Round Cumanacoa there are fertile hillsides and rich alluvial flats, chiefly devoted to coffee and sugar or beans. 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.
Some twenty-five miles southward of Cumanacoa is the town of San Antonio, in Humboldt’s time a flourishing mission with a massive stone church built entirely by the Indians; the church, with its beautifully bright frescoes, is still standing, but sadly in want of repair, and one of the towers is cracked and overgrown at the base. Four or five miles to the south-east lies the Caripe valley, famous for its tobacco, and for the Guacharo cavern so well described by Humboldt.
From his account a good idea may be gained of the beauty of the approach and the impressiveness of this hole in the limestone. He describes how, as he and Bonpland, with their friends and guides from the Mission Caripe, travelled up the valley, they were unable to see the mouth of the cave even at 400 paces distant, their way lying under an overhanging cliff, with the stream almost in a crevasse below them; then, turning a corner, they were suddenly in full view of the opening, 80 feet wide and 72 feet high, with stalactites and stalagmites within and huge trees above, while the aspect was different from anything of the kind in Europe on account of the luxuriant tropical vegetation all about. As they walked through the cave it was often necessary to step into the stream, which was only 2 feet deep, while overhead the Guacharos,[6] from which the cave has its name, were uttering their raucous cries. In the broader part of the cave the Indians were accustomed to venture at one season of the year to catch the young birds for their fat, which they used in cooking in the mission, but beyond they would hardly go, believing the spirits of their departed ancestors to be there. At the limit of Humboldt’s exploration in this narrower part he found an underground waterfall, which marks the visible source of the Rio Caripe.
Thirty miles from San Antonio, at Aragua de Maturín, the edge of the hills is reached and the Llanos begin, but to the north-east there lies a stretch of little-known territory, chiefly forest-clad hills, capable of supporting millions of cacao-trees when a growing population shall settle there. Near Punceres there are oil-springs, and at other points in the region indications of petroleum are known, which may one day lead to the development of this rich and well-situated stretch of country, for at the east end is the old Puerto San Juan of colonial days, with a depth of water in the caño of the same name sufficient for steam or sailing craft of considerable size. At present most of the produce of all the northern part of Monágas, as well as of Sucre, passes out over the hills to the Caribbean.
An exception to the above must be made in the case of the asphalt from the Bermudez Lake, which is shipped across to Trinidad. This has been worked for many years by an American company, and is almost as well known as the famous Pitch Lake of Trinidad. It was once thought that the quantity of asphalt visible was much greater here, but fuller investigation showed that though a larger area was covered the thickness of the deposit was very much less than in Trinidad. Over 32,000 tons were exported in the fiscal year 1909-10.
The principal port of the Oriente is Carúpano, on the north coast, midway between the two peninsulas of Paria and Araya. The town, seen from a steamer, seems to be as much huddled up at the foot of the mountains as La Guaira, but in a similar way it extends up the valleys of two streams which here reach the sea. Its position thus makes it hot, though it is sufficiently open to the sea breezes to be healthy. A white zigzag line up the slope behind the town represents the road, down which comes the cocoa of the hills and valleys of Sucre, for which Carúpano is famous, as well as cotton, sugar, timber, and alcohol. This last is a spirit of exceptional purity, and the “white rum” of Carúpano is famed throughout the country. The hills about the town also support aloes, of the fibre of which ropes are manufactured in the town, and near by there are potteries. It is an important place, then, with its population of some 11,000, in spite of the fact that the steamers which visit it have to lie in an open roadstead sheltered only by a promontory to the east from the prevalent winds. Sulphur is found near by, and, it is said, auriferous quartz of high quality, but the minerals have never been systematically worked.
PUERTO CRISTOBAL COLÓN.