VENEZUELA. 12.' 



CHAPTER XII. 



City of Caraccas and surrounding District. 



(Jit}' of Caraccas — General View of Venezuela — Population — Cli- 

 mate — Cliaracter of the Inhabitants of Caraccas — Ascent of tiic 

 Silla — Geological Nature of tiie District, and the Mines. 



Caraccas, the capital of the former captain-generalship chap, ml 

 of Venezuela, is more known to Europeans on account Q\fy^ 

 of the earthquakes by which it was desolated than from Cmaccas. 

 its importance in a political or commercial point of view 

 At the present day it is the chief city of a district of the 

 same name, forming part of the republic of Columbia ; 

 though, at the time of Humboldt's visit, it was tlie me- 

 tropolis of a Spanish colony which contained nearly a 

 million of inhabitants, and consisted of New Andalusia 

 or the province of Cumana, Barcelona, Venezuela or 

 Caraccas, Coro, and Maracaybo, along the coast ; and in 

 the interior, the provinces of Varinas and Guiana. 



In a general point of view Venezuela presents three Venezuela 

 distinct zones. Along the shore, and near the chain of 

 mountains which skirts it, we find cultivated land ; be- 

 hind this, savannahs or pasturages ; and beyond the 

 Orinoco, a mass of forests, penetrable only by means of 

 the rivers by which it is traversed. In these three belts, 

 the three principal stages of civilisation are found more 

 distinct than in almost any other region. We liave the 

 life of the wild hunter in the woody district — the pas- 

 toral life in the savannalis — and the agricultural in the 

 valleys and plains which descend to various parts of the 



