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prove to the old world the political importance 

 of Venezuela, the amazing territorial wealth of 

 which is founded on agriculture and the produce 

 of pastoral life, to describe as realities, or as 

 the conquests of industry, what is, as yet, 

 founded solely on hopes, and probabilities 

 more or less uncertain. The republic of Co- 

 lumbia possesses also on its coast, on the Island 

 of Marguerita, on the Rio Hacha, and in the 

 gulf of Panama, pearl fisheries of ancient cele- 

 brity. In the present state of things, however, 

 these pearls are as insignificant an object as the 

 exportation of the metals of Venezuela. The 

 existence of metallic veins on several points of 

 the coast cannot be doubted. Mines of gold 

 and silver were worked, at the beginning of the 

 conquest, at Buria, near Barquesimeto, in the 

 province of Los Mariches, Baruta, on the south 

 of Caraccas, and at Real de Santa Barbara, near 

 the Villa de Cura. Grains of gold are found in 

 the whole mountainous territory between Rio 

 Yaracuy, the Villa de San Felipe and Nirgua, 

 as well as between Guigue and los Moros de 

 San Juan. Mr, Bonpland and myself, during 

 our long journey, saw nothing in the gneis-gra- 

 nite of Spanish Guyana to confirm the ancient 

 belief of the metallic wealth of that district ; 

 yet it seems certain, from several historical in- 

 dications, that there exist two groupes of auri- 

 ferous alluvial land ; one, between the sources of 



