713 



lusia, Barcelona, Venezuela, and Varinas. It 

 may be observed, that these coasts have fixed 

 the attention of the mother country, too exclu- 

 sively. There we find six strong places*, pro- 

 vided with a fine and numerous artillery ; name- 

 ly, Carthagena, San Carlos de Maracaybo, Por- 

 to-Cabello, La Guayra, le Morro de Nueva 

 Barcelona, and Cumana. The eastern coasts of 

 Spanish America, those of Guayana and Buenos 

 Ay res,, are low and without defence ; they fur- 

 nish to a daring enemy the facility of penetrating 

 into the country as far as the eastern back of 

 the Cordilleras of New Granada and Chili. The 

 direction*^ of the Rio Plata, formed by the 

 Uruguay, the Parana, and the Paraguay, forces 

 an invading army, when it would march toward 

 the east, to traverse the steppes (pampas ) as far 

 as Cordova or Mendoza ; but north of the equa- 

 tor, in Spanish Guyana, the course;}; of the 

 Lower Oroonoko and it's two great tributary 

 streams, the Apure and the Meta, furnish in the 

 direction of the latitude a path of rivers, which 



* Those of Cartliagena and Porto Cabello are of the first 

 rank. In naming the points of defence from west to east, 

 I might have mentioned also the batteries Santa Marta, Ciu- 

 dad de la Hacha, and Coro j but these works are of little 

 importance. 



t From south to north, on an extent of land of twenty-two 

 degrees of latitude. 

 X From west to east for thirteen degrees of longitude. 



