269 



bound from affection to their native soil, re* 

 mained in this wild and barren spot. These poor 

 people live by catching fish, which is extremely 

 abundant on the coast and the neighbouring 

 shoals. They appear satisfied with their condi- 

 tion, and think it strange when they are asked 

 why they have no gardens or culinary vegeta- 

 bles. Our gardens, they reply, are beyond the 

 gulf ; when we carry our fish to Cumana, we 

 bring back plantains, cocoa nuts, and cassava. 

 This system of economy, grateful to idleness, is 

 followed at Maniquarez, and throughout the 

 whole peninsula of Araya. The chief wealth of 

 the inhabitants consists in goats, which are of a 

 very large and very fine breed, and rove in the 

 fields like those at the Peak of TenerifFe : they 

 are become entirely wild, and are marked like 

 the mules, because it would be difficult to recog- 

 nize them from their physiognomy, their color, 

 or the disposition of their spots. The wild goats 

 are of a brownish yellow, and are not varied in 

 their color like domestic animals. If in hunt- 

 ing a colonist kills a goat, which he does not 

 consider as his own property, he carries it im- 

 mediately to the neighbour, to whom it belongs. 

 During two days we heard it every where spoken 

 of as an example of strange perverseness, that 

 an inhabitant of Maniquarez had lost a goat, on 

 which it was probable that a neighbouring family 

 had regaled themselves. These traits, which are 

 2 o 2 



