Three Old Ports on the Spanish Main 625 



seaboard (the whole coast, in fact, from 

 the peninsula of Paria to the province of 

 Santa Marta), he set about organizing a 

 semi-religious expedition, which, had it 

 been successful, might have changed the 

 entire history of Venezuela. 



The first settlement was to be made at 

 Cumana, where some Franciscan monks 

 had established themselves in 1515, and 

 was actually begun by Gonzalez Ocampo 

 in 1520, though his cruelty and treachery 

 toward the Indians brought Las Casas' 

 cherished schemes to naught, a fitting 

 prelude to the three — or, shall I say, 

 nearly four — centuries of strife and mis- 

 ery that followed. Las Casas arrived at 

 Cumana in 1521, but during his subse- 

 quent absence in Haiti the little colony 

 was driven away by the enraged and de- 

 luded Indians, who thus banished from 

 their shores the one man who would, and 

 could, have saved them from their piteous 

 fate. 



Apart from the hallowed memories of 

 this devoted priest, Cumana, or New To- 

 ledo, as it was formerly called, has the 

 distinction of being the first European 

 settlement in Venezuela, and with the 

 exception of a supposed settlement of 

 the Portuguese upon the Amazon, the 

 first on the continent. Ocampo was pre- 

 ceded just one year by Cortes in Mexico, 

 and it was . ten years later that Pizarro 

 set out for Peru. When John Cotton 

 knelt upon the shore at Plymouth, sur- 

 rounded by his devout pilgrim band, and 

 asked God's blessing upon their enter- 

 prise, a century lacking one year had 

 elapsed since his noble prototype had 

 debarked his little following upon the 

 lonely Pearl Coast, and prayed with 

 equal earnestness for divine assistance in 

 establishing a Christian colony. One 

 prayer was answered, and the other was 

 not, and Providence only knoweth why; 

 but certainly no more sacred mission 

 was ever undertaken than that of Las 

 Casas to Tierra Firme. When we read, 

 therefore, of the subsequent misdeeds of 

 the coiiquistadorcs, let us not forget that 

 the "Apostle of the Indies" also was a 

 Spaniard, and, were it not for the one 



great mistake of his life — his defense 

 and promotion of negro slavery, though 

 the facts have been grossly exaggerated 

 and, indeed, perverted — his work would 

 perhaps be ranked as the greatest moral 

 factor in the early history of the New 

 World. 



It is hard to leave this heroic figure 

 and the desolate little settlement that 

 marked the failure of his first great 

 project, but Cumana, in time, became a 

 prosperous town — that is, as prosperity 

 was understood in the Spanish colonies — 

 and has at least one other claim upon our 

 notice, viz, that it was here that Hum- 

 boldt landed and remained for a time, 

 with his friend Bonpland, before begin- 

 ning those remarkable journeys that 

 added so materially to all branches of 

 natural science, and, perhaps even more 

 important at this day, to our knowledge 

 of the economic and social conditions of 

 colonial Spain — conditions that might 

 never have been understood had this in- 

 defatigable traveler and scientist not ar- 

 rived so opportunely before the revolu- 

 tionary struggle began. 



Cumana today is a humdrum city of 

 about 10,000 inhabitants, the capital of 

 the State of Bermudez, and an important 

 port in the "Orient," as the eastern states 

 of Venezuela are called, though the gov- 

 ernment of late has been openly hostile 

 to its interests. It certainly presents a 

 sorry contrast to the town of a century 

 ago, then the independent capital of a 

 large province, or rather of two, an im- 

 portant ecclesiastical center, and ranking 

 easily first among all the cities of the 

 coast in the culture and intelligence of 

 its inhabitants, as indeed a Venezuelan 

 (not a native of Cumana) informs me is 

 still the case. 



Cumana is as yet almost unknown to 

 the traveler, partly owing to the igno- 

 rance or lack of enterprise of the steam- 

 ship companies that make it a port of 

 call ; but some day the tourist tide will 

 set in, and not only the city itself, but 

 the delightful hill country of the interior, 

 as well as the neighboring towns of 

 Barcelona — which, like Cumana, was the 



