CITT Ot CARACAS. 
401 
Coro, have nothing Indian but their names. Compared with 
the three capitals of equinoctial America,* situated on the 
mountains, and enjoying a temperate climate, Caracas is the 
least elevated. It is not a central point of commerce, like 
Mexico, Santa l'Y> de Bogota, and Quito. Each of the seven 
provinces united in one capitauia-general has a port, bv 
which its produce is exported. It is sufficient to consider 
the position of the provinces, their respective degree of 
intercourse with the Windward Islands, the direction of the 
mountains, and the course of the great rivers, to perceive 
that Caracas can never exercise any powerful political in- 
fluence over the territories of which’ it is the capital. The 
Apure, the Meta, and the Orinoco, running from west to 
east, receive all the streams of the llanos, or the region of 
pasturage. St. Thomas de la Guiana will necessarily, at some 
future day, be a trading-place of high importance, especially 
when the flour of New Grenada, embarked above the con- 
fluence of the Eio Negro and the ITmadea, and descending 
by the Meta and Orinoco, shall be preferred at Caracas and 
Guiana to the flour of New England. It is a great advan- 
tage to the provinces of Venezuela, that their territorial 
wealth is not directed to one point, like that of Mexico and 
New Grenada, which flows to Vera Cruz and Carthagena; 
but that they possess a great number of towns equally well 
peopled, and forming various centres of commerce and 
civilization. 
The city of Caracas is seated at the entrance of the plain 
of Chacao, which extends three leagues eastward, in the 
direction of Caurimare and the Cuesta de Auyamas, and is 
two leagues and a half in breadth. This plain, through 
which runs the Eio Guayra, is at the elevation of four hun- 
dred and fourteen toises above the level of the sea. The 
ground on which the city of Caracas is built is uneven, and 
has a steep slope from N.N.W. to S.S.E. To form an accu- 
rate idea of the situation of Caracas, we must bear in mind 
the general direction of the mountains of the coast, and the 
great longitudinal valleys by which they are traversed. The 
* Mexico, Santa Fe de BogotJi, and Quito. The elevation of the 
site of the capital of Guatimala is still unknown. Judging from the 
vegetation, we may infer that it is less than 500 toisea. 
von. i. 2 o 
