205 



also cold and temperate climates ; it is a country of bananas 

 and of wheat. The ccrealia of Europe are already cultivated on 

 the mountains of Merida and Truxillo (at la Puerta, and near 

 St. Ana, on the south of Carachi), in the vallies of Aragua, 

 near Victoria, and of San Matheo, and in the country, some- 

 what mountainous, between Tocuyo, Quibor, and Barquesi- 

 meto, which forms the ridge of partition between the streams 

 which unite with the Apure and the Oroonoko, and those 

 which fall into the Caribbean Sea. It is a fact worthy of 

 particular attention, that wheat is cultivated in several of these 

 places at a height that does not exceed 270 to 300 toises above 

 the level of the sea, amidst the cultivation of coffee-trees, 

 sugar-cane, and in places where the mean temperature of the 

 year is at least 25°. In the equinoctial region of Mexico and 

 New Grenada, the cerealia yield abundantly, only at 42° and 

 46° latitude, a height at which its cultivation ceases in Eu- 

 rope * - y at Venezuela and in the Island of Cuba, on the con- 



from the government of Venezuela, which, according to him, 

 comprehends only the province of Caraccas. The Republic 

 of Venezuela, founded July 5th, 1811, and restored August 

 16th, 1813, was united to the Republic of Cundinamarca 

 (Dec. 17th, 1819), by the name of Columbia, and since that 

 union the name of Venezuela has been again officially re- 

 strained (Feb. 1822) to a department comprehending the 

 provinces of Caraccas and Varinas. Amidst these fluctuations 

 there is a risk of confounding a country twice as large as 

 Spain, with another less than the state of Virginia, if the pre- 

 cise sense in which the word Venezuela is employed, be not 

 determined. Regarding this name as identical with that of 

 Capitania-general of Caraccas, we obtain a collective designa- 

 tion for the whole eastern part of Columbia, and we may say 

 Venezuela, as we do Mexico, Chili, or Peru. 



* At 900 and 1100 toises elevation, the fields of wheat and 

 rye disappear in the maritime Alps and in Provence. See the 



