44 
THE EALT- WORKS. 
believe that the insalubrity of the air is owing to the fresh 
water, that is, to the overflowings of the Guayguaza and Este- 
van, the swell of which is so great and sudden in the months 
of October and November. The banks of the Bio Estevan 
have been less insalubrious since little plantations of maize 
and plantains have been established; and, by raising and 
hardening the ground, the river has been confined within 
narrower limits. A plan is formed of giving another issue 
to the Bio San Estevan, and thus to render the environs of 
Porto Cabello more wholesome. A canal is to lead the 
waters toward that part of the coast which is opposite the 
island of G-uayguaza. 
The salt-works of Porto Cabello somewhat resemble those 
of the peninsula of Araya, near Cumana. The earth, how- 
ever, which they lixivate by collecting the rain-water into 
small basins, contains less salt. It is questioned here, as 
at Cumana, whether the ground be impregnated with saline 
particles because it has been for ages covered at intervals 
with sea-water evaporated by the heat of the sun, or 
whether the soil be muriatiferous, as in a mine very poor 
in native salt. I had not leisure to examine this plain with 
the same attention as the peninsula of Araya. Besides, 
does not this problem reduce itself to the simple question, 
whether the salt be owing to new or very ancient inunda- 
tions ? The labouring at the salt-works of Porto Cabello 
being extremely unhealthy, the poorest men alone engage 
in it. They collect the salt in little stores, and afterwards 
sell it to the shopkeepers in the town. 
During our abode at Porto Cabello, the current on the 
coast, generally directed towards the west,* ran from west 
to east. This upward current (corriente por arriba), is 
very frequent during two or three months of the year, from 
September to November. It is believed to be owing to 
some north-west winds that have blown between Jamaica 
and Cape St. Antony in the island of Cuba. 
* The wrecks of the Spanish ships, burnt at the island of Trinidad, at 
the time of its occupation by the English in 1797, were carried by the 
general or rotary current to Punta Brava, near Porto Cabello. This 
general current toward the east, from the coasts of Paria to the isthmus 
of Panama and the western extremity of the island of Cuba, was the 
subject of a violent dispute between Don Diego Columbus, Oviedo, and 
the pilot Andres, in the sixteenth century. 
