SMUGGLING OF SALT 73 



can understand the temptation the illicit introduction 

 of this article holds out to the man with smuggling 

 instincts. The capital required for such a venture is a 

 matter of 2,000 dollars at the outside, as a small schooner 

 or sloop with a full load of, say, 1,200 bags of salt re- 

 presenting 600 fanegas, would mean an investment of 

 about 400 pounds sterling only. Should the venture be 

 a successful one, and I should say these ventures 

 generally are, because the men who undertake them are 

 known to be desperate and determined characters, with 

 whom the officials would rather not have any misunder- 

 standing, the return on the outlay is so considerable that 

 it pays the cost of the vessel and leaves a handsome 

 profit besides. So that, even if the regular salt smuggler 

 meets with bad luck now and again, still in the long run 

 his profits are so large that he can well afford to lose a 

 rotten schooner from time to time. The best results 

 are obtained, I understand, from a mixed cargo of salt, 

 gunpowder, white sugar, flour, and brandy. My informant, 

 I have every reason to believe, knew what he was talk- 

 ing about when he furnished me with the above list. 

 The principal article of food at Ciudad-Bolivar is beef, 

 although at certain seasons a fair supply of fish can be 

 procured from the Orinoco, and then the regular meat 

 diet is varied with some fish. The people of Venezuela 

 might well be divided into two sections : those who eat 

 beef and those who eat fish. The inhabitants of the 

 plains are naturally beef -eaters, but on the northern coast, 

 separated from the llanos by ranges of high mountains 

 across which it is expensive to drive cattle, the chief 

 article of food, especially of the poorer class, is fish, either 

 fresh or salted. Fish salted and dried in the sun is sent 

 in quantity from Cumana to the villages in the moun- 



