213 



lar name of the soul of the tyrant Aguirre ; 

 imagining that the spectre of Lopez Aguirre, 

 harassed by remorse, wanders over these coun- 

 tries sullied by his crimes # . 



The great earthquake of 1797 produced some 

 changes in the configuration of the shoal of 

 Morro Roxo, toward the mouth of the Rio Bor- 

 dones. Similar swellings were observed at the 

 time of the total ruin of Cumana, in 1766. At 

 this period, the Punta Delgado, on the southern 

 coast of the gulf of Cariaco, was perceptibly 

 enlarged ; and in the Rio Guarapiche, near the 

 viliage of Maturin, a shoal was formed, no doubt 

 bv the action of the elastic fluids, which dis- 

 placed and raised up the bed of the river. 



We shall not continue to describe with mi- 

 nuteness the local changes produced by the dif- 

 ferent earthquakes of Cumana. In order to follow 

 a plan conformable to the end we proposed in 

 this work, we shall endeavour to generalize our 



* When at Cumana, or in the island of Margaretta, the 

 people pronounce the words el tyranno (the tyrant), it is al- 

 ways to denote the infamous Lopez d'Aguirre $ who, after 

 having taken part,, in 1560, in the revolt of Ferdinando de 

 Guzman against Pedro de Ursua, governor of the Omeguas 

 and Dorado, gave himself the title of traidor, or traitor. 

 He descended the river of the Amazons with his hand, asad 

 reached by a communication of the rivers of Guyana, of 

 which we shall hereafter speak, the island of Margaretta. 

 The port of Paraguache still bears, in this island, the name of 

 the Tyrant's Port. 



