CHAPTER XIV
THE CITY AND STATE OF BOLIVAR
An enormous area—How to reach it—Ciudad Bolivar—Climate—San Felix—Falls of the Caroni—Trade of San Felix—Quality of “roads”—Upata—Guasipati—Balatá industry—Extravagant exploitation—Former importance—The goldfields—El Callao—The discovery—Callao Bis—Big dividends—The common pursuit—Venamo Valley—High freights—Poor quality of labour—Unsystematic working—Goldfields of Venezuela, Ltd.—Savannahs—Stock-farming—Sugar—Old settlements—An ancient bridge—Tumeremo and the balatá forests—Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs—The Caroni—An opportunity for a pioneer—Up the Orinoco—The “Gates of Hell”—The Caura—Rice and tonka-beans—Lajas—Rubber of the Nichare—Falls of Pará—André’s journeys—Mountains of the upper Caura—The Waiomgomos—Reticence regarding names—Ticks—Caicara—The Cuchivero—Savannahs and sarrapiales—Sarsaparilla—Climate of the Orinoco Valley.
Less than two miles up-stream from the ancient citadel of Guayana Vieja, the boundary of the Delta territory crosses the Orinoco, and the right bank of the river becomes the northern limit of the State of Bolivar under the Constitution of 1909. This State includes a vast unexplored region, in addition to the gold-producing district bordering on British Guiana, and occupies in all 238,000 square kilometres, or 90,440 square miles, mainly covered with virgin forest.
The capital of this huge State is the city of Angostura, named in 1846 Ciudad Bolivar, in honour of the Libertador. Its intercourse with the outside world is carried on solely through Port-of-Spain, in Trinidad, from which shallow-draught river steamers run over in about two days, once a week in the busy season, when the rubber, balatá, and other forest products from the interior are being exported in largest quantities, and once every ten days at other times; from the city smaller steamers ply up the Orinoco and the Apure to the borders of Colombia.
Founded in 1764 by the then Governor of the Orinoco province, Don Joaquin Moreno de Mendoza, on the slope of a granite hill overlooking the river, the new city received the name of San Thomé de la Nueva Guayana, as opposed to Guayana Vieja down the river. Later the name changed, naturally, to Angostura, from the fact that the river at this point narrows down to 800 metres, a physical feature which accentuates the rise of the Orinoco to such an extent that in the rains the water-level rises some 40 feet, flooding the lower parts of the city. There is a gradual descent from the fort and cathedral behind the town, with the cemetery again behind them, to the waterside, where there is a good road along the river-front, having the principal private houses and the large stores, many of which are owned by German firms; elsewhere there are scattered mansions dating back to colonial times, with massive walls as protection from the heat. The granite on which the city is built seems to absorb the heat throughout the day, and the radiation after sunset renders the atmosphere unusually oppressive for a town in so fine a position. The mean annual temperature is 86·6° F.
Ciudad Bolivar is the official port of entry, not only for the hinterland of Guayana but also for the eastern gold-mining region, the port of which is in reality passed on the way up the river, and is known as San Felix or Puerto Tablas, a few miles eastward of the mouth and falls of the Caroni. A special permit is occasionally granted for passengers to land at this point without first visiting Bolivar, but normally all passengers and goods perform the eight-hours journey between San Felix and Bolivar twice over, in order to pass through the custom-house at the latter.
The falls of Caroni, near Las Tablas, have been made famous by many travellers since the days of Raleigh, who was struck with the magnificent spectacle of their huge body of water descending a sheer 60 feet over black polished granite to join the greater river of which it is a tributary, after its hundreds of miles of comparatively quiet travel from the slopes of the Sierra Pacaraima, on the borders of Brazil. East of Caroni lie the two most populous districts of Bolivar, those of Piar and Roscio, containing numerous towns and fairly well provided with roads. The district of Heres has in the aggregate a larger population than either of the more easterly divisions, but over two-thirds of the whole of this is accounted for by the congregation of souls in the capital, so that from a general point of view the goldfield area is the most densely populated of all, and included 22,392 of the total of 55,744 in the State at the census of 1891.
San Felix receives its second name of Las Tablas from the elevated plateau behind the town, over which the road climbs to the interior. It is a busy little town, though small, with an hotel, a few stores, telegraph office, and custom-house; the last is rather a coastguard-station, as we have seen that all duties are collected in Bolivar. There is a British consular agent in the port. With the enormous possibilities of the water-power present in the Caroni falls, it seems strange that the place has not developed ere this into a flourishing and important city, instead of the small terminus town that it remains. As it is, the size of the place is no criterion of its commercial standing, for all the imports and exports of the two eastern districts pass through San Felix, and the freight paid there amounts alone to £200,000 annually. Merchandise proceeds southwards on ox-wagons and mule-carts, which carry in cotton goods and hardware and bring back balatá and hides, with the small amount of gold at present produced. The 215 kilometres to Guasipati may take any time from ten days to two months for the wheel traffic, according to the kind used and the season of the year, for the “road” is exceedingly primitive. Bridges are rare, and the route is a mere track cut through the forest or winding over sandy plains, without any attempts at surveying, metalling, or draining, so that deep mud-holes are frequently formed, wherein the wagons may stick for two or three days before they are hauled out with block and tackle. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the ordinary traveller hires a mule for the journey from San Felix, and so covers the distance to Guasipati in about twenty-five hours’ actual riding.
The road to Guasipati passes through Upata, the capital of the Piar district, which is about ten and a half hours distant from Las Tablas. After one and a half hours across sandy, open ground, with stunted trees, the edge of the forest is reached, and the road continues through this for some seven hours more, beyond which two hours’ riding across open savannah is required to reach Upata. This is a small agricultural town with a population of less than 3,000, forming a market for the neighbouring villages and haciendas, and possessing a hotel, telegraph office, and a few shops.