44 TEE SALT-WORKS. 



believe that the insalubrity of the air is owing to the fresh 

 water, that is, to the overflowings of the Guayguaza and Este- 

 \an, the swell of which is so great and sudden in the months 

 of October and November. The banks of the Rio Estevan 

 have been less insalubrious since little plantations of maize 

 and plantains have been established; and, by raising and 

 hardening the ground, the river has been confined within 

 narrower limits. A plan is formed of giving another issue 

 to the Rio San Estevan, and thus to render the environs of 

 Porto Cabello more wholesome. A canal is to lead the 

 waters toward that part of the coast which is opposite the 

 island of Guayguaza. 



The salt-works of Porto Cabello somewhat resemble those 

 of the peninsula of Araya, near Cumana. The earth, how- 

 ever, which they lixivate by collecting the rain-water into 

 small basins, contains less salt. It is questioned here, as 

 at Cumana, whether the ground be impregnated with saline 

 particles because it has been for ages covered at intervals 

 with sea-water evaporated by the heat of the sun, or 

 whether the soil be muriatiferous, as in a mine very poor 

 in native salt. I had not leisure to examine this plain with 

 the same attention as the peninsula of Araya. Besides, 

 does not this problem reduce itself to the simple question, 

 whether the salt be owing to new or very ancient inunda- 

 tions? The labouring at the salt-works of Porto Cabello 

 being extremely unhealthy, the poorest men alone engage 

 in it. They collect the salt in little stores, and afterwards 

 sell it to the shopkeepers in the town. 



During our abode at Porto Cabello, the current on the 

 coast, generally directed towards the west,* ran from west 

 to east. This upward current (corriente por arriba), is 

 very frequent during two or three months of the year, from 

 September to November. It is believed to be owing to 

 some north-west winds that have blown between Jamaica 

 and Cape St. Antony in the island of Cuba. 



* The wrecks of the Spanish ships, burnt at the island of Trinidad, at 

 the time of its occupation by the English in 1797, were carried by the 

 general or rotary current to Punta Brava, near Porto Cabello. This 

 general current toward the east, from the coasts of Paria to the isthmus 

 of Panama and the western extremity of the island of Cuba, was the 

 subject of a violent dispute between Don Diego Columbus, Oviedo, and 

 the pilot Ai.nlres, in the sixteenth century. 



