TILLAGE OF TUEMEHO. 
499 
quesimeto, which connect the littoral chain with the Sierra 
Nevada of Merida. Wheat is still successfully cultivated 
there, and the environs of the town of Tocuyo alone export 
annually more than eight thousand quintals of excellent 
flour. But, though the province of Caracas, in its vast ex- 
tent, includes several spots very favourable to the cultivation 
of European com, I believe that in general this branch of 
agriculture will never acquire any great importance there. 
The most temperate valleys are not sufficiently wide ; they 
are not real table-lands; and their mean elevation above the 
level of the sea is not so considerable but that the inhabitants 
cannot fail to perceive that it is more their interest to estab- 
lish plantations of coffee, than to cultivate corn. Flour now 
comes to Caraeas either from Spain or from the United States. 
The village of Turmero is four leagues distant from San 
Mateo. The road leads through plantations of sugar, indigo, 
cotton, aud coffee. The regularity observable in the con- 
struction of the villages, reminded 11s that they all owe 
their origin to monks and missions. The streets are straight 
and parallel, crossing each other at right angles ; and the 
church is invariably erected in the great square, situated in 
the centre of the village. The church of Turmero is a 
fine edifice, but overloaded with architectural ornaments. 
Since the missionaries have been replaced by vicars, the 
whites have mingled their habitations with those of the 
Indians. The latter are gradually disappearing as a sepa- 
rate race ; that is to say, they are represented in the general 
statement of the population by the Mestizoes and the Zam- 
boes, whose numbers daily increase. I still found, however, 
four thousand tributary Indians in the valleys of Aragua. 
Those of Turmero and Guacara are the most numerous. 
They are of small stature, but less squat than the Chaymas ; 
their eyes denote more vivacity and intelligence, owing less 
perhaps to a diversity in the race, than to a superior state 
of civilization. They work like freemen by the day. Though 
active and laborious during the short time they allot to 
labour, yet what they earn in two months is spent in one 
week, in the purchase of strong liquors at the small inns, of 
which unhappily the numbers daily increase. 
W c saw at Turmero the remains of the assembled militia 
2 k 2 
