Travel Notes in Western Venezuela 



Bv HERBERT J. S P I N D E X 



Illustrations from photonraplis by tlu' Autlior 



IT is a time-honored story that re- 

 lates the origin of the name Vene- 

 zuela and one more to be credited 

 than the majority of place name anec- 

 dotes. When Alonzo de Ojeda, accom- 

 panied by the illustrious geographer, 

 Amerigo Vespucci, entered the Gulf of 

 Maracaibo in 1499 he found villages 

 raised on piles above the water. From 

 this circumstance he gave the name 

 "Gulf of Venice" to the shallow sea en- 

 closed between the arid peninsulas of 

 Goajira and Parajuana. Those were 

 days of flowery speech and fervid imag- 

 ination: the comparison between Ven- 

 ice the Magnificent and the homes of 

 humble fishinof Indians in the New 



World struck the popular fancy and 

 soon the whole land was known as 

 Venezuela — Little Venice. The sur- 

 viving pile-built villages north of the 

 city of Maracaibo are still of great in- 

 terest to the ethnologist and to the 

 traveler with an eye for the picturesque. 

 Slipping out of Maracaibo at night- 

 fall in a bongo manned by Parajuano 

 Indians we arrived at the lagoon of 

 Sinimaica at ten o'clock next morning. 

 The hotigo is a flat-bottomed boat pro- 

 pelled by sails or poles and fit for navi- 

 gating shallow waters. The lagoon of 

 Sinimaica is the largest of a series of 

 small brackish lakes connected by natu- 

 ral canals called cafios. There are three 



Map of western Venezuela showing a portion of the route covered by the American Museum archaolog- 

 ical reconnaissance of this part of northern South America 



15 



