194 



lands, newly cleared and surrounded by forests^ 

 are in contact with an atmosphere more damp, 

 more stagnant, and more loaded with mephitic ex 

 halations. We there see fathers of families, at- 

 tached to the old habits of the planters, prepare 

 for themselves and their children a slow and se- 

 cure fortune. A single slave is sufficient, to help 

 them in their toilsome labours. They clear the 

 soil with their own hands : raise young cacao- 

 trees under the shade of the erythrinas or plan- 

 tains ; lop the grown trees ; destroy the swarm 

 of worms and insects, that attack the bark, the 

 leaves, and the flowers ; dig trenches ; and re- 

 solve to lead a wretched life for seven or eight 

 years, till the cacao-trees begin to bear. Thirty 

 thousand trees secure competence to a family 

 for a generation and a half. If the culture of 

 cotton and coffee have led to the diminution of 

 that of cacao in the province of Caraccas, and 

 in the small valley of Cariaco, it must be con- 

 fessed, that this last branch of colonial industry 

 has in general increased in the interior of the 

 provinces of New Barcelona and Cumana*. 

 The causes of the progressive march of the 

 cacao-trees from west to east may be easily con- 

 ceived. The province of Caraccas is the most 

 anciently cultivated : and, under the torrid zone* 



* Informe del Tesorero Don Manuel Navarete, sobre el 

 projectado estanco de aguardiente de eanna, 1792 (manu- 

 script). 



