711 



cause political events have recently given great 

 importance to those thinly inhabited countries. 

 I have discussed the different projects according 

 to the knowledge of the local circumstances of 

 the Lower Oroonoko, which my situation and 

 my connexions with the Spanish government 

 enabled me to acquire. It is time to oppose 

 the mania, so common in the Spanish and Por- 

 tugueze colonies, of transplanting towns like a 

 camp of nomade tribes. It is not the importance 

 or solidity of the public edifices, which forbids 

 the destruction of the town of Angostura. It's 

 situation at the foot of a rock seems to limit the 

 means of enlarging it. Notwithstanding these 

 inconveniencies, however, it is better not to de- 

 stroy what has prospered for fifty years. Ideas of 

 general stability are insensibly annexed to the ex- 

 istence of a capital, however small; and, if the in- 

 terests of commerce require a partial change, ano- 

 ther port might be constructed nearer the great 

 mouth of the Oroonoko, and Angostura be still 

 preserved as the seat of administration, and the 

 centre of public business. Thus, la Guayra is 

 the harbour of Caraccas ; and Vera Cruz may 

 one day become the port of Xalapa. The ves- 

 sels of Europe, and of the United States of 

 America, that may come to stay some months 

 in those latitudes, would willingly go as far up 

 as Angostura ; while other vessels wpuld take 



