PENINSULA OF ATIAYA. Ill 



Bfttnn.is), and the stentor or alouate of the steppes of Caracas 

 (Simla ursina), had been already received. The arrival of so 

 great a number of French military officers, and the manifes- 

 tation of political and religious opinions not altogether con- 

 formable with the interests of the governments of Europe, 

 t-xcited singular agitation in the population of Cumana. 

 The governor treated the French authorities with the forma 

 of civility consistent with the friendly relations subsisting at 

 that period between France and Spain. In the streets the 

 coloured people crowded round the agent of the French 

 Directory, whose dress was rich and theatrical. White men, 

 too, with indiscreet curiosity, whenever they could make 

 themselves understood, made enquiries concerning the degree 

 of influence granted by the republic to the colonists in the 

 government of Guadaloupe. The king's officers doubled their 

 zeal in furnishing provision for the little squadron. Stran- 

 gers, who boasted that they were free, appeared to these 

 people troublesome guests ; and in a country, of which the 

 growing prosperity depended on clandestine communica- 

 tion with the islands, and on a freedom of trade forced from 

 the ministry, the European Spaniards extolled the wisdom of 

 the old code of laws (leyes de Iiidias), which permitted the 

 entrance of foreign vessels into their ports only in extreme 

 cases of want or distress. These contrasts between the 

 restless desires of the colonists, and the distrustful apathy 

 of the government, throw some light on the great political 

 events which, after long preparation, have separated Spain 

 from her colonies. 



"We again passed a few agreeable days, from the third to 

 the fifth of November, at the peninsula of Araya, situated 

 beyond the gulf of Cariaco, opposite to Cumana.* \Ve 

 were informed, that the Indians carried to the town from 

 time to time considerable quantities of native alum, found 

 in the neighbouring mountains. The specimens shewn to 

 us sufficiently indicated, that it was neither alunite, similar 

 to the rock of Tolfa and Piombino, nor those capillary 

 and silky salts of alkaline sulphate of alumina and mag- 

 nesia, that line the clefts and cavities of rocks, but real 



* I have already described the pearls of Araya j its sulphurous depo*itt. 

 nd submarine springs of liquid and colourless petroleum. See voL a, 

 p. 191. 



