713 



lusia, Barcelona, Venezuela, and Varinas. It 

 may be observed, that these coasts have fixed 

 the attention of the mother country, too exclu- 

 sively. There we find six strong places*, pro- 

 vided with a fine and numerous artillery ; name- 

 ly, Carthagena, San Carlos de Maracaybo, Por- 

 to-Cabello, La Guayra, le Morro de Nueva 

 Barcelona, and Cumana. The eastern coasts of 

 Spanish America, those of Guayana and Buenos 

 Ayres, are low and without defence ; they fur- 

 nish to a daring enemy the facility of penetrating 

 into the country as far as the eastern back of 

 the Cordilleras of New Granada and Chili. The 

 direction-}- of the Rio Plata, formed by the 

 Uruguay, the Parana, and the Paraguay, forces 

 an invading army, when it would march toward 

 the east, to traverse the steppes (pampas) as far 

 as Cordova or Mendoza; but north of the equa- 

 tor, in Spanish Guyana, the course J of the 

 Lower Oroonoko and it's two great tributary 

 streams, the Apure and the Meta, furnish in the 

 direction of the latitude a path of rivers, which 



* Those of Carthagena and Porto Cabello are of the first 

 rank. In naming the points of defence from west to ea6t, 

 I might have mentioned also the batteries Santa Marta, Ciu- 

 dad de la Hacha, and Coro ; but these works are of little 

 importance. 



f From south to north, on an extent of land of twenty-two 

 degrees of latitude. 



X From west to east for thirteen degrees of longitude. 



