204 



year is 13 0 and 18'5 0 cent, (the great mountainous table-lands 

 of Quito, Los Pastos, Bogota, Tunja, Velez, and Leyva), 

 forgetting that the whole northern and western part of New 

 Grenada is alow and humid country, enjoying a mean tem- 

 perature of 26° to 28°, and consequently fitted for the pro- 

 ductions which in Europe are exclusively termed colonial. 

 Venezuela (and I always intend to designate by that name the 

 territory * of the ancient Capitania -general of Caraccas), has 



tries are called cold, of which the temperature of the year 

 rises above that of Milan and Montpellier ; but it must not 

 be forgotten that in those cities the mean temperature of 

 the summer is 22*8° and 24*3° ; while at Quito, for instance, 

 the days are generally during the whole year, between 15'6o 

 and 19-3°, and the nights between 9° and 11°. The heat 

 never rises beyond 22° j and the cold -f- 6° of the centigrade 

 thermometer. The tierras frias, at the height of Santa-Fe 

 (1365 toises), and Quito (1492 toises), have, during the 

 whole year, the temperature of Paris in the month of May. 

 As the division of heat at various times of the year is so dif- 

 ferent in the torrid and the temperate zones, in order to give 

 an exact idea of the climate of any spot situated in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the equator, the surest method is to compare it 

 with the temperature of a month in the temperate region of 

 Europe. 



* The term Venezuela was employed in this sense at the 

 installation of the congress at Angostura, February 15th, 

 1819, at which the deputies of Caraccas, Barcelona, Cumana, 

 Varinas and Guyana were assembled. The maps of La Cruz 

 and of Lopez use the terms, Province of Caraccas, and Vene- 

 zuela, as synonimous. The captain-general, residing at Ca- 

 raccas, and governing the country from the mouth of the 

 Oroonoko as far as the Rio Tachira, was called Capitan general 

 de la Provincia de V enezuela y Ciadad de Caracas. M. Depons, 

 in his statistics, distinguishes the Capitania-general of Caraccas 



