78 



The ancient town of Cunianagoto is celebrated 

 in the country for a miraculous image of the 

 Virgin *, which the Indians say was found in the 

 hollow trunk of a tutumo, or old calebash tree 

 (crescentia cujete). This virgin was carried 

 in procession to Nueva Barcelona ; but when- 

 ever the clergy were dissatisfied with the inha- 

 bitants of the new city, she fled away at 

 night, and returned to the trunk of the tree 

 at the mouth of the river. This prodigy did 

 not cease, till a large and fine convent (the 

 college of the Propaganda) was built, to receive 

 the monks of Saint Francis. We have seen 

 above, that, in a similar case, the bishop of 

 Caraccas caused the image of Our Lady de los 

 Valencianos to be placed in the archives of the 

 bishoprick, where she remained thirty years 

 under seal. 



The climate of Barcelona is not so hot as 

 that of Cumana, but extremely damp, and 



8' 40". I have elsewhere discussed the longitude of 

 Nueva Barcelona, and the results of* my chronometrical de- 

 terminations compared with those of Messrs, Fidalgo and 

 Ferrer (Observ. Astr. Tom. ii, p. 80). On the banks of the 

 Rio Unare, and farther west on the Rio Ucheri, near the 

 beautiful valley of Cupira, so abundant in cacao, there exist- 

 ed two other towns in the seventeenth century, by the names 

 of Tarragona and San Miguel de Batei. 



* La milagrosa imagen de Maria Santissima del Socorro, 

 also called la Virgen del T utumo. 



