12(5 



attain, when national industry shall cease to be 

 shackled in the united provinces of Venezuela, 

 in New Grenada, in Mexico, and on the banks 

 of the river Plate. In the present state of things, 

 the coasts of Dutch Guyana, the Gulf of 

 Cariaco, the valleys of Aragua, and the pro- 

 vinces of Maracaybo and Carthagena, produce, 

 next to Brazil, the greatest quantity of cotton in 

 South America. 



During our stay at Cura, we made numerous 

 excursions to the rocky islands, that rise in the 

 midst of the lake of Valencia, to the warm 

 springs of Mariara, and to the lofty granitic 

 mountain, called el Cucurucho de Coco; a 

 dangerous and narrow path leads to the port of 

 Turiamo and the celebrated cacao-plantations 

 of the coast. In all these excursions we were 

 agreeably surprised, not only at the progress of 

 agriculture, but the increase of a free, laborious 

 population, accustomed to toil, and too poor to 

 rely on the assistance of slaves. White and 

 mulatto farmers had every where small separate 

 establishments. Our host, whose father had a 

 revenue of 40,000 piastres, possessed more lands 

 than he could clear ; he distributed them in the 

 valleys of Aragua among poor families, who 



to the value of twenty-nine millions sterling; and the value 

 of the material, in it's unwrought state, amounts to six 

 millions. 



