3GG 
THE CARACAS ISLANDS. 
ports, lie behind those little islands. The rents in the land, 
the fracture and dip of the strata, all here denote the effects 
ei a great revolution : possibly that which clove asunder the 
chain of the primitive mountains, and separated the mica- 
S< p A ru y a an d island of Margareta from the gneiss 
ot Cape Codera. Several of the islands are visible at 
Cumana, from the terraces of the houses, and they produce, 
according to the superposition of layers of air more or less 
heated, the most singular effects of suspension and mirage. 
J he height oi the rocks does not probably' exceed one hun- 
dred and fifty toises ; but at night, when lighted by the moon 
they seem to be of a very considerable elevation. * 
It may appear extraordinary, to find the Caracas Islands 
so distant from the city of that name, opposite the coast of the 
C umanagotos ; but the denomination of Caracas denoted at 
the beginning of the Conquest, not a particular spot, but a 
trl “®. of y nilaus : neighbours of the Tecs, the Taramaynas, 
and the Chagaragates. As we came very near this group of 
mountainous islands, we were becalmed ; and at sunrise 
small currents drifted us toward Boracha, the largest of 
them. As the rocks rise nearly perpendicular, the shore is 
abrupt ; and in a subsequent voyage I saw frigates at anchor 
almost touching the land. The temperature of the atmo- 
sphere became sensibly higher whilst we were sailing amon<* 
the islands of this little archipelago- The rocks, heated 
during the day, throw out at night, by radiation, a part of the 
heat absorbed. _ As the sun arose on the horizon, the rugged 
mountains projected their yast shadows on the surface of 
the ocean. The flamingoes began to fish in places where they 
found in a creek calcareous rocks bordered by a narrow 
beach. All these islands are now entirely uninhabited; hut 
upon one of the Caracas are found wild goats of large size 
brown and extremely swift. Our Indian pilot assured us 
that their flesh has an excellent flavour. Thirty years ago a 
family of whites settled on this island, where they cultivated 
maize and cassava. The father alone survived his children. 
As Ins wealth increased, he purchased two black slaves ; and 
by these slaves he was murdered. The goats became wild, 
tut the cultivated plants perished. Maize in America, like 
n heat in Europe, connected with man since his first migra- 
tions, appears to be preserved only by his care. We some- 
