culation is become general, and Humboldt has seen it practised without the aid of physicians. In the province of Cumana, where the communications with Europe are less frequent, there had not been in his time one instance of the small-pox during fifteen years; while at Caracas that cruel malady was constantly dreaded, because it always shewed itself sporadically on several points at a time. We say sporadically, for in equinoctial America, where the changes of the atmosphere, and the phenomena of organic life, seem subject to a remarkable periodicalness, the small-pox, before the benevolent introduction of the vaccine disease, exerted its ravages only, if we may place confidence in general belief, every fifteen or twenty years. Since Humboldt's return to Europe, the population of Caracas has continued to augment. It amounted to 50,000 souls, when, at the great earthquake of the 26th March 1812, 12,000 of the inhabitants perished; and in the passing of a moment these devoted people were thus reduced to 38,000. As if an enormous mine had been exploded under the city, the earth was upheaved to a tremendous height, and these unfortunate persons were swallowed up, or perished amid the ruins of their houses. The political events which have succeeded this catastrophe, have reduced the number of inhabitants to less than 20,000; but these losses will soon be repaired, as the fertile and com

mercial country of which Caracas is the centre, will now have the happiness of enjoying repose, and a wise administration.❤

If the atmospheric constitution of the val ley of Caracas be favourable to the different kinds of culture upon which colonial industry is founded, it is not equally so to the health of the inhabitants, and the strangers settled in the capital of Venezuela. The great inconstancy of the weather, and the frequent suppression of cutaneous perspiration, give birth to catarrhal affections, which assume the most different forms. A European once accustomed to the violent heat, enjoys better health at Cumana, in the valley of Aragua, and in every place where the low region of the tropics is not very humid, than at Caracas, and in those mountain climates which are boasted of as the abode of perpetual spring.

Speaking of the yellow fever of La Guayra, the opinion generally adopted is, that this cruel disease is propagated as little from the coast of Venezuela to the capital, as from the coast of Mexico to Xalapa. This opinion is founded on the experience of the last twenty years. The contagious disorders which have exerted their ravages in the port of La Guayra were scarcely felt at Caracas. "I would not, says

*For a more minute account of manners at Caracas, see Chapter III.

Humboldt, disturb, by groundless terrors, the security enjoyed by the inhabitants of the capital; but I am not convinced that the American typhus, rendered endemic on the coast as the port becomes more frequented, if it be favoured by particular dispositions of the climate, will not become common in the valley; for the mean temperature of Caracas is considerable enough to allow the thermometer in the hottest months to keep between twentytwo and twenty-six degrees.* If there be no doubt that the typhus in the temperate zone is communicated by contact, can we be certain, that in a high degree of exacerbation, it would not be equally contagious by contact under the torrid zone, in places where, within four leagues of the coast, the predisposition of the organs is favoured by the temperature of summer? The situation of Xalapa, on the declivity of the Mexican mountains, promises more security, because this town, less populous, is five times farther distant from the sea than Caracas, and two hundred and thirty toises higher; and its mean temperature is three degrees cooler. In 1696, a bishop of Venezuela, Diego de Banos, dedicated a church (ermita) to Santa Rosalia of Palermo, for having delivered the capital from the scourge of the black vomit, after its ravages had lasted sixteen

* Between 17° and 20-8° Reaum.

months. A mass celebrated every year in the cathedral, in the beginning of September, has perpetuated the memory of this epidemic, in the same manner as processions have fixed in the Spanish colonies the date of the great earthquakes. The year 1696 was indeed very remarkable for the yellow fever, which prevailed with violence in all the West India islands, where it had only begun to establish its empire in 1688. But how can we give credit to an epidemical black vomit, which lasted sixteen months without interruption, and which may be said to have passed through that very cool season when the thermometer at Caracas falls to twelve or thirteen degrees? Can the typhus be more ancient in the elevated valley of Caracas, than in the most frequented ports of Tierra Firme? According to Ulloa it was unknownin these latter before 1729. We may doubt, therefore, the epidemic of 1696 having been the yellow fever, or the real typhus of America. Black evacuations often accompany bilious remittent fevers; and are no more characteristic than hematemeses of that severe disease now known at the Havannah and Vera, Cruz by the name of vomito. But if no accurate description demonstrate that the typhus of America existed at Caracas as early as the end of the seventeenth century, it is unhappily too certain, that this disease carried off in that capital a great number of young European

soldiers in 1802. It is distressing to reflect, that, in the centre of the torrid zone, a tableland four hundred and fifty toises high, but very near the sea, does not preserve the inhabitants from a scourge, which was believed to belong only to the low regions of the coast."

SECTION III.

OTHER TOWNS OF VENEZUELA AND CORO.

We may take these generally in the order of their population.

1. Cono is the principal place of the province of that name, and is situate in 11° north latitude, and 72° 30' west longitude, on an isthmus which divides the Gulf of Venezuela, or Maracaibo, from the Caribbean Sea. Coro is 80 leagues west of Caracas, 65 north of Maracaibo, and 33 north-west of Barquisimeto. This city is placed on a dry sandy plain, covered with Indian figs, or plants of the cactus family. It is supplied with fruit and vegetables from some fertile plains three leagues distant.

Coro was founded in 1527, and was the second settlement made by Europeans on this coast. Its fortunate situation for trading with