VENEZUELA. 



V 



VENEZUELA (ESTADOS UNIDOB DK), UNITED 

 STATES OK, a republic of South America, ex- 

 tending from 1 8' to 12 10' north latitude, 

 and from 60 to 73 17' west longitude. Its 

 boundaries are: the Caribbean Sea on the 

 north, the Atlantic Ocean and British Guiana 

 on the east, Brazil on the south, from which 

 empire it is separated by the Pacuraima 

 Mountains, and the United States of Colombia 

 on the west. Its maximum length from east 

 to west is about 900 miles, and its maximum 

 breadth from north to south, 770. The area 

 is variously estimated at from 403,000 to 431,- 

 000 square miles, including the islands. The 

 republic is divided into twenty States, one 

 Federal District, and one Territory, which, 

 with their capitals and the populations of both 

 in 1873, are as follows: 



The President of the Republic is General 

 Guzman Blanco, elected February 20, 1873. 

 The Minister of the Interior and Justice is 

 Dr. D. B. Urbaneja; of Foreign Affairs, Gen- 

 eral J. Gutierrez ; of Finance, Sefior S; Goiti- 

 ooa; of Public Worship, Public Instruction, 

 and Public Works, Colonel J. Mufioz Tebar ; 

 of War and Marine, General M. Gil; and of 

 Public Credit, General J. G. Ochoa. 



The national revenue for the fiscal year 

 1874-'75 amounted to $5,324,676.16, and the 

 expenditure to $5,100,560.79. About 60 per 

 cent, of the revenue is appropriated to defray- 

 ing the expenses of the Government, and the re- 

 mainder is applied upon the national debt. On 

 June 80. 1875, the national debt was as follows: 



Home debt $12585,77881 



Foreign debt 49.241.165 22 



Total 161,826,94458 



The regular army is composed of about 

 10.000 men. 

 Public education and intellectual culture are 



making considerable progress. The country 

 has several universities, that of Caracas being 

 the most important, with about twenty pro- 

 fessors and over two hundred students, a li- 

 brary of more than 25,000 volumes, a phys- 

 ical cabinet, a laboratory of chemistry, and 

 a museum of natural history. It occupies 

 a very handsome, well-built edifice, in the 

 centre of the city. Colleges and preparatory 

 schools exist in all the towns of the repub- 

 lic, and the number of elementary schools 

 has increased very much through the care of 

 President Guzman Blanco, since the issue of 

 the decree of June 27, 1870, which gave a new 

 organization to public instruction. In 1855 

 there were in the whole republic but 211 

 schools, with 5,433 pupils; now there are 1,131 

 schools, and 48,140 pupils ; 691 are called fed- 

 eral schools, 209 are municipal schools, and 231 

 private establishments. The federal schools 

 are maintained at the expense of the Govern- 

 ment, and in the last year the expenditure was 

 $264,877.80, part of which ($93,138.86) was 

 supplied by a small tax on bills and receipts 

 for sums of over ten dollars, and collected 

 under the form of stamps (estampillas de ecue- 

 las). A number of young men have of late 

 been sent to the United States for the purpose 

 of acquiring, at the expense of the Govern- 

 ment of Venezuela, a perfect theoretical and 

 practical knowledge of the best modern meth- 

 ods of teaching. 



The destination and value of exports for the 

 year 1874-'75 are given in the following table: 



COUNTRIES. Vlu. 



Germany ............................ $5,449,752 8 



Spain. : ............. ................ 896,81444 



Colombia ............................ 605,007 22 



United States ........................ 8.799.170 81 



France ............................. 2,698.08819 



England ............................. 290,976 60 



Italy ................................. 48,618 70 



Danish colonies ....................... 19.512 64 



Spanish colonies ...................... ,88 09 



French colonies ....................... 87.667 81 



Dutch colonies ....................... 2.642.960 6T 



British colonies ...................... 1,466,9W> 48 



Total ........................... $17,808,840 90 



The sources and approximate* value of the 

 imports for the same year were as follows : 



COUNT RIFS. Vlo. 



Germany (Hamburg) ....................... $1.541,28194 



England .................................. 8,518,847 75 



United States, New York ..... $2,1179,814 88 



u Philadelphia... 577,17185 



--- !65d,9S6 78 

 France ..................................... 



Porto Rico 

 Canary Islands 

 St. Thomas 



4. Li oo 



MS 2 



_ 178,889 OT 



Total ................... ............. "tio.8TT.ao8 n 



* The total value may be set down at about $18,000,000. 



