COAST-DEFEACEQ. 
45 
Tlio military defence of the coasts of Terra Pinna rests 
on sis points : the castle of San Antonio at Cumana ; 
the Morro of JNueva Barcelona; the fortifications of La 
Cxnayra, (mounting one hundred and thirty-four guns) ; 
imrto Cabello ; fort San Carlos, (at the mouth of the lake 
k Maraeaybo) ; and Caithagena. Porto Cahello is, next to 
Carthagena, the most /important fortified place. The town 
oi Porto Cabello is quite modem, and the port is one of 
the finest m the world. Art has had scarcely any- 
nmg to add to the advantages which the nature of the 
S ^^iJ ,rHSC i rit i 3 i' ^ nec ^ land stretches first towards the 
no , and. then towards the west. Its western extremity 
is opposite to a range of islands connected by bridges, and 
so close together that they might be taken for another neck 
i an ‘ c '® 86 ls l an( L are all composed of a calcareous 
reccia of extremely recent formation, and analagous to 
that on the coast of Cumana, and near the castle of Araya. 
it is a conglomerate, containing fragments of madrepores 
and other corals cemented by a limestone basis and grains 
ol sand. IV e had already seen this conglomerate near the 
^ayguaza. By a singular disposition of the ground 
the port resembles a basin or a little inland lake, the south- 
ern extremity of which is filled with little islands covered 
,-n,uJu a ^ gr0Ves ' , The 0 P eni ng of the port towards the west 
contributes mHch to the smoothness of the water.* One 
vessel only can enter at a time ; but the largest ships of the 
hue can anchor very near land to take in water. There is 
no other danger in entering the harbour than the reefs of 
unta Brava, opposite which a battery of eight guns has 
for? T\‘ d : T ™! 5 SS 
K P ™., 18 a pentagon with five bastions, the 
battery of the reef, and the fortifications that surround the 
anuent town, founded on an island of a trapezoidal form. 
1 " S e and the fortified gate of the Staccado join the old 
e new town ; the latter is already larger than the 
disputed at Porto Cabello whether the port takes its name 
(cabell \ & ” ail ^ ul llity of its waters, “which would not more a hair 
one nfth n more probable) derived from Antonio Cabello, 
conn -• 6 tls ^ ermen / w ^ whom the smugglers of Cura^oa had formed a 
i ip ,* 10n *‘ ie period when the first hamlet was constructed on thi* 
hait-desirt coast 
