70 CITY OF CUMANA. 
bourhood of the city is remarkable for the woods of 
cactus which are spread over the arid lands. Some 
of these plants were thirty or forty feet high, covered 
with lichens, and divided into branches in the form 
of a candelabrum. When the large species grow in 
groups they form a thicket which, while it is almost 
impenetrable, is extremely dangerous on account of 
the poisonous serpents that frequent it. 
The fortress of St Antonio, which is built on a 
ealeareous hill, commands the town and forms a 
picturesque object to vessels entering the port. On 
the south-western slope of the same rock are the 
ruins of the castle of St Mary, from the site of which 
there is a fine view of the Gulf, together with the © 
island of Margaretta and the small isles of Caraccas, 
Picuita, and Boracha, which present the most sin- 
gular appearances from the effect of mirage. | 
The city of Cumana, properly speaking, occupies 
the ground that lies between the castle of St Anto- 
nio and the small rivers Manzanares and Santa 
Catalina. It has no remarkable buildings, on ac- 
count of the violent earthquakes to which it is sub- 
ject. The suburbs are almost as populous as the 
town itself, and are three in number: namely, Ser- 
ritos, St Francis, and that of the Guayquerias. The 
latter is inhabited by a tribe of civilized Indians, 
who, for upwards of a century, have adopted the 
Castilian language. The whole population in 1802 
was about eighteen or nineteen thousand. 
The plains which surround the city havea parch- 
ed and dusty aspect. The hill on which the fort 
of St Antonio stands is also bare, and composed of 
calcareous breccia, containing marine shells. South- 
ward, in the distance, is a vast curtain of inacces- 
