numerous estuaries, opposite the island of Trinidad; its chief mouth being considerably to the south-east of that island. The mouths of the Orinoco are very dangerous to navigators. The largest is six leagues in width, and seven of them are navigable for large vessels. The isles formed by these are of very great extent, and are inhabited by the Guaraounos and Mariusos Indians.

This noble river communicates with the Marañon. The river Cassiquiari, long conjectured to be a strong branch of the Orinoco, but now known to be an arm of the Negro, communicates also with the Marañon by means of the Negro; its streams having been visited by M. de Humboldt, who encountered great perils in the undertaking, by the force of the current and other obstacles. The whole country for 300 miles was a complete desert, in which the ants and mosquitoes were so extremely troublesome as almost to deter the traveller from proceeding. He entered the Orinoco by the Cassiquiari in 3° 30′ north latitude, and mounted the current of the great river as far as Esmeraldas, the last Spanish settlement in that quarter.

On the banks of the Orinoco the magnificence of the scenery is beyond description. Forests of the greatest extent are filled with aromatic trees, which diffuse the most delightful odours; birds of every singular and beauti

ful variety of plumage are every-where observed, and hordes of monkeys follow the astonished traveller. Passing these forests, enormous plains extend their verdant surfaces further than the eye can reach, and the Cataracts of the Orinoco give their name to the whole Cordillera, and are represented to be the most tremendous that have ever been observed; but no good description of these falls has yet been given, though they constitute the only outlets from the country situate on the east of the Andes to the vast plains of the Marañon. These cataracts are at Maypures and Atures, two villages in about 6° north latitude, near the great bend of the river.

With the rainy season begins the inundation of the Orinoco, which continues increasing from the end of April till the end of August. In September its waters are at their greatest height: it has then risen from 39 to 41 feet above its level when the waters are lowest. Its banks are covered, and the chief part of the Guaraon islets are immersed. In October the river begins to decrease regularly, and it continues to do so until the month of March, when its waters are at the lowest ebb. These fluctuations are regular and invariable.

Thus during the five months in which the increase of the river continues, the hemisphere of the New World presents seas only, and scarcely any land, to the perpendicular action of the

sun's rays. During the six months following the decrease of the river, the continent alone presents itself to the same action. The rains are not the first and only cause of the increase of the Orinoco; it increases obviously before the commencement of the rains; and the melting of the snows in the Cordilleras of Bogota, and the ranges of mountains proceeding from them, is no doubt the principal cause of this.

The caymans, or alligators, are very numerous, and very formidable throughout its whole length, which may be estimated at about 1250 miles.

SECTION IX.

ITS SEA, TIDES, &c.

THE sea which washes the western coasts of Colombia is the Pacific; and that on its northern shores is by the English called the Caribbean Sea, because in fact the chain of the Antilles, from Trinidad to Cuba and Tierra Firme, forms an area bounded solely by the countries anciently occupied by the Caribbees.

In the latter sea, the tides are neither very perceptible nor regular on the coast from Cape de Paria, outside the Gulf which bears that name, to Cape de la Vela. This is not the

case from Cape de Paria toward the mouth of the Amazons. Still the configuration of the coasts, the resistance which they oppose to the sea, and the waters which run in the immense rivers of South America, greatly modify the action of the tides. They rise to six or seven feet in the Gulf of Paria during the equinoxes and during the same times, the Guarapiche may be ascended from the Horquetta as far as San Bonifacio, by aid of a tide that raises the water as much as six feet. But at San Thomé de Angostura, on the Orinoco, the tide scarcely rises ten inches.

The winds are much more regular on the coasts, where nothing deranges their natural direction, than in the inland parts, where they are subjected to local influence. The common breeze on the coasts is the same which prevails at sea between the tropics, known under the name of trade winds. They blow from NE. by E. There is, however, this difference, that at sea these winds are constant, whereas upon the coasts they blow only from nine or ten o'clock in the morning till the evening. They are succeeded every night by an opposite wind, which is called the land breeze. This periodical succession is general, but not without exceptions.

An inconvenience common to all the ports of Caracas is, that they are exposed to rolling seas, to those monstrous billows, which though

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they by no means appear to be occasioned by the winds, are not upon that account the less inconvenient, nor frequently the less dangerous. The road of Porto Cabello is the only place which affords a safe and quiet retreat to the navy, where vessels can lie quietly, and mariners be free from care.

SECTION X.

DISCOVERY AND HISTORY.

THE coast of Caracas was originally discovered by Columbus in 1498, during his third expedition. Several adventurers succeeding in exploratory voyages on this part of the continent, the Spanish government came to the determination of endeavouring to place colonies on its soil. These being chiefly ill conducted, and managed by priests unacquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, did not succeed, and it was found necessary to endeavour to subdue the inhabitants by force. When this was partially effected, and Spanish settlers were placed in some security, the management of the new colonies was intrusted to the care of the Welsers, a German mercantile company. These people exercised, for a length of time, an uncontrolled sway over the