126 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



class(3d as "civilised," 20,000 settled, and upwards of 60,000 still independent in 

 the mountain forests and on the llanos. 



After a sanguinary civil war the returns for the federal district showed a pro- 

 portion of 128 women to 100 men in 1873, but since then the equilibrium of the 

 sexes has been restored, and in 1881 there was an excess of less than 70,000 women 

 in the whole population. Despite wars, massacres, yellow fever, and other epide- 

 mics the birth-rate has always exceeded the mortality, if not from year to year, 

 at least from decade to decade. 



On the other hand immigration has contributed little to the general increase, 

 not more than 4,537 in the seven years ending 1887 ; even in 1889, when the 

 number rose to 1,555, there was a proportionate increase of emigrants. Foreigners 

 are at present estimated at about 40,000, of whom over one-fourth are Spanish 

 Basques ; then follow the English and people of Trinidad, the Italians, Dutch from 

 Curaçao, French and Germans in the order given. 



Agriculture — Stock-breeding. 



Being essentially an agricultural and pastoral land, Venezuela yields an abun- 

 dance of the first necessaries both for the local demands and for a considerable 

 export trade. As in Jamaica and most of the Antilles, the emancipation of the 

 slaves involved the ruin of a large number of planters, and the division of. vast 

 domains into relatively small holdings worked by free labour. Nevertheless, the 

 large landowners have in many places endeavoured to replace the blacks, on whom 

 they could no longer depend, by full-blood or half-caste natives. By reducing 

 these labourers to a disguised servitude, they have managed to work their planta- 

 tions at a profit, without being driven to the necessity of introducing East Indian 

 or Chinese coolies, as in Trinidad or Demerara. A few hundred European settlers 

 have been attracted by the grant of little farms of fifteen acres, as at Taguacita, 

 in the uplands south of the Tui basin. Here a colony of over 1,500 persons 

 was engaged in 1888 in the production of coffee, cacao, and sugar. There being 

 plenty of land to dispose of, the terms are very tempting, free tenure for three 

 years, and then nothing but licence and surveying charges. 



After maize the chief economic plant is coffee, Avhich on favourable grounds 

 yields 360-fold and four annual crops. The first cofiFee plantations were estab- 

 lished in 1784 in the neiohbourhood of Caracas, and the shrub thrives best on 

 the uplands of the temperate zone, where the foliage is moistened by frequent 

 and heavy morning dews. Cacao, which had long been neglected, although the 

 first colonial product exported from Venezuela, is again coming more and more 

 into favour. Few other regions are more suited for the cultivation of this plant, 

 which grows wild in certain parts of the J^Ierida uplands. Sugar, which ranks 

 third in importance, is grown chiefl}^ on the hot, alluvial lowlands, and especially 

 on the marshy plains encircling Lake Maracaibo, Tobacco is treated in two ways, 

 the cura negra (" black preparation ") for local consumption, and the cura seca 

 (" dry preparation ") for exportation, A tobacco juice is also prepared with nitre, 

 which is extremely rich in nicotine; by rubbing it on the gums the working 



