Spanish America, Vol. II (of 2)

PROVINCE OF NEW ANDALUSIA

This province, which is also known by the names of Cumana and Paria, is bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea; on the east by the Atlantic ocean; west by Barcelona, and south by Spanish Guiana, or the river Orinoco.

The government of Cumana usually includes the adjacent province of New Barcelona. We shall therefore describe these two under the same head, mentioning however the distinct boundaries of —

NEW BARCELONA,

Which is limited on the north by the Caribbean sea; east by Cumana; west by Venezuela, or Caraccas Proper, and south by Guiana and the Orinoco.

The great extent of the territory of Cumana and Barcelona, its being washed on two of its sides by the ocean, and by the broad expanse of the Orinoco on the third, render it one of the most important governments of the captain-generalship.

History, &c.– The eastern part of New Andalusia is famous as having been the scene of the first continental discoveries of Columbus. The mouths of the Orinoco and the adjacent shores of Paria were visited by him during his third voyage. The first land discovered during this expedition, was however not the continent, but the island of Trinidad, which was so named because the admiral had vowed to give the appellation of the Trinity to the first land he should see, and also because three mountains were observed at the same moment. This happened on Tuesday, 31st July, 1498, and having but one cask of water left, he landed at Punta de la Playa, where he procured the necessary supply.

On the 1st of August, whilst plying between Cape de la Galera (the first cape they made) and Punta de la Playa, he discovered the main land twenty-five leagues distant; but imagining it another island, he named it Isla Santa. The channel between Trinidad and Isla Santa was named Boca del Sierpe, and the next day he sailed into the lower channel, and called it Boca del Drago. They were so styled on account of the furious hissing noise which the current of an immense river made in rushing towards the ocean. He coasted the supposed island until Sunday, the 5th of August, when he anchored and went on shore. Soon afterwards he took some of the natives into his ship, and landing further to the west, by the direction of these people, discovered that the supposed island was part of an immense continent, and that the natives called it Paria.

Being informed that pearls were found in great abundance among some islands to the west, he steered in that direction, and discovered the islands of Margarita, or of Pearls, Cubagua, and Los Testigos, or the Witnesses, &c. On the 16th of August he stood to the north-west, and anchored on the coast of Hispaniola soon afterwards.

The admiral was followed by Ojeda, in 1499, who traced the coast as far as Cape de la Vela, entering several ports to procure information. Christoval Guerra, accompanied by Pedro Nino, who had been with Columbus on this coast, obtained a licence to explore the continent and islands for gold and pearls. They procured plenty of the latter in the bay of pearls, between Margarita and the main, and visited the coasts of Venezuela and Coro.

Having got 1200 ounces of very fine pearls, these adventurers sailed back, along the shore to the gulf of Paria, whence they stretched over for Spain, in which country they arrived on the 6th of February, 1500.

Vicente Yanez Pinzon having discovered the mouth of the great Maranon in 1500, sailed northwards from it, and explored the estuary of the Orinoco, and the coast of Paria, from which he sailed for St. Domingo, having first laden his vessels with Brazil wood.

The report of the arrival of Guerra, with such a valuable cargo, soon spread over the whole kingdom of Spain; and expeditions were fitted out in every part for the American continent. Charles the Fifth gave these adventurers permission to enslave the Indians who should resist them; in consequence of this, avarice and rapacity soon made a dreadful havoc among these unfortunate people; a complaint of these proceedings at last reached the royal audience of St. Domingo, which court immediately took measures to punish the offenders. They appointed Juan Ampues, to the government of the country, who landed on the coast of Curiana, in 1527, with an armed force.

The mildness of his measures gained him the affections of the Indians, and the cacique of the Curiana nation took the oath of allegiance to Spain, on the 26th of July, 1527. – This governor laid the foundation of the city of Coro.

At this time the company of the Welsers, a German establishment of Augsburgh, having advanced great sums to Charles the Fifth, that Emperor granted them, at their earnest request, the sovereignty of the province of Venezuela from Cape Vela, to Maracapna, and with unlimited boundaries to the south. Their power did not last long, and Juan Perez de Tolosa was appointed governor, with the rank of captain-general. New laws were made, and the Indians were declared free from involuntary servitude; as soon as a nation or tribe was subjected, a town was built, and a hundred Europeans were sent to colonize it. The laws of the repartimientos and encomiendos were established, and every thing went on properly at first, but the settlers abusing their authority over the natives, these laws were repealed, and Spanish America was declared a kingdom united to the Spanish crown. The council of the Indies was formed at Madrid, the legislative functions were declared to be vested solely in the king, aided by this council, and the executive was to belong only to officers appointed by the court; accordingly, on the 4th of September, 1519, this act was decreed and promulgated, since which Caraccas has been governed by a captain-general, and subordinate officers.

In treating of Cumana we must not omit mentioning the history of the visit paid to this coast by Las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa in Guatimala. Bartolemeo de Las Casas who was born at Seville in 1474, and when only nineteen years of age, accompanied his father and Columbus to the west Indies, returning to Spain after an absence of five years, took the habit of a monk, and again embarked with Columbus to Hispaniola; on the settling of Cuba, he was appointed rector of Zaguarama, where he strenuously objected against reducing the Indians to servitude, at the same time relinquishing his own share in the partition of these people among the whites. Meeting with great opposition, on account of his determined resistance to the oppression of the aborigines, he set out for Spain in 1516, for the purpose of laying the grievances, under which the newly-discovered nations laboured, before the King. Ferdinand promised that new laws should be made, but death prevented his resolves from being put into execution; Las Casas then applied to Cardinal Ximenes the regent, and that minister sent out three commissioners to enquire into the circumstances of the case. These three persons were monks of St. Jerome, and were accompanied by a lawyer of great abilities, and Las Casas, who was granted the title of "Protector of the Indians."

On their arrival at St. Domingo, these commissioners finding it impossible to do away with the enslavement of the Indians at once, they adopted some salutary measures to better their condition. Las Casas remonstrated with them, but found his efforts useless, and as he had made all the planters his enemies, he saw himself under the necessity of retreating to the protection of the convent from the effects of their malignity. He again set out for Spain, with a determination not to abandon the cause in which he had embarked. Ximenes being on his death-bed, and the Emperor Charles the Fifth having appointed his Flemish ministers to the chief offices of state, Las Casas was obliged to endeavour to interest them in his favour; in this he succeeded, and they recalled the monks of St. Jerome, and appointed a judge to examine the complaints of the Indians with ample powers to redress them.

But Las Casas here tarnished the glory he would otherwise have enjoyed unsullied. To carry his favourite scheme the more certainly into execution, he proposed that a certain number of negroes should be purchased from the Portuguese in Africa, to replace the Indians who were to be liberated. His plans, unfortunately for the poor Africans, were adopted, and ever since that period these degraded people have suffered the most galling servitude, which it is now the delight of an Englishman to know, that his nation have stepped forward to put a lasting stop to; and the reign of the Prince Regent, would, independent of the brilliant events which have rendered it immortal, have been remembered, to the remotest ages by this magnanimous act alone. The emperor Charles granted a patent to one of his Flemish courtiers, containing the exclusive right of sending 4000 negroes to the West Indies; this patent was sold to Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats, and these people have the odium of being the first who brought this abominable traffic to a regular form. Las Casas proposed also to send mechanics and labourers to Hispaniola with the negroes, who should be allowed an advance to go thither; but the bishop of Burgos, who was the great enemy of Columbus and his followers, defeated this project, as well as every other that Las Casas offered.

Fearful that he should not succeed in relieving the Indians in the new settlements, he requested from the Emperor the grant of a district, then unoccupied, from the gulf of Paria to Cape de la Vela, thus including Cumana, Barcelona, Venezuela, Coro, and Maracaybo. In his memorial, he proposed settling this country with a colony of priests, husbandmen, and labourers; he engaged in two years, to instruct the natives in the arts of social life; to civilize 10,000 of them, and that at the end of that time, the king should derive a revenue of 15,000 ducats, which was to increase to 50,000 in ten years. After much difficulty, in consequence of the opposition of the meddling bishop, this extent of coast was granted to him, with liberty to extend it indefinitely into the interior. He sailed from Spain with 200 followers in 1521. Many of these left him at Puerto Rico, others died, and he landed on the coast of Cumana, with a few only who still adhered to him; here he found the country in a state of great agitation from a recent invasion of the Spanish islanders, who had attacked the natives, for the purposes of procuring slaves and gold. He was obliged to go over to Hispaniola to procure a reinforcement, and during his absence, the Indians attacked the colony he had planted, destroyed many of the people, and forced the remnant to take refuge in the little isle of Cubagua.

This isle they soon abandoned, and not a Spaniard was then left in any part of the continent from Paria to Darien. Las Casas, mortified beyond every thing, by the failure of his splendid schemes, shut himself up in the Dominican convent at Hispaniola. Here he devoted himself to the performance of religious duties, still keeping in mind the great object of his ambition. The sufferings of the Indians increasing daily, and a chapter of his order at Chiapa in New Spain, having made him their messenger to Europe, on some important affairs, he once more revisited Madrid in 1542, and took a favourable opportunity of pleading the cause of the injured Indians before Charles V. He also composed a treatise, which he called "A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indians;" in which was painted, in the most pathetic and forcible manner, the enormities which had taken place in every country of the New World which the Spaniards had visited.

This work created the most lively sensations throughout Europe, and such a general abhorrence of the cruel measures of the adventurers, that the Spanish court thought fit to adopt some measures to silence the universal clamour. New regulations were adopted, some of which tended to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate Americans; and Las Casas was elevated to the dignity of bishop of Chiapa, in order to afford every relief in the power of the church to bestow.

He returned to America in 1544, and continued in this see until 1551, exerting himself in every possible manner to attain the object of his wishes; in which he succeeded greatly, but his health failing in 1551, he resigned his bishopric, and once more revisited his native country; in the same year, and for five years subsequent to his return, he lived in Madrid, still exerting all his influence to consolidate the measures which had been taken for the prosperity of the people to whom he was so much attached; at last nature became worn out, and this indefatigable, and benevolent man, closed his career in 1556, in the 92d year of his age.

Besides the work alluded to above, he wrote several others, among which, is a "General History of the Indies," of which Antonio de Herrera is said to have availed himself in the compilation of his celebrated history of the New World.

FEATURES, CLIMATE, &C

The provinces of Barcelona and Cumana are extremely mountainous; the first branch from the main chain of the Andes running through these districts, and terminating in the ocean at the gulf of Paria.

This ridge gives birth to the rivers which flow into the Orinoco on the south, and into the Caribbean sea on the north, and contains some highly picturesque and singular scenery; the most noted parts of which will be hereafter described.

The climate of this government varies according to the situation of its districts, on the high land of the mountains, or in the valleys or plains of the interior.

Capitals.– The chief town of New Andalusia is Cumana, where the governor of the two provinces usually resides. The chief town of New Barcelona, is Barcelona.

Cumana is situated in 10° 27' 52" north latitude, and 64° 9' 47" west longitude, a mile from the battery of the Boca, or mouth of the harbour, between which and the town extends a great plain, called El Salado. The port is formed by the fine river Manzanares, which runs through the town. East of the city is another extensive plain, and north of it a rocky mass, on which stands the citadel of St. Antonio. The city occupies the space between the citadel, the river Manzanares, and another smaller stream called the Santa Catalina, and the plains which surround it are highly cultivated; that towards the sea having an Indian suburb and gardens filled with sapotes, mameis, plantains, &c. The suburb is divided into three parishes; on the east is that of Sarritos, on the south-east, St. Francisco, and the great town of the Guayqueria Indians. Cumana is one of the oldest cities of the continent, and was built by Gonzalo Ocampo in 1520.

In the city of Cumana are no very remarkable buildings, owing to the fatal effects of the last earthquake. There is only one parish church and two convents, but additions are daily making to it, which will render it a fine town.

This city is remarkable for the purity and healthiness of its climate, on account of the heat being moderated by the sea-breezes; the most fatal disorders are fluxes, which carry off numbers of children annually, owing to the great use they make of green indigestible fruits. The women, particularly the Indians, are very prolific, which in some measure compensates for the loss annually experienced of the younger branches of society. The population of Cumana amounts at present to 16, or 17,000 souls, of which, two-fifths are Indians of the Guayqueria, Chayma, and other tribes. Of these, the Guayquerias are the most noted tribe not only of Cumana, but of Caraccas; they are a branch of the Guarounoes, who inhabit the swampy island, at the mouth of the Orinoco; but they have now become so incorporated with the Spaniards, that for the last century they have spoken the Spanish language only. When Columbus was on this coast, his people saw these Indians fishing with long poles pointed at one end, and tied to a cord at the other; demanding of them the name of their country, they immediately replied Guiake, which signified pointed stick; the sailors thought this was the name of the tribe, and accordingly called them Guaikerias, which name they have since retained.

These people, who also inhabit the islands, show to Europeans with pride the Punta de la Galera, so called, because Columbus's vessel touched there, as well as port Manzanillo, where they swore fidelity in 1498 to the whites, which vow they have never violated. The Guayquerias are the pilots of the coast of Cumana, and their suburb is composed of rows of uniform low buildings disposed into the form of streets, which have a very neat appearance.

On a naked rock which commands the city, 100 feet above the level of the sea, is the castle of St. Antonio, which commands the place. There is also another fort in ruins, on the south-west; and the entrance into the port is defended with inconsiderable batteries, but the military positions of Cumana are of little importance, as the citadel is commanded by a part of the same rock on which it stands; the chief defence of this post being a thick wood of the cactus, whose thorny shoots defy admission into its recesses.

The entrance of the harbour of Cumana is highly picturesque, the city rising out of the plain backed by the citadel, its rocks and groves, the plantations of cocoa-nuts, cassias, capers, and arborescent mimosas; the shores covered with alcatras or brown pelicans, egrets, and flamingoes. The beauty of the river, and the clear blue of the sky, contrasted with the dark and gloomy appearance of the mountains in the interior, conspire to afford a landscape of the most captivating character.

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.