The European inhabitants, and the descendants of Europeans, are noted for their great politeness and hospitality to strangers; they are chiefly occupied in commercial enterprize, this and Barcelona being ports where much trade is carried on. The manner and customs of these people is nearly allied to those of their brethren in the other great cities of Spanish America. One of the most singular of their customs is that of passing most of their evenings sitting on chairs placed in the river.
In this city, the first question in a morning is, "Is the water cool?" Their conversaziones are carried on in the rivers where the evening parties are mostly spent in talking about the weather, the news, and in smoking. All the inhabitants of the town it is said can swim, and the children pass the greater part of their time in the water. The alligator is not dangerous at Cumana, as they are seldom seen, and are only of the smallest kind; the chief fear that the women have whilst bathing is from the dolphin, which sometimes comes up the river and spouts like the whale.
The port of Cumana is formed by the gulf of Cariaco, and its harbour by the river Manzanares. The gulf of Cariaco is thirty-eight miles in length and sixty-eight in breadth, with excellent anchoring ground; and the ocean is always smooth and unruffled from Porto Cabello to the point of Paria; so much so, that the coasting vessels are not decked; the only danger in the port of Cumana being a shoal, called Morro Roxo, half a mile in breadth and very steep on all sides.
This city has been repeatedly shook by subterrene convulsions; and the natives have a tradition that the gulf of Cariaco was formed by an earthquake, just before the third voyage of Columbus. In 1530, the whole coast was shaken, and the city, then called New Toledo, suffered by having its fort at the mouth of the river destroyed; an immense rent was made in the coast, from which asphaltum and water issued.
These shocks were very frequent towards the end of the 16th century, the sea often rising fifteen or twenty fathoms. On the twenty-first of October, 1766, the city was overthrown, and numbers of persons perished; the tremblings of the earth continued hourly for fourteen months; but in 1767, the inhabitants incamped in the streets, when the shocks only took place once a month; a great drought had happened in 1766, but during 1767, the rains were so continual, that the harvest was very abundant. In this memorable earthquake the ground opened and threw out hot water.
In 1794, they experienced another tremendous convulsion, and on the 14th of December, 1797, four-fifths of the city were utterly destroyed, the earth heaving up with loud subterraneous noises; but the people got into the streets in time, and a small number only perished of those who sought for refuge in the churches. Half an hour before this happened, there was a strong sulphureous smell near the castle, and a loud noise under the ground; flames were seen to rise from the banks of the river, and in several other places. These flames are frequently observed near the city on the plains, they do not burn the herbage, and issue from no apparent crevices, the people calling them the soul of the tyrant Aguirra, who took part in a revolt against Ursua, governor of Omaguas, and styled himself "the traitor." He descended the Amazons, and reached the island of Margarita by the rivers of Guiana.
Though so continually exposed to this dreadful calamity, the inhabitants of Cumana are in a measure insensible to it, as they imagine that it never occurs but at particular intervals, and that they have always sufficient notice by the state of the weather and other occurrences.
The neighbourhood of Cumana is infested with the rattle snake, the coral vipers, centipedes, &c.
Farms and country-seats adorn the banks of the Manzanares; at a little distance from the city these are beautifully situated, amid groves of cactus, tamarinds, brazilletoes, the enormous ceiba, palms, &c., and the soil is so rich for pasturage, that excellent milk and butter are produced.
Near Cumana the most noted mountains are the Cerro or chain of the Brigantin, about eighteen miles distant, the highest summit of which has a flat top, and is elevated more than 5000 feet above the sea, and the sides of this chain are nearly perpendicular, the country about it being a mere desert.