in dimhmhhig the Quantity of Water in Rivers. 91 



had risen above water in the year 1796, had now become shal- 

 lows, which were dangerous for navigation. The tongue of 

 land near to Cabrera, at the northern side of the valley, was 

 now so narrow, that the smallest rise in the lake altogether in- 

 undated it ; and a steady breeze from the north-west was suffi- 

 cient to submerge the road which led from Maracay to Nueva 

 Valencia. 



The fears, which for so long a time had annoyed the inhabi- 

 tants on its banks, were now altogether changed in their cha- 

 racter ; and they no longer dreaded the entire disappearance of 

 the lake. They were now anxiously considering if these suc- 

 cessive invasions of the rising waters were about to overwhelm 

 their properties ; and those who had explained the previous di- 

 minution, by the existence of subterrannean canals, were con- 

 vinced they were now choked up, and that nothing would save 

 them but reopening these conduits afresh. 



During the two-and-twenty years which had intervened, im- 

 portant political transactions had occurred. Venezuela now no 

 longer belonged to Spain. The smiling valley of Aragua had 

 been the arena of the most bloody contests, and war and death 

 had desolated those happy scenes, and greatly reduced the po- 

 pulation. On the first cry of independence, a number of slaves 

 obtained their liberty by fighting under the standard of the new 

 republic. Its wide spreading cultivation was neglected ; the 

 forest trees, so luxuriant within the tropics, had again in a great 

 measure usurped dominion over that region, which its inhabi- 

 tants, after a century of constant and painful labour, had re- 

 claimed. During the growing prosperity of the valley of Ara- 

 gua, the numerous streams which fed the lake had been arrest- 

 ed and employed in innumerable irrigations, and their beds 

 were found dry for more than six months of the year. At the 

 last epoch to which I have alluded, the streams being no longer 

 so diverted, flowed without interruption. Thus, then, during 

 the progress and continuance of agricultural industry in the 

 valley of Aragua, when the process of clearing was pushed far- 

 ther and farther, and when cultivation in every shape was ad- 

 vancing, the level of the water gradually subsided. IMore late- 

 ly, on the contrary, during a period of misfortune, and, we 

 would fain hope, but temporary, when the clearing was no 



