250 



struction of which had cost more than a million 

 of piastres, useless. An impetuous hurricane 

 took place, which was a very rare phenomenon 

 in these regions, where the sea is in general as 

 calm as the water in our large rivers. The 

 waves overflowed the land to a great extent ; 

 and by the effect of this irruption of the ocean 

 the salt-lake was converted into a gulf several 

 miles in length. Since this period, artificial 

 reservoirs, or pits, (vasets) have been formed, 

 to the north of the range of hills which sepa- 

 rates the castle from the north coast of the pe- 

 ninsula. 



The consumption of salt amounted in 1799 

 and 1800, in the two provinces of Cumana * and 

 Barcelona, to nine or ten thousand fanegas, each 



* At the period of my voyage the government of Cumana 

 comprehended the two provinces of New Andalusia and New 

 Barcelona. The words province and govierno, or government, 

 of Cumana, are consequently not synonimous. A Catalan, 

 Juan de Urpin, who had been by turns a canon, doctor of 

 laws, counsellor at law in St. Domingo, and private soldier 

 in the castle of Araya, founded, in 1636, the city of New 

 Barcelona, and attempted to give the name of New Catalonia 

 (Nueva Cathalunna) to the province, of which this newly 

 constructed city became the capital. This attempt was fruit- 

 less ; and it is from the capital that the whole province took 

 it's name. Since my departure from America, it has been 

 raised to the rank of a Govierno. In New Andalusia, the In- 

 dian name of Cumana has prevailed over those of Nueva To- 

 ledo and Nueva Cordoba, which we find on the maps of the 

 seventeenth century. 



