208 



tanls were alarmed by new shocks on the coasts 

 of Paria and Cumana The lands were inun- 

 dated by the sea, and the small fort, built by 

 James Castellon at New Toledo*, was entirely 

 destroyed. At the same time an enormous 

 opening was formed in the mountains of Cariaco, 

 on the shores of the gulf that bears this name, 

 when a great body of salt water, mixed with as- 

 phaltum, issued from the micaceous schist ^. 

 Earthquakes were very frequent toward the end 

 of the sixteenth century ; and, according to the 

 traditions preserved at Cumana, the sea often 

 inundated the shores, rising from fifteen to 

 twenty fathoms. The inhabitants fled to the 

 Cerro of San Antonio, and to the hill where now 

 stands the small convent of St. Francis. It is 

 even thought, that these frequent inundations 

 induced the inhabitants to build that quarter of 

 the town, which is backed by the mountain, and 

 stands on a part of it's declivity. 



As no record exists at Cumana, and it's ar- 



* This was the first name given to the city of Cumana 

 (Girolamo Benzoni, Hist, del Mondo nuovo, p. 3, 31, and 

 33). James Castellon arrived at St. Domingo in 1521, after 

 the appearance of the celebrated Bartholomew de las Casas 

 in these countries. On attentively reading the narratives of 

 Benzoni and Caulin, we find that the fort of Castellon was 

 built near the mouth of the Manzanares (alia ripa del fiume de 

 Cumana) : and not, as some modern travellers have asserted, 

 on the mountain where now stands the castle of St. Antonio, 

 f Hcrera^ Description de las Indias, p. 14. 



