233 



the establishment of dock yards. The wood of 

 the mountain of Paria may vie with that of the 

 Isle of Cuba, Huasacualco, Guayaquil, and San 

 Bias. The Spanish government had, at the end 

 of the last century, fixed its attention on this 

 important object. Marine engineers were sent 

 to mark the finest trunks of Brazil-wood, ma- 

 hogany, cedrela, and laurinea, between Angos- 

 tura and the mouth of the Oroonoko, as well as 

 on the banks of the gulf of Paria, vulgarly 

 called Golfo triste. It was not intended to es- 

 tablish dock and yards on the spot, but to hew 

 the weighty timber into the form necessary for 

 ship building, and to transport it in the king's 

 ships to Caraque, near Cadiz. Although trees 

 proper for masts are not found in this country, 

 it was yet hoped that the execution of this pro- 

 ject would considerably diminish the importa- 

 tion of timber from Sweden and Norway. The 

 establishment was attempted in a very un- 

 healthy spot*, in the valley of Quebranta, near 

 Guirie; I have already mentioned in another 

 place, the causes of its destruction. The insa- 

 lubrity of the place would, doubtless, have di- 

 minished in proportion as the forest ( el monte 

 virgen) would have been removed from the 

 dwellings of the inhabitants. Mullattoes, and 

 not whites, ought to have been employed in 



* Vol. iii, p. 83. 



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