182 



_ entirely null. The finest plantations of sugar are 

 in the valleys of Aragua, and of the Tuy near 

 Pao de Zarate, between La Victoria and San 

 Sebastian -f~, near Guatire, Guarenas, and Cau- 

 rimare ^. If the first canes arrived in the New 

 World from the Canary islands, it is also in ge- 

 neral Canarians, or Islengos, who are now 

 placed at the head of the great plantations, and 

 who superintend the labours of cultivation and 

 refining. 



It is this intimate connexion between the Ca- 

 narians and the inhabitants of Venezuela, that 

 has given rise to the introduction of camels into 

 those provinces. The Marquis del Toro caused 

 three to be brought from Lancerota. The ex- 

 pense of conveyance was very considerable, on 

 account of the space which these animals occupy 

 on board merchant-vessels, and of the great 

 quantity of water of which they stand in need, 

 in the state of suffering to which they are re- 

 duced by a long passage. A camel, bought 

 for thirty piastres, costs between eight and nine 

 hundred on arriving on the coast of Caraccas. 

 We saw four of these animals at Mocundo; 



* Tapatapa, or La Trinidad, Cura, Mocundo, El Palmar. 



•J- For instance, the Hacienda de Santa Rosa. 



J Price in the valleys of Aragua : a papelon, or loa'f of 

 two pounds and a half weight, half a real de plata, or one 

 sixteenth of a piastre ; one pound of raw sugar, one real ; 

 &*ie pound of clayed sugar, from one real to one and a half. 



