insula of Paraguana, and but a few miles south of the arid Dutch island of Curação, is the quaint old town of Coro, one of the oldest European settlements on the continent, having been founded in 1527. It was the capital of the province of Venezuela as late as 1576, and is now the capital of the state of Falcon, one of the constituent commonwealths of the Venezuelan federal Union. The town is beautifully situated near the Caribbean coast, at an elevation of over 100 feet above sea-level, and has a mixed population of about 10,000. Its chief articles of export are coffee, chocolate, tobacco, castor beans, timber, and dyewoods. It is a place of some historic interest also, for it was here where General Miranda offered his first armed resistance to Spanish misrule at the beginning of the long struggle for independence.

Puerto

Further to the eastward, about midway between Coro and La Guayra, and nearly opposite the little Dutch island of Bonaire on the north, is the important seaport town of Puerto Cabello, one of the most beautiful and picturesque places on the Caribbean coast. Cabello is one of the finest harbors in the known world, and is said to have derived its name from a saying of the old Spanish navigators, that "a vessel is safe here anchored by a single hair." It has been said alsoand repeated often enough to gain general credencethat somewhere beneath the placid waters of this magnificent harbor "repose in a leaden coffin the mortal remains of Sir Francis Drake, the great English freebooter, who, after a long career of brutality and crime, died here of yellow fever in December, 1595." Such is the generally accepted tradition. But, like many others that have been adopted as authentic by those who write books about South America, the story will have to be spoiled. Drake was never anywhere in sight of the

Venezuelan coast in 1595. It was not he who crossed the mountain near La Guayra and sacked Caracas, as has been so often alleged by careless writers. That brutal outrage was committed by another English freebooter of less note, named Preston. Drake did visit the northern Bahamas early in the winter of 1595; but there is no evidence that he was ever at or near Puerto Cabello during that year. He died at sea in December of that year, but was buried in the Caribbean, many leagues from the Venezuelan coast.

The city of Puerto Cabello is situated on a long, narrow peninsula at the foot of a high range of mountains, and is connected by railway with the beautiful little city of Valencia, some forty-eight miles distant in the interior, and thence by the waters of Lake Valencia with Cura and other important inland towns. It has an abundant supply of pure fresh water, several beautiful little parks, wide and well-paved streets, a number of modern-looking houses, and is now well lighted by electricity. The mean temperature of the place is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The present population is about ten thousand. It is the market of export for the states of Carabobo, Lara, and Zamora, three of the most productive commonwealths of the Venezuelan federal Union. The exports are mainly coffee, chocolate, indigo, tobacco, hides, cabinet timber, dyewoods, and, formerly, considerable quantities of cotton. It is one of the historic spots on the Caribbean coast, and many are the strange and weird sixteenth century legends which cluster about it. It was a rendezvous of the old buccaneers, and less than a hundred years ago was successfully defended against an assault by the British fleet commanded by Commodore Knowles. It was here, also, during the war of independence, that General Päez made his marvellous night attack on Cal

zado, the royalist chief, and forced the unconditional surrender of his entire army.

La Guayra, the seaport of the capital of the Republic, some sixty-five miles eastward from Puerto Cabello, is situated on the very verge of the waters of the Caribbean, and is overshadowed by a mountain some 8,000 feet high, which separates the port from the city of Caracas. The distance, in a direct line, between the La Guayra and Caracas is less than seven miles; the actual distance by railway, and also by the cart-road, is nearly thirty. Baron Humboldt has somewhere said there is but one place in the world that can rival La Guayra for the grandeur of its scenery, and that is Santa Cruz de Teneriffe. The great peak of the coast range of mountains, visible to mariners ninety miles distant, rises almost perpendicularly from the water's edge, leaving very little room for a town of any kind. What town there is, consists of one and two story houses of the sixteenth-century pattern, scattered some two miles along the edge of the shore, and extending at right angles a few rods into the little coves of the mountain, or clustered about on the benches and crags of the cliffs above. Far up on the side of the mountain, overhanging the business part of the city, is the old Spanish fort of early colonial times, which the genius of Charles Kingsley has made classic; and on the next bench below, is the old amphitheatre or bull-ring.

The harbor of La Guayra is an open roadstead of crescent shape, and those who knew it prior to 1890 will not readily forget the inconvenience and danger of disembarking. The swell of the sea was often so great that boats would drop down twelve and fourteen feet below the stair-landing of the steamer, and, as the returning waves tossed the boat upward, the anxious passenger had to make a fearful leap, and be quick

about it. Sometimes passengers had to be placed one at a time in a chair, hoisted over the side of the ship, and then lowered into the restless little boat far down amid the bulging waves. Freight had to be discharged in the same way; and it sometimes happened that the little boat would be swept to one side by a rolling wave just as the winchman was ordered to "let go," and the burden would drop down into the depths of the

sea.

This is all changed now. A concession for building a breakwater was granted to an English company as early as 1885. Work was commenced in December of that year, and by the close of the next year, the breakwater was completed at a cost of nearly $5,000,000. The great wall, built of stone and cement, is over two thousand feet long, and wide enough for a double-track railway. It shelters a surface of deep water covering about eighty acres, and the heaviest sea-going vessels now steam around its western extremity, drop anchor in smooth water, and land passengers and freight without inconvenience. It is needless to add that this great work completely changed the appearance of the place and revolutionized the business of the port; for although the company's charges are a heavy tax on commerce, nobody ever complains, and the increase in the volume of trade has been marvellous.

It was Humboldt, if I mistake not, who gave La Guayra its bad reputation for unhealthfulness. That was nearly a century ago, but people abroad still think of La Guayra as Humboldt described it, — that is, as "a deadly place." The truth is, however, it never really deserved that bad name; and at present it is one of the heathiest localities on the Caribbean coast. The extremes of temperature range from 74 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, to 94 degrees in summer; and

whilst there are sporadic cases of yellow fever at nearly all seasons, the disease seldom becomes epidemic, and if taken in time yields readily to medical treatment. The atmosphere, though hot and parching, is singularly free from malaria; and the climate is regarded as a specific for neuralgia, rheumatism, and many of the forms of throat disease common in the more elevated and cooler regions of the interior. Indeed, after several years of somewhat close acquaintance with the place, I have been forced to the conclusion, quite contrary to my first unfavorable impressions, that La Guayra is, at all seasons of the year, a much more healthful locality than Caracas. And yet nearly every one (except those who really know the two places) will tell you that Caracas is "an earthly paradise," while La Guayra is "a graveyard."

On the narrow sandy beach, some three miles east of La Guayra (and now connected with it by railway), is the picturesque little town of Macuto, a fashionable seaside resort which is usually crowded with visitors from the capital during the winter months. Macuto, unlike any other town on the old Spanish main, is quite modern in appearance. It has wide and well-shaded streets, beautiful little parks and flower-gardens in which play fountains of pure mountain water. Many of the cottages are quite attractive, and there are several small but decent little hotels. It has both sea and freshwater baths, and the promenade on the beach reminds one somewhat of our own Newport.

The little town of Maiquetia, noted for its groves of stately palms and streams of fresh mountain water, is some two miles west of La Guayra, and is the coast terminus of the old colonial mule road to Caracas. Like Macuto, it has recently become quite a resort for invalids and pleasure-seekers from the capital dur