Venezuela

by Leonard V. Dalton

The forests of the mountain-flanks add to the botanic wealth of the region mahogany, ebony, lignum-vitæ, quinine, dividive, and many other valuable products hardly exploited as yet.

For population and revenue Trujillo stands first of the Andine States, Táchira second, and Mérida, though the largest in area, third. For convenience of description we will consider them in geographical order, beginning from the south.

The capital of Táchira is San Cristobal, founded on the left bank of the River Torbes by Juan Maldonado in 1561. Although, in approaching the town, the traveller who does not trace his route on a map would consider himself still on the Maracaibo side of the watershed, the waters of the Torbes flow round the mountains behind the town to join the Uribante, a sub-tributary of the Orinoco. The main watershed of the Venezuelan Andes at this point is probably less than 4,000 feet above the sea, and San Cristobal is well situated in respect of through traffic from the western Llanos to Zulia or Colombia. Despite its political importance, therefore, its aspect is in the main that of a busy commercial town situated in a fruitful valley.

As in all the Andine towns, the question of water supply is settled with comparative ease by leading water down from a spring or stream above and allowing this to follow stone channels in the centre of the cobbled streets, while side channels behind and under the houses provide continuously flushed drains emptying into the river. The system is not always as well or elaborately worked as in San Cristobal, but in essentials it is the same throughout the region. In addition to its through trade the town has several flourishing industries, not least of which is the manufacture of vermicelli, or fideos, used extensively, if not perpetually, in the soups of this part of the country; the beasts and stock products from the Llanos provide in addition raw materials for making candles and soap, as well as for the tanneries in the neighbourhood.

From San Cristobal roads lead to San Antonio on the Colombian frontier; to the Llanos down the Torbes and Quinimari valleys; to Uracá, the terminus of the Táchira Railway; and to Mérida.

San Cristobal being built on the slope of a steep range of hills, with a river flowing in a semicircle in front, it is impossible to leave the town on any of the main routes without crossing water, somewhat of a difficulty when unbridged streams are flooded. On the road which leads to Colombia, however, there is a bridge over the Torbes, which enables communications to be maintained at all seasons.

Fifteen miles down the valley to the south is the flourishing little town of Rubio, surrounded by some of the biggest and best coffee estates in the country, fitted with modern plant for handling the beans. Coal and, it is said, silver are to be found near by, and the Táchira Petroleum Company, a local affair, has produced and sold small quantities of illuminating oil in the neighbourhood for many years.

A good deal of the produce of these parts is shipped through Colombia in bond to avoid the additional, and often difficult, length of road to Uracá. San Antonio is the frontier town on the River Táchira, both river and State taking their name from a frontier Indian tribe; here is the terminus of the English railway which runs through Cúcuta to Puerto Villamizar. Once cocoa, coffee, and indigo were the chief products of the neighbourhood, but now, with the growth of Cúcuta and San Cristobal, it has been found more profitable to use the lands for grazing or for sugar.

The other main export route from the capital of Táchira passes through the small towns of Lobatera and Colón to Uracá, the terminus of the Táchira Railway leading to Encontrados in Zulia. Lobatera itself is something over 3,000 feet above the sea, on the Maracaibo side of the watershed, up to which the white road zigzags behind the town. Its productions are said to have decreased of late years, but I have pleasant recollections of the agreeable impression produced by these clean and apparently prosperous towns of Táchira, on first arriving there from the lowlands of Zulia, with their miserable huts and muddy, insanitary villages. People, housing, and food alike seemed vastly improved. Colón is the half-way house for arrivals from Uracá, and as a result has several hoteles. It is a neat, well-built little town, the surrounding hills and plateaux being chiefly devoted to stock-farming. Some ten miles to the north is the railway terminus in the small town of Uracá, on the edge of the hot lands and very damp in consequence, the mists banking up in the narrow valley nightly; coffee and cocoa seem to be the chief products of the neighbourhood.

Both the Encontrados road and that to Mérida pass through the little town of Táriba, about three miles east of San Cristobal, on the north bank of the Torbes. There are no bridges here over the stream, and as a result in time of floods would-be travellers are penned up in San Cristobal, for on both roads one must ford the stream below the town, and on the way to Mérida, a second ford is necessary immediately above; at the latter there is a foot bridge, and when the Torbes is in flood the mules are fairly hauled across the stream on a rope; the strong currents would otherwise carry them down over the rocks. It is interesting to watch and follow a man who knows these fords as he pricks his way along through the shallows, but they are a great hindrance to traffic.