136 COMPJLEISON BETWEEN 



by the Llanos and the forests of Guiana, and, therefore, 

 presenting great obstacles to agricultural labourers, we 

 should still obtain a population of six millions for the 

 remaining 9700 square leagues. Those who, like myself, 

 have lived long within the tropics, will find no exaggeration 

 in these calculations; for I suppose for the portion the 

 most easily cultivated, a relative population equal to that 

 in the intendencias of Puebla and Mexico,* full of barren 

 mountains, and extending towards the coast of the Pacific, 

 over regions almost desert. If the territories of Cuinana, 

 Barcelona, Caracas, Maracaybo, Varinas, and Guiana, 

 should be destined hereafter to enjoy good provincial 

 and municipal institutions, as confederate states, they 

 will not require a century and a half to attain a popu- 

 lation of six millions of inhabitants. Venezuela, the 

 eastern part of the republic of Columbia, would not, 

 even with nine millions, have a more considerable popu- 

 lation than Old Spain ; and can it be doubted that that 

 part of Venezuela which is most fertile and easy of cul- 

 tivation, that is, the 10,000 square leagues remaining after 

 deducting the Llanos and the almost impenetrable forests 

 between the Orinoco and the Cassiquiare, could support in 

 the fine climate of the tropics, as many inhabitants as 10,000 

 square leagues of Estramadura, the Castiles, and other 

 provinces of the table-land of Spain ? These predictions are 

 by no means problematical, inasmuch as they are founded on 

 physical analogies and on the productive power of the soil ; 

 but before we can indulge the hope that they will be actu- 

 ally accomplished, we must be secure of another element 

 less susceptible of calculation, that national wisdom which 

 subdues hostile passions, destroys the germs of civil discord, 

 and gives stability to free and energetic institutions. 



"When we take a view of the soil of Venezuela and New 

 Grenada, we perceive that no other country of Spanish 

 America furnishes commerce with such various and rich 

 productions of the vegetable kingdom. If we add the 

 harvests of the province of Caracas to those of Guayaquil, 

 tte find that the republic of Columbia alone can furnish 

 nearly all the cacao annually demanded by Europe. The 



* These two Intendencias contain together 5520 square leagues, and a 

 relative population of 508 inhabitants to the square sea-league. 



