166 



feund. They are distinguished by the names of 

 f rimer a, segunda, and tercerafundacion. From 

 the oppressive monopoly of the royal farm, 

 which we have already noticed in describing the 

 town of Cumanacoa*, the inhabitants of the 

 province of Caraccas are allowed to cultivate 

 tobacco only in the valleys of Aragua (at Guaruto 

 and Tapatapa), and in the Llanos, near Uritucu. 

 The produce of the sale is from five to six hun- 

 dred thousand piastres ; but the administration 

 of the farm is so enormously expensive, that it 

 absorbs nearly two hundred and thirty thousand 

 piastres a year. The capitania- general of Ca 

 raccas, from the extent and excellent quality of 

 it's soil, could furnish, as well as the island of 

 Cuba, all the markets of Europe; but in it's 

 present state it receives tobacco from Brazil, 

 smuggled by way of the Rio Negro, the Cassi- 

 quiare, and the Oroonoko; and from the pro- 

 vince of Pore, by the Casanare, the Ariporo, and 

 the Rio Meta. Such are the fatal effects of a 

 prohibitory system, which opposes the progress 

 of agriculture, diminishes the riches of nature, 

 and attempts in vain to separate countries tra- 

 versed by the same rivers, and the limits of 

 which are confounded together in uninhabited 

 spaces. 



Among the rivers flowing into the lake of 



* Ch. vi. vol. iii, p. 57. 



