DEPARTURE FROM CARACAS. 
473 
country, and numbers who have escaped from the rain of 
their dwellings are swept away by disease. Far from 
strengthening mutual confidence among the citizens, the 
feeling of misfortune destroys it ; physical calamities aug- 
ment civil discord ; nor does the aspect of a country bathed 
in tears and blood appease the fury of the victorious 
party. 
After the recital of so many calamities, the mind is 
soothed by turning to consolatory remembrances. When 
the great catastrophe of Caracas was known in the United 
States, the Congress, assembled at Washington, unanimously 
decreed that five ships laden with flour should be sent to 
the coast of Venezuela; their cargoes to be distributed 
among the most needy of the inhabitants. The generous 
contribution was received with the wannest gratitude ; and 
this solemn act of a free people, this mark of national inte- 
rest, of which the advanced civilization of the Old World 
affords but few examples, seemed to be a valuable pledge 
of the mutual sympathy which ought for ever to unite the 
nations of North and South America. 
Chapter XV. 
Departure from Caracas. — Mountains of San Pedro and of Los Teques.— 
La Victoria. — Valleys of Aragua. 
To take the shortest road from Caracas to the banks of 
the Orinoco, we should have crossed the southern chain of 
mountains between Baruta, Salamanca, and the savannahs 
of Oeumare, passed over the steppes or llanos of Orituco, 
and embarked at Cabruta, near the mouth of the Bio 
Guarico. But this direct route would have deprived us of 
the opportunity of surveying the valleys of Aragua, which 
are the finest and most cultivated portion of the province ; 
of taking the level of an important part of the chain of the 
coast by means of the barometer; and of descending th 
Bio Apure as far as its junction with the Orinoco. A 
traveller who has the intention of studying the onilguration 
and natural productions of a country is not guided by 
