251 



sixteen arrobas, or four hundred weight. This 

 consumption is very considerable, and gives, if 

 we deduct from the total population fifty thou- 

 sand Indians, who eat very little salt, sixty 

 pounds for each person. In France, according 

 to Mr. Necker, twelve or fourteen pounds only 

 are reckoned ; and this difference must be attri- 

 buted to the quantity of salt employed in curing 

 meat. Salt beef, called tasajo, is the most im- 

 portant article of export from Barcelona. Of 

 nine or ten thousand fanegas furnished by the 

 two provinces united, three thousand only are 

 produced by the salt works of Araya ; the rest 

 is extracted from the sea-water at the Morro 

 of Barcelona, at Pozuelos, at Piritu, and in the 

 Golfo Triste. In Mexico, the salt-lake of Pen- 

 non Blanco alone furnishes yearly more than 

 two hundred and fifty thousand fanegas of un- 

 purified salt *. 



The province of Caraccas possesses fine salt- 

 works at Los Roques ; that which formerly ex- 

 isted at the small island of Tortuga, where the 

 soil is strongly impregnated with muriat of soda, 

 was destroyed by order of the Spanish govern- 

 ment. A canal was made, by which the sea has 

 free access to the salt-marshes. Foreign na- 

 tions, who have colonies in the West Indies, fre- 

 quented this uninhabited island ; and the court 



* New Spain, vol. ii, p. 502 and 595, 

 2 N 



