The whole province of Varinas on its western and northern parts is covered with farms and small villages, mostly situated on the banks of the different rivers.
A road leads from the plains of Calobozo, in Venezuela, through St. Fernando de Apura, and across the rivers to the junction of the Meta with the Orinoco.
This province has lately become the scene of contests between the Spanish troops and the insurgents; particularly in the vicinity of the Apure.
PROVINCE OF GUIANA; OR, SPANISH GUIANA.
This immense province extends from the frontiers of Juan de los Llanos and Quixos, in New Granada to the frontiers of British, French and Portuguese Guiana. It is bounded on the north by the Orinoco and the plains of Cumana, Barcelona, and Caraccas; on the east by unknown lands between the settlements of the English and French; west by the Orinoco and the provinces of New Granada; and south by the Portuguese possessions.
It has been computed to be 1000 leagues in circumference; but this vast extent is inhabited chiefly by warlike and savage tribes of Indians, who forbid all access into the interior. The population of those parts which are occupied by the Spaniards, their descendants, and the mission Indians, is computed at 34,000, this population being confined mostly to the banks of the Orinoco.
The precise boundaries of this country cannot be laid down, on the west it is said to extend to the western mouth of the river Yapura, proceeding thence almost due north. On the east it has, from Cape Nassau, a shore of thirty leagues to the mouth of the Orinoco; thence along that river to the Rio Portuguesa, an extent of more than 400 leagues. The Portuguese territories on the south, were formerly bounded by a line passing under the equator, but they have since acquired more settlements to the north in the western parts of Guiana.
The population of Spanish Guiana is thus divided; 19,400 Indians, under the care of missionaries; 8000 creoles, mulattoes, &c. scattered in the settlements, and the remainder in the capital; the villages being more frequent at from fifty leagues from the Atlantic to about 130 up the Orinoco.
Guiana is subdivided into Upper and Lower Guiana, the capital being the point of separation. The most southern fort of the Spaniards is that of San Carlos, on the Rio Negro, in 1° 53' north latitude.
Upper Guiana comprehends all the country west of the Caroni river; few plantations are seen there, though the soil is rich beyond imagination. Lower Guiana is east of the Caroni, or in the space bounded by the sea on the east, the Orinoco on the north, the Caroni on the west, and the Essequibo on the south; than which, a more fertile soil cannot be found, watered by numerous rivers, whose periodic overflowings deposit a slime as prolific as the Nile; but this fine district is nearly a waste, harbouring anthropophagical tribes, of whom the Caribs are the most formidable, as well as sanguinary.