193 



of the cacao-trees, which do not bear in general 

 after they have stood 40 years, have not been 

 replaced. In 1792 it was reputed, that there 

 were still 254,000 in the valley of Cariaco and 

 on the borders of the Gulf. At present other 

 branches of culture are preferred, which yield 

 a profit the first year, and the produce of which, 

 while less slow, is of a less uncertain preserva- 

 tion. Such are cotton and sugar, which, not 

 being subject to spoil like the cacao, may be 

 kept, in order to take advantage of all the vari- 

 ations of sale. The changes, which civilization 

 and intercourse with foreigners have intro- 

 duced in the manners and characters of the 

 inhabitants of the coast, have an influence on 

 the marked preference, which they give to dif- 

 ferent branches of agriculture. That mode- 

 ration of desires ; that patience, which endures 

 long expectation ; that calmness, which sup- 

 ports the dull monotony of solitude ; are gra- 

 dually lost in the character of the Spanish Ame- 

 ricans* More enterprising, more light, and ac- 

 tive, they prefer undertakings, the result of 

 which is more speedy. 



It is only in the interior of the province, to 

 the east of the Sierra de Meapira, in that uncul- 

 tivated country which extends from Curupano 

 by the valley of San Bonifacio toward the Gulf of 

 Paria,that new plantations of the cacao-tree arise. 

 They become there the more productive, as the 



VOL. III. o 



