423 



ted) provinces of V enezueta, has nearly a mil- 

 lion of inhabitants, among whom are sixty thou- 

 sand slaves. It contains along the coast, New 

 Andalusia, or the province of Cumana (with 

 the island of Margaretta *, Barcelona, Venezu- 

 ela or Caraccas, Coro, and Maracaybo ; in the 

 interior, the provinces of Varinas and Guiana, 

 the first along the rivers of Santo-Domingo and 

 the Apure, the second along the Oroonoko, the 

 Casiquiare, the Atabapo, and the Rio Negro. In 

 a general view of the seven united provinces 

 of Terra Firma, we perceive, that they form 

 three distinct zones, extending from east to 

 west. 



We find at first cultivated land along the 

 shore, and near the chain of the mountains on 

 the coast ; next savannahs or pasturages ; and 

 finally, beyond the Oroonoko, a third zone, 

 that of the forests, into which we can penetrate 

 only by means of the rivers that traverse them. 

 If the native inhabitants of the forests lived en- 

 tirely on the produce of the chace, like those of 

 the Missoury, we might say, that the three 

 zones, into which we have divided the territory 

 of Venezuela, present an image of the three 

 states of human society ; the life of the wild 



hunter, in the woods of the Oroonoko ; the 



i 



* This island, near the coast of Cumana, forms a particu- 

 lar govicrno, depending immediately on the captain-general 



of Caraccas. 



