MARGAR[TA. 71 



The island is divided into eight administrative districts — Saint George and 

 Saint David in the north ; Caroni, Saint Andrews, Victoria and Nariva in the 

 centre ; Saint Patrick and Mayaro in the south. 



IV. — Margarita and NEiGHBorRiNG Islets. 



Margarita, the "Pearl," one of the islands discovered by Columbus in his 

 voyage of 1498, belongs, like Trinidad, to the Andes orographic system, although 

 not disposed in a line with the Paria range. It develops a parallel chain, indicated 

 by two principal masses, and reappearing some 60 miles farther west in the 

 islet of Tortuga. In fact, Margarita may be regarded as forming two distinct 

 islands — in the east Margarita, properly so called, in the centre of which Mount 

 Copei rises to a height of 4,170 feet ; and in the west Macanao, so named from 

 its culminating point, 4,484 feet high. 



Although of less extent than Trinidad, Margarita greatly exceeds it in the 

 altitude of its mountains. Between the two sections of the island stretches the 

 so-called Restinga, or Laguna Grande (" Great Lagoon "), which communicates 

 with the gulf on the south side by a shifting channel, while on the north side the 

 two islands are connected by a thin but continuous strip of sands. At its 

 narrowest point this line of dunes is scarcely more than 164 feet wide between 

 the lagoon and the open sea. 



Margarita is one of those islands which were first colonised by the Spaniards. 

 In 1499, the very year following the voyage of Columbus, Guerra discovered the 

 pearl-banks of Coche Island off the south coast, and soon after others were 

 reported round the main island and on the coast of the islet of Cubagua (Cuagua), 

 which immediately attracted numerous adventurers. In 1525 a fort had already 

 been erected on Margarita ; it did not, however, prevent the capture and plunder 

 of the island by the dreaded " tyrant," Lopez de Aguirre, in 1561. Then came 

 the English, and in the next century the Dutch. 



During the War of Independence the Margaritans took sides with the rebels, 

 for which they were cruelly punished by the Spaniards. This earned for the 

 insular group the official title of Nueva Esparta (" New Sparta ") from the 

 grateful republicans of Venezuela after the revolution. 



As a whole the island must be regarded as arid, being largely covered with 

 bare rocks, dunes, saline marshes, and even coral reefs formerly built up round 

 the coast. The inhabitants find little room for tillage except in the narrow 

 upland valleys, and their chief resources are fishing and the collection of salt, 

 which, under the name of sal de esptioui ("foam salt"), is highly appreciated in 

 the trade. The women, who are very industrious, make earthenware and light 

 cotton stuffs, besides hats of a coarse fibre, which are sold at a low price in every 

 part of the republic. 



The pearl industry is almost abandoned, nearly all the banks being exhausted, 

 while the pearls themselves have fallen considerably in value. But the fisheries 

 proper are still very productive, that of Coche Island being farmed by the 



