189 



they would be restored to a part of their former 

 fertility. 



The city of Nueva Valencia occupies a consi- 

 derable extent of ground, but it's population 

 scarcely amounts to six or seven thousand souls. 

 The streets are very broad, the dimensions of the 

 market place, plaza major, are excessive ; and, 

 the houses being low, the disproportion between 

 the population of the town, and the space that 

 it occupies, is still greater than at Caraccas. 

 Many of the Whites, above all the poorest, for- 

 sake their houses, and live the greater part of 

 the year in their little plantations of indigo and 

 cotton, where they can venture to work with 

 their own hands ; which, according to the inve- 

 terate prejudices of that country, would be a 

 disgrace to them in the town. The industry of 

 the inhabitants begins in general to awaken ; 

 and the cultivation of cotton has considerably 

 augmented, since new privileges have been 

 granted to the trade of Porto-Cabello, and since 

 that port has been opened as a principal port * , 

 to vessels that come directly from the mother 

 country. 



Nueva Valencia, founded in 1555 under the 

 government of Villacinda, by Alonzo Diaz Mo- 

 reno, is twelve years older than Caraccas. We 

 have already shown elsewhere, that the Spanish 



* Puerto mayor, since 1798. 



