POSITION OP CAEACAS. 
403 
tracing this chain * from Porto Cabolio as far as Maniquarez 
and Macanao, in the island of Margareta, to find, from west 
to east, first granite, then gneiss, mica-slate, and primitive 
schist ; and finally, compact limestone, gypsum, and conglo- 
merates containing sea-shells. 
It is to be regretted that the town of Caracas was not 
built farther to the east, below the entrance of the Anauco 
into the Gluayra ; on that spot near Chacao, where the valley 
widens into an extensive plain, which seems to have been 
levelled by the waters. Diego de LoBada, when he founded! 
the town, followed no doubt the traces of the first establish- 
ment made by Paxardo. At that time, the Spaniards, at- 
tracted by the high repute of the two gold mines of Los 
Teques and Baruta, were not yet masters of the whole 
valley, and preferred remaining near the road leading to the 
coast. The town of Quito is also built in the narrowest 
and most uneven part of a valley, between two fine plains, 
JLurupamba and Bumipamba. 
The descent is uninterrupted from the custom-house of 
the Pastora, by the square of Trinidad and the Plaza Mayor, 
to Santa Bosalia, and the Bio Guayra. This declivity of the 
ground does not prevent carriages from going about the 
town ; but the inhabitants make little use of them. Three 
small rivers, descending from the mountains, the Anauco, 
the Catuche, and the Caraguata, intersect the town, running 
from north to south. Them banks are very high ; and, with 
the dried-up ravines which join them, furrowing the ground, 
they remind the traveller of the famous Guaicos of Quito’ 
only on a smaller scale. The water used for drinking at 
Caracas is that of the Bio Catuche ; but the richer class of 
the inhabitants have their water brought from La Valle, a 
village a league distant on the south. This water and that 
of Gamboa are considered very salubrious, because they flow 
over the roots of sarsaparilla. J I could not discover in 
* I have spoken, in the preceding chapter, p. 374, of the interruption 
m the chain of the coast to the east of Cape Codera. 
*1 The foundation of Santiago de Leon de Caracas dates from 1567, 
and is posterior to that of Cumana, Coro, Nueva Barcelona, and Caraval- 
leda, or El Collado. 
£ Throughout America water is supposed to share the properties of 
those plants undei the shade of which it flows. Thus, at the Strait 
2 T) 2 
