according to Bolingbroke, nearly 10,000 inhabitants.) At the time of
my abode in Guiana, however, it was far from being equal to that of
Stabroek, the nearest English town. The mouths of the Orinoco have an
advantage over every other part in Terra Firma. They afford the most
prompt communications with the Peninsula. The voyage from Cadiz to
Punta Barima is performed sometimes in eighteen or twenty days. The
return to Europe takes from thirty to thirty-five days. These mouths
being placed to windward of all the islands, the vessels of Angostura
can maintain a more advantageous commerce with the West Indies than La
Guayra and Porto Cabello. The merchants of Caracas, therefore, have
been always jealous of the progress of industry in Spanish Guiana; and
Caracas having been hitherto the seat of the supreme government, the
port of Angostura has been treated with still less favour than the
ports of Cumana and Nueva Barcelona. With respect to the inland trade,
the most active is that of the province of Varinas, which sends mules,
cacao, indigo, cotton, and sugar to Angostura; and in return receives
generos, that is, the products of the manufacturing industry of
Europe. I have seen long boats (lanchas) set off, the cargoes of which
were valued at eight or ten thousand piastres. These boats went first
up the Orinoco to Cabruta; then along the Apure to San Vicente; and
finally, on the Rio Santo Domingo, as far as Torunos, which is the
port of Varinas Nuevas. The little town of San Fernando de Apure, of
which I have already given a description, is the magazine of this
river-trade, which might become more considerable by the introduction
of steamboats.

I have now described the country through which we passed during a
voyage of five hundred leagues; it remains for me to make known the
small space of three degrees fifty-two minutes of longitude, that
separates the present capital from the mouth of the Orinoco. Exact