120 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Perijaa in Colombia. It is thus the natural emporium of the traffic with Cucuta, 

 Pamplona, and the other surrounding markets of the conterminous republic. At 

 present some fifteen steamers ply on the lake and its navigable affluents, and com- 

 munications must ere long be opened with the middle valley of the Magdalena 

 through the town of Ocana. 



Stretching along the beach amid its fringing coconut- groves, Maracaibo 

 presents a pleasanter aspect seen from the lake than it does to the observer 

 penetrating into its narrow dusty streets winding between high houses. It is 

 extended southwards by the fashionable suburb of Hatitos, residence of its wealthy 

 merchants, who export coffee, cacao, dyewoods, cattle, hides and drugs in 

 exchange for English, French and German wares, and Spanish wines. 



Large vessels being unable to pass the channel, Maracaibo intends to create 

 an outer harbour in deep water by constructing a railway to the village of Cojoro 

 on the Colombian frontier. Santa Rosa, near Maracaibo, is still a lacustrine 

 village, erected on piles in the midst of the waters, and resembling the settlements 

 from which the whole country received the name of Venezuela. Similar groups 

 of lake dwellings are seen in the Sinamaica lagoon, and in the south-east corner of 

 the inner basin. 



The llanos which stretch south-east of the snowy Merida range, within the 

 triano-ular space formed by these mountains and the Apure and Portuguesa 

 rivers, are relatively better peopled than the plains lying farther east. Here are 

 a few flourishing agricultural centres, such as San Cristobal^ on the Torbes 

 affluent of the upper Apure, and the neighbouring Tariba, Riibio, and Capacho 

 Nuevo ; all of these places, however, belong commercially and even socially to 

 the Maracaibo basin, forwarding their produce, such ^s coffee, sugar, cacao, cattle, 

 and petroleum, not to the Orinoco, but to the coast, by the Cucuta railway, running 

 through Colombian territory. 



The hilly district of Tachira, so named from the frontier river towards 

 Colombia, has been rapidly peopled and enriched, thanks to its fertile valleys, 

 which present a striking contrast to the extremely arid hills and plateaux 

 encircling them. Towns, such as Rubio, have sprung up quite recently in the 

 very wilderness, while others, such as San Antonio de Tachira, have recovered 

 from the disastrous earthquake of 1875. 



Varinas {Barinas), formerly a provincial capital, biit now decayed, gives its 

 name to a tobacco of excellent quality, very little of which, however, is grown in 

 this part of the llanos. Guanare, the present state capital, stands on the high 

 banks of the Hio Guanare, an affluent of the Portuguesa. In the same basin 

 are the prosperous little towns of Bijuma, Miranda, Nirjua (one of the first 

 Spanish settlements), San Carlos (a former Indian mission), Cojedes, Acariyua, 

 and Pao. 



Farther east Calabozo, founded in the last century by the Guipuzcoa (Basque) 

 Company, crowns a hill 500 feet high, encircled by a bend of the Rio Guarico. 

 Thanks to this relatively elevated position, and to the absence of marshy tracts, 

 Calabozo has always been the most healthy place in the llanos. Before 1868 it 



