Cumaná

“ This part of Cumana, as well as all the country lying towards the east, is nearly uninhabited by Europeans, but a new town has lately been founded at Punta de Piedra, opposite Spanish harbour in Trinidad; and people are daily forming settlements along the coast and in the fertile valleys of the interior; of which, Concepcion del Pao, forty-five leagues south of Barcelona, fifty-five from Cumana, and twenty-eight south-east of Caraccas, has lately been raised to the rank of a city, and contains 2300 persons, mostly proprietors of cattle and land in the northern plains of the Orinoco. ”

“ When the town was founded by Domingo Arias in 1717, he named it San Baltazar de las Arias, but as in the case of Cumaná, the old Italian name of the district has ousted the later Spanish one. Above Cumanacoa the valley narrows down into a gorge running up into the mountain-mass on the borders of Sucre and Monágas, the watershed forming the boundary between the two States. On the high, open grass-lands there is pasturage for many more sheep and cattle than one sees at present, and the change in climate from the hot, damp valleys is very pleasant, though somewhat sudden. ”

“ But since December 1797, new communications appear to have been opened in the interior of the globe. The peninsula of Araya is now not merely subject to the same agitations as the soil of Cumana, but the promontory of mica-slate, previously free from earthquakes, has become in its turn a central point of commotion. The earth is sometimes strongly shaken at the village of Maniquarez, when on the coast of Cumana the inhabitants enjoy the most perfect tranquillity. The gulf of Cariaco, nevertheless, is only sixty or eighty fathoms deep. ”

“ The town of Cumana, properly so called, occupies the ground lying between the castle of San Antonio and the small rivers of Manzanares and Santa Catalina. The Delta, formed by the bifurcation of the first of these rivers, is a fertile plain covered with Mammees, Sapotas (achras) , plantains, and other plants cultivated in the gardens or charas of the Indians. The town has no remarkable edifice, and the frequency of earthquakes forbids such embellishments. ”

“ And my old pilot, a man of great travel, brother to the cacique Toparimaca, told me that those were called the plains of the Sayma, and that the same level reached to Cumana and Caracas, in the West Indies, which are a hundred and twenty leagues to the north, and that there inhabited four principal nations. The first were the Sayma, the next Assawai, the third and greatest the Wikiri, by whom Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, before mentioned, was overthrown as he passed with 300 horse from Cumana towards Orenoque in his enterprise of Guiana. ”

“ When I came to Cumana in the West Indies afterwards by chance I spake with a Spaniard dwelling not far from thence, a man of great travel. And after he knew that I had been in Guiana, and so far directly west as Caroli, the first question he asked me was, whether I had seen any of the Ewaipanoma, which are those without heads. Who being esteemed a most honest man of his word, and in all things else, told me that he had seen many of them ”

“ This Intendencia is one-third smaller than the two provinces of Cumana and Barcelona; yet it contains more than four hundred thousand natives of pure copper-coloured race. The Indians of Cumana do not all live within the Missions. Some are dispersed in the neighbourhood of the towns, along the coasts, to which they are attracted by the fisheries, and some dwell in little farms on the plains or savannahs. The Missions of the Aragonese Capuchins which we visited, alone contain fifteen thousand Indians, almost all of the Chayma race. ”

“ A European acquainted only with the opuntia in our hot-houses is surprised to see the wood of this plant become so hard from age, that it resists for centuries both air and moisture: the Indians of Cumana therefore employ it in preference to any other for oars and door-posts. Cumana, Coro, the island of Margareta, and Curassao, are the parts of South America that abound most in plants of the nopal family. ”

“ Near Cumana, at the farther end of the gulf of Cariaco, is the little town of Cariaco, in the middle of a large plain filled with plantations, huts and groups of cocoa and palms; on a hill behind this town, at some distance, and named Buenavista, may be seen the range of mountains which stretch towards the east under the names of Sierra de Paria and Areo; from this hill it is said the most extensive view is to be had which can be seen on the coast of Cumana. ”

“ By them the well-intended effort of the famous lieutenant Las Casas to found a colony at Cumaná was defeated with bloodshed in the year 1521. Only in Coro, on the narrow, arid isthmus that connects the peninsula of Paraguana with the country around Lake Maracaybo, Juan de Ampues succeeded in 1527, with seventy men, in founding a colony and establishing friendly relations with the Coquetìos Indians around him. ”

“ In the port towns of the province of Venezuela, as Cumana, Coro, and St. Iago (whereof Coro and St. Iago were taken by Captain Preston, and Cumana and St. Josepho by us) we found not the value of one real of plate in either. But the cities of Barquasimeta, Valencia, St. Sebastian, Cororo, St. Lucia, Laguna, Maracaiba, and Truxillo, are not so easily invaded. Neither doth the burning of those on the coast impoverish the king of Spain any one ducat ”

“ In treating of Cumana we must not omit mentioning the history of the visit paid to this coast by Las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa in Guatimala. Bartolemeo de Las Casas who was born at Seville in 1474, and when only nineteen years of age, accompanied his father and Columbus to the west Indies, returning to Spain after an absence of five years, took the habit of a monk, and again embarked with Columbus to Hispaniola ”

“ But if it be certain, that at the end of the fifteenth century there were on the coast of Cumana a few men with white skins, as there are in our days, it must not thence be concluded, that the natives of the New World exhibit everywhere a similar organization of the dermoidal system. ”

“ The port of Cumana is a roadstead capable of receiving the fleets of Europe. The whole of the Gulf of Cariaco, which is about 35 miles long and 48 broad, affords excellent anchorage. The Pacific is not more calm on the shores of Peru, than the Caribbean Sea from Porto-cabello, and especially from Cape Codera to the point of Paria. The hurricanes of the West Indies are never felt in these regions. The only danger in the port of Cumana is a shoal, called Morro Roxo. ”

“ In which time one Vides, Governor of Cumana, won him to be his conductor into Guiana, being allured by those croissants and images of gold which he brought with him to trade, as also by the ancient fame and magnificence of El Dorado; whereupon Vides sent into Spain for a patent to discover and conquer Guiana, not knowing of the precedence of Berreo's patent ”

“ Along all this land or sea-coast traversed by Hojeda, Americo, and his company, they got gold and pearls by barter and exchange, but the quantity is not known, nor the deeds they perpetrated in the land. Having left Margarita, they went to Cumanà and Maracapana, which are respectively seven and twenty leagues from Margarita. There are people on the sea-shore, and before reaching Cumanà there is a gulf where the water of the sea forms a great angle extending fourteen leagues into the land, round which there are numerous and populous tribes. ”

“ This seemed the first signal of those violent commotions which shook the coasts of Cumana and Cariaco for more than ten months. It might be supposed that men living in woods, with no other shelter than huts of reeds and palm-leaves, could have little to dread from earthquakes. But at Erevato and Caura, where these phenomena are of rare occurrence, they terrify the Indians, frighten the beasts of the forests, and impel the crocodiles to quit the waters for the shore. ”

“ The neighbourhood of Cumaná, along the banks of its river, the Manzanares, is famous for fruits of all kinds, principally pineapples, grapes, and mangoes; the less fertile hills look like cotton country, but none is grown, or very little. The chief exports of Puerto Sucre are coffee, tobacco, sugar, beans, and hides, brought from the interior. ”

“ We seemed to trace the sinuosities of the ancient shore in the tongues of land which jut out from the craggy rock, and even in the distribution of the vegetation. The bottom of the basin is a savannah, while its banks are covered with trees of full growth. This is probably the most elevated valley in the provinces of Venezuela and Cumana. One cannot but regret, that a spot favoured by so temperate a climate, and which without doubt would be fit for the culture of corn, is totally uninhabited. ”

“ The environs of Cumanacoa are very fertile, and are chiefly cultivated with tobacco, with which article it supplies the whole province. Indigo is also grown here and in this town; the population amounts to about 2300 souls. ”

“ Not only were the Spaniards under his own control in little harmony with the spirit of his intentions and as refractory as they dared be to his orders, but the pearl fishers on the island of Cubagua, who were a typical lot of godless ruffians, frequently came to the mainland, with the valid excuse that the absence of sweet water on their island obliged them to fetch their supply from the Cumaná River. These expeditions for water were usually accompanied by some disturbances with the Indians, some of whom were frequently captured and carried off to work in the pearl fisheries. ”

“ The Spaniards, who in general have no great predilection for trees, or for the warbling of birds, have transported their tastes and their habits into the colonies. In Terra Firma, Mexico, and Peru, it is rare to see a native plant a tree, merely with the view of procuring shade; and if we except the environs of the great capitals, walks bordered with trees are almost unknown in those countries. The arid plain of Cumana exhibits after violent showers an extraordinary phenomenon. ”

“ Apiacas, on the lower Tocantins. Arecunas, on Rio Branco. Aricoris, see Yaos. Bakairis, on the Upper Schingu. Caribisis, in Guiana. Carijonas, head-waters of the Caqueta. Cariniacos, on lower Orinoco. Chaimas, in ancient province of Cumana. Cumanagotos, in ancient province of Cumana. Galibis, in French Guiana. Guaques, on the upper Caqueta. [258] Guaharibos, on the upper Caura. Guayqueris, in province of Cumana. Jauamerys, on Rio Jauapery. Macusis, on Rio Negro. Maqueritares, on Rio Branco. Motilones, near R. Zulia in Venezuela. Palmellas, on Rio Paruahyba. Paramonas, sub-tribe of Akavais. ”

“ The plain of Cumanacoa, spotted with farms and small plantations of indigo and tobacco, is surrounded with mountains, which towards the south rise to considerable height. Everything indicates that the valley is the bottom of an ancient lake. The mountains, which in ancient times formed its shores, all rise perpendicularly in the direction of the plain. The only outlet for the waters of the lake was on the side of Arenas. ”

“ The port towns are few and poor in respect of the rest within the land, and are of little defence, and are only rich when the fleets are to receive the treasure for Spain; and we might think the Spaniards very simple, having so many horses and slaves, if they could not upon two days' warning carry all the gold they have into the land, and far enough from the reach of our footmen, especially the Indies being, as they are for the most part, so mountainous, full of woods, rivers, and marishes. In the port towns of the province of Venezuela, as Cumana, Coro, and St. ”

“ South America was once called Guanin, afterwards Caribana when it was overspread by the Carib tribes. The Nachez appear to have come from Cuba. The Cumanas knew Hayti and called it Atsi.
51st Event. The Canibas (whence our Canibals) or the Caribas, (whence our Caraibes) , a savage people, often feeding on human flesh, begin to spread to Guyana and South America; becoming bold navigators also, they send war parties and colonies to the peaceful islands of the Antilles, and even to Florida. ”

“ New Mexico offers the same picture, the Cumanches of that country, are yet an unconquered race, holding an eternal war against their Spanish neighbours, and though from the uncultivated state of their country, and the constant exertion they are obliged to make to secure their independence, they are not so far advanced in the arts of civilized life as the Araucanians, yet the Cumanches are a race far beyond their neighbours who are enslaved in the missions. ”

“ In the muskeet forest of the Bolson de Mapimi, and in the sierras around the beautiful town and fertile district of Parras, and in all the [93] open country for hundreds of miles round about, the savage Cumanches have held dominion ever since the usurper Santa Anna disarmed the people; and sally forth from their fastnesses to slaughter men, plunder cattle, and carry off women and children. ”

“ Belisario Porras INDIAN MOTHER AND BABE: PANAMA The Cuna-Cuna, or Tule Indians of the San Blas coast of Panama, are of the purest aboriginal strain. For hundreds of years they have resisted amalgamation, and woe to the Cuna-Cuna belle who looks with favor upon a “foreign” lover. They are an intelligent race and are not savages by any means—even though nose rings are a part of the adornment of all members of the gentler sex, who wear them from the time they begin to walk. ”

“ Cuba in its outward aspects is distinctly, unromantically modern. The black coat is de rigueur; the black hat or the panama is the only covering for the head, and even conventional millinery has begun to drive away the graceful mantilla from the brows of las señoras. There is no poetry, no artistic coloring in the life scheme of the Cuban. His face and movements lack the vivacity and alertness inspired by the keen, quickening air of the Mexican Highlands. Even the clothes he wears and the way he wears them bespeak the heavy, sea level atmosphere he breathes. ”