VENEZUELA. 34 
CHAPTER XII. 
City of Caraccas and surrounding District. 
City of Caraccas—General View of Venezuela—Population—Cli- 
mate—Character of the Inhabitants of Caraccas—Ascent of the 
Silla—Geological Nature of the District, and the Mines. 
Caraccas, the capital of the former captain-general- 
ship of Venezuela, is more known to Europeans on 
account of the earthquakes by which it was deso- 
lated than from its importance in a political or com- 
mercial point of view. At the present day it is the 
chief city of a district of the same name, forming part 
of the republic of Columbia; though, at the time of 
Humboldt’s visit, it was the metropolis of a Spanish 
colony which contained nearly a million of inhabit- 
ants, and consisted of New Andalusia, or the province 
of Cumana, New Barcelona, Venezuela or Caraccas, 
Coro, and Maracaybo, along the coast ; and in the 
interior, the provinces of Varinas and Guiana. 
- In a general point of view Venezuela presents 
three distinct zones. Along the shore, and near the 
chain of mountains which skirts it, we find cultivated 
land ; behind this, savannahs or pasturages; and 
beyond the Orinoco, a mass of forests, penetrable 
only by means of the rivers by which it is traversed. 
In these three belts, the three principal stages of 
civilisation are found more distinct than in almost 
any other region. We have the life of the wild 
