528 



tions, which the paramos of Niquitao and Las 

 Rosas, the last of those the height of which 

 reaches sixteen hundred toises, send out toward 

 the north-east. Between Tocuyo, Araure, and 

 Barquisimeto, rises the group of the Altar-moun- 

 tains, connected toward the south-east with the 

 paramo of Las Rosas. A branch of the Altar 

 stretches to the north-east by San Felipe el 

 Fuerte, joining the granitic mountains of the 

 coast near Porto Cabello. The other branch 

 is directed to the east toward Nirgua and 

 Tinaco, and joins the chain of the interior, that 

 of Yusma, Villa de Cura, and Sabana de Ocu- 

 mare. 



The whole land we have been describing 

 separates the waters which flow to the Oroonoko 

 from those which run into the immense lake of 

 Maracaybo, and the Caribbean Sea. It pre- 

 sents rather temperate than hot climates; and 

 it is looked upon in the country, notwithstand- 

 ing the distance of more than a hundred leagues, 

 as a prolongation of the metalliferous soil of 

 Pamplona. It was in the group of the western 

 mountains of Venezuela, that the Spaniards, in 

 the year 1551, wrought the gold mine of Bu- 

 ria *, which was the cause of the foundation of 

 the town of Barquisimeto <f. But these works, 

 like many other mines successively opened, were 



* Real de Minas de San Felipe de Buria, 

 f Nueva Segovia. 



