the future.
Descending to the less rapid methods of travelling by road, we find the
whole country is in much the same condition as England or Western Europe
four hundred years ago, for, with the exception of some ten carreteras of
very indifferent quality, the roads of Venezuela are bridle-paths, and
occasionally hardly worthy even of that title.
[Illustration: COUNTRY COACH: BARQUISIMETO.]
[Illustration: ON THE BOLIVAR RAILWAY.]
Such cart-roads as there are have to some extent been engineered, but
none are macadamised. The best is that from La Guaira to Carácas, 35·4
kilometres long, but even this is little used by wheel traffic. One of
the longest is the high-road from Carácas to Valencia, 168 kilometres,
but this is exceeded by that connecting San Felix, on the Orinoco, with
Guasipati, which has a length of 219 kilometres, with a 25-kilometre
extension to Callao; the whole road is in a fearfully bad state in the
rains, however, as to which matter enough has been said in Chapter XIV.
From Carácas another main road goes eastward 70 kilometres down the
Guaire valley to Santa Lucia, and yet another south-east to Charallave,
47 kilometres away. From Valencia, also, cart-roads radiate to Puerto
Cabello (70 kilometres), to Nirgua (90 kilometres), to Güigüe for Villa
de Cura (34 kilometres), and to San Carlos (99 kilometres).
There are also cart-roads under construction from Puerto Cabello to San
Felipe, between Uracá and San Cristobal, and one or two in other parts of
the Andes.
Among the bridle-paths there are a few with cobble-paved surfaces, dating
back to early colonial times, but these have fallen into disrepair, and
in Guayana they have been disused for so long that their whereabouts is
often unknown, save where the Indian trails cross or follow a bit of the
old paving here and there. For the rest the way is generally passable,
but sometimes up to the animal’s belly in mud; here there are bridges
over the mountain torrents, there none; the deeper streams may have
ferries, but to be held up by an extra heavy fall of rain is no uncommon
event. The Government spent nearly £80,000 on the Public Works Department
in 1908-9, but since not all even of this small sum is devoted to actual
road-making or other improvements, it will be seen that things are being
only gradually improved; and it may be long yet before the asphalt and
rock of the country are applied to the betterment of the uninspiring yet
all-important roadways, at once one of the simplest and one of the most
efficient methods of developing the nation’s natural resources.
The waterways of Venezuela, numerous and general as they appear on the
map, are singularly disappointing on closer investigation. The great
Orinoco is a fine natural highway, it is true, as far as Pericos, some
600 miles from the mouth, but here the river is broken by the rapids of
Atures and beyond by those of Maipures, and it is impossible for large
boats to pass through to the upper river. The Apure, Arauca, and Meta
are, of course, useful means of communication with the Colombian border
regions and the south-western Llanos, but the numerous tributaries on the
north side are generally too variable in depth for permanent traffic,
and those on the south, as we have seen, are broken up by rapids for
practically their whole length.
On the other hand, if we take the positive value of the river highways,
rather than their actual extent as compared with the number of streams
indicated on a map, we can see that they are of considerable importance;
the rivers of Guayana and of the eastern Llanos may be of little use for
large boats, but the Orinoco forms a great central artery, from which
roads, and perhaps eventually railways, can diverge to the limits of the
basin. Some of the Llano tributaries, too, are navigable for steamers,
and thus the State of Apure is now kept in communication with the outside
world—all this without speaking of the great advantage accruing to the
State of Zulia from its central lake, with its many tributary navigable
rivers, along which large boats can travel throughout the greater part
of the State, and on to the boundaries of those of the Andes, as well as
into the neighbouring republic of Colombia. Along most of these natural
and easily utilised lines of communication there are already services of
steamers—nothing very advanced, but still a beginning.
There are twelve ports with custom-houses for trade and communication
with the outside world, but that number includes the new one of Imataca,
on the Caño Corosimo, in the Delta territory, established August 14,
1911. Puerto Cabello ranks first for number of vessels, La Guaira second,
and Carúpano third; all, except Caño Colorado, have regular wharves,
adequate custom-houses, &c. The total number of vessels received in
the year 1909 was 645, with an aggregate tonnage of 937,689, of which
two-thirds were steam-propelled. It is interesting to compare the
standing of the various countries in tonnage of steamships, as given in
the following table:—
-------------------------+----------+-------------------
Nationality. | Tonnage. | Number of Vessels.
-------------------------+----------+-------------------
Dutch | 212,375 | 151
United States of America | 155,269 | 85
British | 149,565 | 67
French | 149,114 | 36
German | 106,257 | 53
Italian | 71,760 | 21
Spanish | 43,785 | 13
Norwegian | 30,978 | 42
Venezuelan | 10,651 | 158
Swedish | 4,808 | 7
Russian | 2,346 | 7
Danish | 778 | 3
Colombian | 3 | 2
-------------------------+----------+-------------------
Thus Holland is far ahead in point of numbers, though by no means first
in trade, while France comes above Germany, even though the imports
from the latter are much greater. The small number of Spanish vessels
speaks eloquently as to the fitness of Spain to retain her South American
colonies by force after her decline.
Finally, for communication with the outside world, these are the
following chief lines and the ports they run to:—
------------+--------------------+---------------------------------
Nationality.| Line. | Ports.
------------+--------------------+---------------------------------
Dutch | Koninglijke W. I. |Amsterdam to Carúpano, Cumaná,
| Mail | Guanta, La Guaira,
| | Puerto Cabello, and Curaçao
| |
U.S.A. | Red “D” |New York to La Guaira, Puerto
| | Cabello, Curaçao, and Maracaibo
| |
British | R.M.S.P. |Puerto Cabello to Southampton
| | (when so announced)
| |
British | Harrison |Liverpool to La Guaira and
| | Puerto Cabello
| |
British | Leyland |The same
| |
French | Cie. Gén. |Bordeaux to Carúpano, Pampatar,
| Transatlantique. | La Guaira, and Puerto
| | Cabello
| |
German | Hamburg-Amerika. |Hamburg to Cumaná (Puerto
| | Sucre), Pampatar, Guanta, La
| | Guaira, and Puerto Cabello
| |
Italian | La Veloce |Genova to La Guaira and Puerto
| | Cabello
| |
Spanish |Cia. Transatlantica |Barcelona to La Guaira and
| Española | Puerto Cabello
| |
Venezuelan | “Nacional” |Maracaibo, via all ports except
| | Cristobal Colón, and Caño
| | Colorado, to Ciudad Bolivar
------------+--------------------+---------------------------------
The most usual route from England is of course via Trinidad, travelling
to Port-of-Spain by the R.M.S.P. and on by Dutch, French, or other line
to La Guaira; the Red “D” route, via New York, may be quicker, if other
services do not suit, but it is less pleasant, owing to the longer time
spent in northern (and stormy) latitudes.