ORIGIN OF THE TOWW. 103 



Buffering had been aggravated by confinement; and he sank 

 into the grave without seeing the dawn of those days ot in- 

 dependence, which his friend Don Joseph Espana had pre- 

 dicted on the scaffold prior to his execution. " I die," said 

 that man, who was formed for the accomplishment of grand 

 projects, " I die an ignominious death ; but my fellow citi- 

 zens will soon piously collect my ashes, and my name will 

 reappear with glory." These remarkable words were uttered 

 in the public square of Caracas, 011 the 8th of May, 1799. 



In 17 90, Nueva Barcelona contained scarcely ten thousand 

 inhabitants, and in 1800, its population was more than six- 

 teen thousand. The town was founded in 1637 by a Cata- 

 lonian conquistador, named Juan Urpin. A fruitless attempt 

 was then made, to give the whole province the name of Ne\v 

 Catalonia. As our maps often mark two towns, Barcelona 

 and Cumanagoto, instead of one, and as the two names are 

 considered as synonymous, it may be well to explain the cause 

 of this error. Anciently, at the mouth of the Eio Neveri, 

 there was an Indian town, built in 1588 by Lucas Faxardo, 

 and named San Cristoval de los Cumanagotos. This town 

 was peopled solely by natives who came from the saltworks 

 of Apaicuare. In 1637, Urpin founded, two leagues farther 

 inland, the Spanish town of Nueva Barcelona, which he 

 peopled with some of the inhabitants of Cumanagoto, toge- 

 ther with some Catalonians. For thirty-four years, disputes 

 were incessantly arising between the two neighbouring com- 

 munities, till in 1671, the governor Angulo succeeded inper- 

 suading them to establish themselves on a third spot, where tin- 

 town of Barcelona now stands. According to my observations, 

 it is situated in lat. 10 6' 52".* The ancient town of Cumn- 

 na^oto is celebrated in the country for a miraculous imago ( f 

 tlu Virgin,f which the Indians say was found in the hollou* 

 trunk of an old tutumo, or calabash-tree (Crescentia cujete). 

 This image was carried in procession to JN"ueva Barcelona; 



* Tliese observations were made on the Plaza Major, They ai 

 merely the result of six circum-meridian heights of Canopus, taken all 

 in one night. In " Las Memorias de Espinosa," the latitude is stated to 

 be 10 9' 6". The result of M. Ferrer's observations made it 10* 8' '2 I'. 



t " La milagrosa imagen de Maria Santissima del Socorro," also called 

 - U Virgeii del Tutiuno." 



