88 BAUL AND SAN FEPwNANDO. 



of the Portuguesa, of some three or four tliousand in- 

 habitants, the most considerable place iijDon the river 

 between Baul and San Fernando. In the morning, having 

 discharged a portion of the cargo from the bongo, we de- 

 parted. There was the same monotonous aspect of the 

 scenery as had characterized the landscape from Baul; 

 the banks, nowhere of any considerable elevation above 

 the river, were generally covered with forest varying in 

 width from a hundred yards to upward of a mile, with 

 the plain beyond, an open savanna, submerged by the 

 water. The Portuguesa is quite a formidable river, and 

 of sufficient depth to float the largest vessels up to Baul. 

 Since our return from Venezuela, we have been gratified 

 to know that there has been established, by an American 

 company, a line of steamers which pass uj) the Orinoco 

 and Apure to San Fernando, thus opening up a vast and 

 important region to the commerce of the world. A simi- 

 lar line was in operation some years ago, but political 

 dissensions occasioned its discontinuance. We hope for 

 better success to the new enterj^rise.* 



The morning of the fifth day of our voyage from Baul 

 had not fully dawned, when our canoe, gliding into the 

 waters of the Apure, brought us soon in sight of San Fer- 

 nando. Having had our imaginations highly wrought by 

 exaggerated reports — a prevailing weakness characteristic 

 of this people — it was a feeling of disappointment that 

 accompanied our first view of the narrow town with its 

 long row of low, white buildings, stretched along the 

 scarcely-elevated margin of the river, and backed by a 

 monotonous forest. What most attracted our attention 



* Since writing the above, we learn that steamers have ceased rxin- 

 ning up the Apure, going only as far as Ciudad Bolivar, or Angostura, 

 as more commonly called by Yenezuelians, a town about three hundred 

 miles up the Orinoco. 



