It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea; east by Barcelona; west by Maracaybo and Varinas; and south by the great plains of Varinas, and the Orinoco.
This extensive government was named Venezuela from the towns inhabited by Indians which were seen by the Spaniards on the lake Maracaybo, having a resemblance to Venice.
In 1801 the population of Venezuela, including Varinas, amounted to 500,000 persons.
The soil of Venezuela is fertile, and yields in abundance all the products of the West Indies, besides many others, which those islands do not possess. Its most noted commercial article is cacao, which is inferior to none in the Americas; vanilla, maize, indigo, cotton, sugar, tobacco and coffee, are a few of the richest objects of cultivation; wild cochineal, dyewoods, medicinal drugs, gums, resins, balsams, sarsaparilla, sassafras, liquorice, squills, storax, cassia and aloes, here find that climate the most favourable to their growth; and the immense plains in the interior feed multitudes of cattle, horses and mules, and in the valleys and mountains, sheep and deer are numerous. All kinds of game are found in this country, the rivers of which also abound with fish.
The climate of Venezuela is modified according to the situation of its districts in the mountains, on the coast or on the plains; on the coast and in the plains a scorching heat prevails, accompanied in the latter with deluges of rain. In the mountain valleys the air is in general pure and mild, and in some elevated parts even cold.
These mountains, which form a part of the great branch extending from the west to the gulf of Paria, divide the lands of the coast from the plains of the valley of the Orinoco. Their surface is rent in every direction by the force of subterraneous convulsions; it is on these mountains that the climate is so singularly altered that a traveller may observe the fruits of the tropics luxuriating at a short distance from those of Europe. To the south of this chain the Llanos or plains, which stretch to the Orinoco are inhabited solely by herds of cattle tended by mulattoes, who are as nearly in a state of nature as the beasts they guard.
On the plains of Venezuela, the rainy season commences in April, and continues till November. The rains fall oftener in the morning than in the evening, and on an average generally occupy three hours of each day; during which period, the plains nearest the rivers are converted into lakes of immense extent.
For about a century after this country was subdued by the Spaniards, all their thoughts were turned towards its mineral productions, and the pearl fishery on its coasts. But being disappointed in their expectations of finding immense riches from these sources, they at last turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil. They first planted cacao trees, and so abundant were the profits which this labour yielded, that cacao alone occupied their fields till a very late period. About the year 1774 indigo plantations appeared, and immense plains, hitherto desert, were soon covered with this plant, which was speedily followed by cotton, sugar, tobacco, coffee, &c., but notwithstanding the aptitude of the soil, and the genial nature of the climate, agriculture still languishes in these fine regions, partly from want of enterprise, and active industry, and partly from a too great confidence in the prolific nature of the soil.
Besides the articles before mentioned, the forests of Venezuela produce every species of timber fit for the purposes of the joiner, the cabinet-maker, the carpenter, or the shipwright. Cedar is used for their door-posts, window-frames, tables, &c. Black, red, and yellow ebony are common. Mahogany, brasiletto, and all sorts of ornamental woods are abundant, so much so that the workman would be puzzled in his choice of the finest; but the immense forests which overspread the chain of mountains, remain unexplored, and continue to be the receptacles of ferocious animals and venomous reptiles.
The lakes of Venezuela are not numerous, for we can hardly give that appellation to the sheets of water produced by the periodical swell of the Orinoco, or the rains, and which are generally without any depth; the lake of Valencia has been already described.