EFFECTS OF MURAGE. J5o 
The castle is only thirty toises above the level of the water 
in the gulf of Cariaco. Standing on a naked and calcareous 
hill, it commands the town, and has a very picturesque effect 
when viewed from a vessel entering the port. It forms a 
bright object against the dark curtains of those mountains 
which raise their summits to the clouds, and of which the 
vaporous and bluish tint blends with the azure sky. On 
descending from Fort San Antonio to the south-west, we find 
on the slope of the same rock the ruins of the old castle of 
Santa Maria. This site is delightful to those who wish to 
enjoy at the approach of sunset the freshness of the breeze 
and the view of the gulf. The lofty summits of the island 
of Margareta are seen above the rocky coast of the isthmus 
of Araya, and towards the west the small islands of Caracas, 
Picuita, and Boraeha, recall to mind the catastrophes that 
have overwhelmed the coasts of Terra Firma. These islets 
resemble fortifications, and from the effect of the mirage 
(while the inferior strata of the air, the ocean, and the soil, 
are unequally heated by the sun), their points appear raised 
like the extremity of the great promontories of the coast. 
It is pleasing, during the day, to observe these inconstant 
phenomena ; we see, as night approaches, these stony masses 
which had been suspended in the air, settle down on their 
bases ; and the luminary, whose presence vivifies organic 
nature, seems by the variable inflection of its rays to impress 
motion on the stable rock, and give an undulating move- 
ment to plains covered with arid sands.* 
The town of Cum an a, properly so called, occupies the 
ground lying between the castle of San Antonio and the 
small rivers of Manzanares and Santa Catalina. The Delta, 
formed by the bifurcation of the first of these rivers, is a 
fertile plain covered with Mammees, Sapotas (aehras), plan- 
tains, and other plants cultivated in the gardens or charas of 
the Indians. The town has no remarkable edifice, and the 
frequency of earthquakes forbids such embellishments. It 
is true, that strong shocks occur less frequently in a given 
time at Cumana than at Quito, where we nevertheless find 
* The real cause of the mirage, or the extraordinary refraction which 
the rays undergo when strata of air of different densities lie over each 
other, was guessed at by Hooke. — See. his Posthumous Works, p. 472. 
