COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, GUIANA, ECUADOR, NORTH BRAZIL
The capital city, Maracaibo, is a busy place, and prosperous. With some good buildings, and other ordinary requirements, it is in need of better paving, a suitable drainage system, and a good water supply, in order to lower its high death rate and to measure up to its favorable location, although this may be called hot.
Falcón, east of Zulia, extends along the coast of the Gulf of Venezuela (also called Maracaibo) past the Paraguana Peninsula, which it includes, and around to the east, so far that the next coast State, Yaracuy, is on the south together with the State of Lara farther west; these three States include the Segovian Highlands; the first two, coast lands also. This section is the oldest part of Venezuela except for the town of Cumaná.
An immensely profitable industry here followed is the raising of goats, which feed on the cactus plains. The extensive coal deposits and salinas count for little in comparison. The northern part of the State is rather barren, but the highlands at the south are forest clad, with fertile valleys raising a variety of agricultural products, chiefly for home consumption. There is one considerable river, the Tocuyo, several hundred miles long, which rises in the mountains of Lara, flows north, then east through Yaracuy and Falcón to the sea. With many affluents, the two of importance are the Carora and the Baragua on the left. The Rio Tocuyo comes down through a long valley, while many short rivers rising on the outer range descend rapidly to the sea. The situation is excellent for the cultivation of cocuiza and other aloes from which sacks and hammocks are now being made. Other industries are soap making and cigarettes; in some sections excellent tobacco is raised.
Coro, the capital of Falcón, the second oldest town in the Republic, contains the first cathedral in the new world. Located on the plains at the base of the Paraguana Peninsula, it is 8 miles from its seaport La Vela and 200 miles west of Caracas.
The important port Tucacas is at the mouth of the Tocuyo River.
The Dutch island, Curaçao, lies not far off the coast, with which it has close connection; some smuggling is said to be carried on.
Yaracuy, a small State with a very short coastal strip, is between Falcón on the north and Carabobo southeast, with Lara southwest. It is noted for its copper mines at Aroa.
Besides the capital, San Felipe, where a cloth factory has lately been organized, the chief towns are Nirgua, population 3000, at the south, amid fertile plains with varied agricultural products, and Yaritagua 20 miles west, where good tobacco is raised, as well as sugar and coffee which grow everywhere.