OKiai'5 OF XH£ TOWS. 
103 
?ufferiug had been aggravated by confinement; and he sank 
into the grave without seeing the dawn of those days ot in- 
«?pendeuce, which his friend Don Joseph Espana had prc- 
ditited on the scaffold prior to his execution. “ I dio, siutl 
^^at man, who was formed for the accomplishment of grand 
projects, “ I dio an ignominious death ; but my fellow citi- 
'^eus will soon piously collect my ashes, and my name will 
I’eappearwith glory.”' Theso remarkable words wereuttered 
"r the public square of Caracas, on the 8th ot May, 1799. 
. In 1790, Nueva Barcelona contained scarcely ten thousand 
“ibabitants, and in 1800, its population was more than six- 
teen thousand. The town was founded in 1637 by a Cata- 
lonian conquistador, named Juan Urpin. A fruitless attempt 
then made, to give the whole province the name of New 
'^‘italonia. As our maps often mark two towns, Barcelona 
'^nd Cumanagoto, instead of one, and as the two names are 
Considered as sjTionymous, it may be well to explain the cause 
of this error. Anciently, at the mouth of the Bio Neveri, 
there was an Indian town, built in 1588 by Lucas Faxardo, 
"'i<l named San Cristoval de los Cumanagotos. This town 
peopled solely by natives who came Irom the saltwmrks 
V* Apaicuare. J n 1637, Urpin founded, two leagues farther 
’'daiid, the Spanish town of Nueva Barcelona, which ho 
I'oopled with some of the inhabitants of Cumanagoto, toge- 
ther with some Catalonians. For thirty-four years, disputes 
t^ere incessantly arising between the two neighbouring com- 
niiinities, till in 1671, the governor Angulo succeeded inpor- 
JJhading them to establish themselves on a third .spot,where tlu 
, ®wn of Barcelona now stands. According to my observations, 
*t IS situated in lat. 10° 6' 52".* The ancient town of Cuma- 
®sgoto is celebrated in the country lor a miraculous image ot 
[ho Virgin, t which the Indians sav was found in the hollow 
•'runk of an old tutumo, or calubasii-tree (Crescentia cujete). 
his image was carried in procession to Nueva Barcelona; 
. Diese observations were made on the Plaza Jlajor, Ihey ai« 
in ^ result of sis circum-meridian heights of Canopus, taken all 
C®"® night. In " Las Memorias de Espinosa,” the latitude is stated to 
-10 9'6« The result of M. Ferrer’s observations made It 10 8 24 . 
I, , * ^-3. tnilagrosa imageu de Maria Santissima del Socorro/^ also called 
^ Virgen del Tutumo.*’ 
