CONSTJMPTTOX or SAIT. 
181 
- ^ le consumption of salt amounted, in 1799 and 1800 
f the two provinces of Cumana* and Barcelona, to nine or 
ten thou san d f omegas, each sixteen arrobas, or four hundred- 
wei g ht Ihis consumption is very considerable, and rives, 
wo deduct from the total population fifty thousand 
Indians, who eat very little salt, sixty pounds for each 
person. Salt beef, called tasajo, is the most important 
article of export from Barcelona. Of nine or ten thousand 
jrneyas furnished by the two provinces conjointly, three thou- 
sand only are produced by the salt-works of Araya; the 
rest is extracted from the sea-water at the Morro of Bar- 
celona, at Pozuelos, at Piritu, and in the Golfo Triste In 
Mexico, the salt lake of Pefion Blanco alone furnishes 
JE&ErS *” hmM “ a mi ‘ lon “ ,d 
“l- POMesses toe saltworks at Los 
’ i l V . 11Ch ^°- rmCr y existed at the small island of 
rtnga, where the soil is strongly impregnated with muriate 
of soda were destroyed by order of the Spanish government, 
A canal was made by which the sea has free access to the 
salt-marshes. Foreign nations who have colonies in the 
West Indies frequented this uninhabited island; and the 
court of Madrid, from views of suspicious policy, was appre- 
hensxve that the salt-works of Tortuga woulcfgive Se to 
settlements, by means of which an illicit trade would be 
carried on with Terra-!Firina. 
The royal administration of the salt-works of Araya dates 
on y from the year 1792. Before that period they were in 
the hands of Indian fishermen, who manufactured salt at 
°l my vis! . t0 that com,tr - v the government of Cumana 
The-nrl 16 tw °P ro '? nces of New Andalusia and New Barcelona. 
Le„ r V,riCe an<1 S °rT°’ 01 government of Cumana, are consel 
S a canon a°d^° US, f . Catalouian ’ Juan de Ur I-in, who had been by 
urns a canon, a doctor ot laws, a counsellor in St. Domingo, and a private 
lom'and «» 1630, the eit/o'f New Ct 
lufial tn the nrn ' ° 113,06 of New Catalonia (Nueva Catha- 
canbll P ° W i 1,Ch thia newl y constructed city became the 
capital. This attempt was fruitless ; and it is from the capital that the 
been raiX C n M Tf' A* 1 ' 06 de P arture America, it has 
name f p 1 th e rank of a Govierno. In New Andalusia, the Indian 
5,°“? o f C “T ana has superseded the names Nueva Toledo and Nueva 
S-ordoba, which we find on the maps of the seventeenth century. 
