CHAPTER II 



CARACAS 



Valley of Caracas.— Site of the City.— Houses.— Cathedral.— Public Build- 

 ings. — Pulperias. — Earthquake of 1812. — People. — Dress. — Education. 

 — Literature. — Eeligion. — Cemeteries. 



Iisr the southern portion of Colombia,* the Andes, which 

 sweep along the western coast of the continent, through 

 Chili, Peru, and Ecuador, witli a breadth of sixty to four 

 hundred miles, yet with a rigid jDreservatiou of their unity, 

 divide into three distinct ranges. The most western of 

 these branches runs close along the Pacific shore of Colom- 

 bia, and enters the Isthmus of Panama ; the second trav- 

 erses the centre of the republic, until it touches the shores 

 of the Caribbean Sea ; the third takes a more easterly 

 direction, and, xipon finding the ocean, skirts the northern 

 shore of Venezuela, terminating at the delta of the Ori- 

 noco. One of the most interesting features of this re- 

 markable and unparalleled mountain-system, aside from its 

 volcanoes, is its lofty table-lands and beautiful valleys, 

 lying between its longitudinal ranges. Far to the south 

 we find the Thibetan highlands of Bolivia, lying about 

 the shores of Lake Titicaca ; under the equator the beauti- 

 ful plains of Quito; and, advancing still farther north, we 



* Called New Granada, until September 20, 1861, when a new consti- 

 tution was adopted, and the name changed to United States of Colombia. 



