Venezuela: or, Sketches of Life in a South-American Republic ... With a map. Second edition

Front matter

VENEZUELA. VENEZUELA: OR, SKETCHES OF LIFE IN A SOUTH- AMERICAN REPUBLIC ; WITH THE HISTORY OF THE LOAN OF 1864. BY EDWARD B. EASTWICK, C.B., F.R.S., LATE SECRETARY OF LEGATION AT THE COURT OF PERSIA ; AND COMMISSIONER FOR THE VENEZUELAN LOAN OF 1864. AUTHOR OF "MURRAY'S HANDBOOK OF INDIA," " THE JOURNAL OF A DIPLOMATE," ETC, ETC. WITH A MAP. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1868. {The Right of Translation is reserved.] LONDON : BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WH1TEFRIARS. T" PHILIP ROSE, ESQ., OF RAYNEHS, BUCKS. My dear Rose, To you I owe my pleasant visit to Venezuela. To you, therefore, if to anyone, these pages ought to be inscribed ; and I am so glad of an opportunity to thank you publicly for many acts of friendship, that I dedicate my book to you, without allowing myself to consider how much your name may lose, as mine must gain, by the association. Ever yours, EDWARD B. EASTWICK. 38, Thurloe Square, 1868.

Preface

. On the 7th of June, 1864, I was asked to go to Venezuela as Financial Commissioner for the General Credit Company. The appointment was offered, in the first instance, to Lord Hobart, and on his declining it, to me. The terms were liberal. All my expenses were to be paid, and I was to receive one thousand pounds for three months, reckoning* from the day of embarkation. But the pleasure of seeing a new country, and learning a new language, and the ex perience of financial transactions I should gain in such a mission, were to me still stronger inducements to accept it. Besides, curiously enough, Mr. Cobden had been talking* to me on the 2nd of June, the last time I ever saw him, about a certain matter, and, after expressing his sympathy, had ended by saying, " Why don't you go to the City ?

They will treat you better there." So, taking his words as a Sors Virgiliana, I PEEFACE. VIII accepted the Commissionership at once, purchased a pile of Spanish book's, imbibed a draught of the pure Castilian stream daily, in the shape of a lesson from Dr. Altschul, glanced at, and put aside for complete deglutition on . board the steamer, a huge liasse of papers, and on the 17th of June found myself en route for St. Thomas, in the " Atrato," commanded by the ill-fated Captain Woolley. I returned the same year, in the last days of October. In 1865, and the beginning of 1866, I wrote for Mr. Dickens some of the chapters which follow, and they appeared in "All the Year Pound." In those light sketches my object was only to give a general idea of Venezuela and its people, so that what I have there written is not always to be taken au pied de la lettre.

It is otherwise in the grave part of the book, which refers to the business of my mission. I have there striven to be as accurate as possible, my aim being to pilot others who may go out on similar missions with as little experience as myself, and who might, perhaps, be shipwrecked amongst dangers which have never been properly buoyed.

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. Since this volume was published a Revolution has broken out in Venezuela, and the anticipations of the Author regarding the fate of General Falcon have been realized. He is now an exile in the island of Curacoa. Monagas, though nearly ninety years of age, has led an army from Barcelona to Caracas, and defeated the adherents of Falcon in a sanguinary battle, in which five hundred men are said to have been killed and thirteen hundred wounded. It is probable that a better and stronger Government than that of Falcon will be established. Meantime the increasing produce of the recently discovered gold-fields in Guayana, and the exodus of the Americans from the Southern States of North America to Venezuela, must, it may be fairly imagined, attract great attention to the latter country, and must especially interest all those who are con cerned with emigration. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. To Venezuela

PAGE Sailing on a Friday — Juan — The Eoyal Mail Company — The Story Interrupted — Hat Island — Harbour of St. Thomas — A Battle with the Sharks — The Virgin Islands — A Cruize among the Cemeteries — Blockade Runners — Voyage to La Guaira— The Death at Sea— Aves Islands — At Anchor . 1

Chapter II

At La Guaira — Origin of the name ' ' Venezuela"' — The Hottest Place on Earth — The National Emblem — Empirical Druggists — The Negro Artilleryman — Singular Nomenclature — Maquetia — Across the Mountain to Caracas ......... 24

Chapter III

At Caracas — Hotel St. Amande — Caraque*nian Bells and Belles — The Virgin and her Suitors — Drake, the Corsair — Site of Caracas — Creole Steeds and Creole Eiders — Bolivar's Cenotaph — Environs of Caracas — The Great Earthquake — Catholic Cemetery — Ker Porter's Chapel —The Toma— Mount Calvary 38

Chapter IV

Traits of Republican Life — Dishonesty the best policy— How to make the Scum rise to the top — Why Republics are always borrowing — The Bull-Fight — Public Buildings at Caracas — Cave Canem — Godoy, the Negro Wit — The Venezuelan Cabinet— Maniac Visitors — The Ministerial Breakfast X CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Page

Major Milligan's Mistake — Ciudad Bolivar and the British Legion- Fight between Sambo the Giant and the Irish Sergeant — Luisa and Helena — Panchito, the Enfant Terrible— Popping the Question — Too much Alike — How to Clear up a Blunder — The Explanation too late 77

Chapter VI

How to obtain a Loan — Solemn Preliminaries — The President's Powers Delegated — Mission of the Finance Minister — The Contract — Ratification of the Contract by the Constituent Assembly — The Financial Commissioner to Venezuela — Painful Discoveries— Reiterated Assurances and the Honour of the Republic Repledged — Evasion baffled —Final Warnings — Breathing Time — Symptoms of Change — The Plunge Downwards— Utter Oblivion 100

Chapter X

General Falcon, and how to find him— The Grand Army— Down with the Red !— A Noble Revenge -Tocuyo— Personal Appearance of the Gran Mariscal — Conversation with the President ... CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XL PAGE

A Visit to Carabobo —Joltings by the Way — Mine host the Colonel, and the Posada at the Battle-field — Position of affairs before the Battle — The Advance from San Carlos— The Night before the Battle— The Spanish Position — Flight of the Apure Bravos— Repulse of the Cavalry under Paez — Ammunition exhausted — Bayonet Charge of the British — The Spaniards routed — Loss of the British — Bolivar's grateful Address — Results of the Victory 205

Chapter XII

A Visit to Las Tinajas — The Lake of Tacarigua — Adieu to Valencia — Republican Jehus — A Coffee Hacienda — Recruiting under Difficulties — The Beautiful Vale of Araguas — Maracai — Palmar — Victoria — Consejo — Las Coquillas — Up the Mountains — Life in the Jungle — Limon and Los Teques — The Frenchman's Story — Return to Caracas — A parting Benediction . . 219

Chapter XIII

Difficulty of forming an exact estimate of the Resources of Venezuela — Configuration and Area of the Country— Codazzi's Division of it into Three Systems — Distribution into Provinces— Chief Cities, Climate, and Scenery — Population — Form of Government — Revenue — Debt — Commerce — Mineral and Vegetable Products 242

Chapter XIV

Relations of Venezuela with Foreign Powers — Assistance rendered to Venezuela by England in men and money — History of Venezuelan Debt — Causes of the Decay of English Influence— The Question of the Loans — Plans for Solving the Difficulty — The Foreign Office View — The Appeal to Force — The Compensation Plan — The Best Plan 315

Appendix

VENEZUELA: OR, SKETCHES OF LIFE IN A SOUTH-AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

Chapter I. To Venezuela

Sailing on a Friday — Juan — The Royal Mail Company — The Story interrupted — Hat Island— Harbour of St. Thomas— A Battle with the Sharks — The Virgin Islands — A Cruise among the Cemeteries — Blockaderunners — Voyage to La Guaira — The Death at Sea — Aves Islands — At Anchor. " Needles indeed ! they look more like Grinders ; and, a propos of that, if this confounded wind continues dead in our teeth, we shall pitch hows under as soon as we get out side." I uttered these words without addressing myself to any person in particular, for I knew no one on hoard, and, in fact, there was no one near enough to hear me, but my servant, who, like myself, was leaning over the taffrail, watching the pilot drop astern. I looked at my watch ; it was seven minutes past seven, on the 17th of June (I like seven, it is a lucky number) ; we were off the Needles ; the pilot had just left us ; there was a strong breeze right ahead, and the weather did not look altogether so propitious u VENEZUELA. 2 as it should do on a midsummer evening.

My servant, Juan, was a fine specimen of a Santa Cruz man. He stood six feet five inches in his boots, was an excellent valet, never drank, smoked, nor swore, spoke Spanish and English, loved England with all his heart, and, like most natives of Santa Cruz and Saint Thomas, fully considered himself an Englishman. I knew little of Juan, who had been in my service only a few days, and was now to learn one of his peculiarities. He was subject to an extraordinary flow of spirits on the occurrence of anything which others regarded as depressing. A simple contretemps put him in a good humour ; but a disaster made him jocular, and the graver the case the more he was elated. On hearing my exclamation he turned round approvingly, and said, " Yes, no fears, sir, but we'll have a rough night of it ; I never hur-red no good of sailing on a Friday."

"Pooh, pooh, Juan," said I, "that's a mere prejudice. Why, on Friday, the 9th of August, 1492, no less a man than Christoval Colon sailed from Lagos to discover the New World, these very West Indies to which we are now going, and on Friday, the 12th of October, he did discover San Salvador, not so very far from where you were born; and on Friday, the 1st of March, 1493, he saw land on his return — that is, he ought to have seen it if the weather had not been rather thick." I said the last words with some hesitation, for, in fact, I recollected that Colon, on his homeward voj-age, encountered a regular tormenta off Portugal, and was near foundering ; so that the third Friday was rather against me. Juan, however, as became a man of his inches, was not to be beaten from his opinion, and said : " I don't know nothing about Columbus, sir, but my father, who was a SAILING ON A FRIDAY. 3 better man, leastways made more voyages 'tween 'Merica and Europe — for he was a ship's steward, and spoke English as well as I do — said he never hur-red no good of sailing on a Friday."

So saying, and laying a peculiarly grating emphasis. on the word hur-red, Juan stalked off. " Confound the fellow ! " said I to myself, " it's absurd, but he makes me melancholy with his forebodings. Yet, imagine anything like risk in a grand vessel of three thousand tons and upwards ! Why, the wretched carvel in which Columbus made his voj-ages, was hardly so large as the long-boat there. It is no exaggeration to say that she would scarcely have carried the admiral's potted meats, which the steward tells me weigh over twenty tons. It is true, however, that though the voyage from Lagos to Guanahari was three thousand and forty miles — nearly as long as from Southampton to Saint Thomas, which is but one hundred and forty-seven more — yet, as Humboldt says, ' A voyage from the coast of Spain, and thence to South America, is scarcely attended with any event which deserves attention, especially when undertaken in summer.

The navigation is often less dangerous than crossing one of the great lakes of Switzerland.' Whereas in our voyage there is that odious Bay of Biscay to be crossed, and a still worse sea on the homeward passage ; and steamers, however grand, have risks of their own. Well, who knows ! Juan's forebodings may be justified." So, after finishing my reverie, I went to smoke a cigar in the allowable place before the funnel, and next to arrange my cabin, and so, hi due course, to bed. I was awoke in the morning by a hideous jabber of several small voices crying all at once, " Steward ! steward ! B VENEZUELA. ■1 for vy I say call I you many times ? Vy you by your own selves not ask me vat I vant?" This reminded me of Trollope's grinning Frenchman and his rotten walnut ; and incontinently I laughed somewhat loudly, which had the effect of shaming my neighbours and stilling the. clamour.

On leaving my cabin I was astonished to see outside the next cabin door four such Lilliputian pahs of half-boots that I could not but come to the conclusion that my neigh bours must be all children, and yet then* voices were the voices of middle age. Afterwards I discovered that the Spanish Creoles have feet as tiny as those of Chinese ladies, but of a natural tininess, and without deformity. Travelling per steamer is a trite affair. People think little more of crossing the Atlantic in one of the gigantic vessels of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, or of the Cmiard line, than of passing a river on a bridge. "The river," says the old Sanscrit proverb, "is crossed, and the bridge is forgotten." Fourteen days, or so, of short whist and long flirtations, of bad cigars and pleasant yarns, of hot calms and cold gales, a transfer of cash and billets, and the voyage is over.

But the utility, wealth, and importance of such an association as the Royal Mail Company, the admirable system organised for the performance of the duties of every individual serving under it, and the consequent safety with which so many voyages, at all seasons, are performed, deserve more consideration than is usually given to the subject. In my first lounging fit I took up the prospectus and the book of regulations of the company, which dates from 1830 ; and setting myself to calculate, found that this one company now owns a fleet of twenty three steamers, of forty-five thousand eight hundred and THE EOYAL MAIL COMPANY. 5 four tons, and eleven thousand four hundred and seventy horse-power. These vessels, I calculated, convey on an average some thirty-five thousand passengers yearly, and over twenty million of dollars in specie, besides other valuable cargo.

There are prizes in such a service. The superintendents make from one thousand five hundred to two thousand pounds a year. The senior captain draws one thousand two hundred in cash, and has his living and lodging free. The other captains, with like advantages in other respects, get one thousand joer annum. The junior officers are proportionably well paid. There is a home for them at Southampton, where they five at free quarters. In the large steamers there are four or five officers besides the captain, and their duties are strictly defined. The chief officer keeps the log, the second has charge of the treasure, and accompanies the Admiralty's agent on shore with the mails, the third and fourth stow the cargo. A junior officer is never left in charge of the ship at night. There is a goodly crew.

On board the vessel in which I was passenger were fifty-three seamen, fifty-four engineers, and twenty-three ser vants. One might well feel at ease in a vessel so provided. I soon became acquainted with most of the passengers. There were several naval officers of rank, a handsome admiral with a fine bold nose, a baronet with a romantic name, a captain of the race of England's naval demi-gods, several West Indian planters, and not a few pretty planters' daughters, some, too, without chaperones ; a shabby Columbian general, a few lively Frenchmen, and a score of Creole nondescripts. I passed my time in playing chess and learning Spanish. Unfortunately, there were no sehoras or senoritas of whom to be taught. There was, however, VENEZUELA. a young aide-de-camp to the President of Peru, who pos sessed so much patience and amiabilit}*, that he would talk to me in pure Castillano by the hour, though at first I did not comprehend more than one word in a hundred.

Never theless, by the time we reached the Azores, I had made some progress, and had even once asked publicly at the dinner-table, in Spanish, for the mustard. It was the 23rd of June, at 4 a.m., that we passed the islands, and sighted two of the group. They lie directly in the course out, but homeward, a very great circuit is made to the west. The outward bound captahis like to see the islands, for the cm-rents in the Atlantic are so strong and so various that no reckoning can be perfectly true. There is an equinoctial current from east to west, and there is the Gidf Stream, which is a hot current, from west to east; and there are local currents and abnormal currents, and a great-circuit current, compounded of all these, which has a periphery of three thousand eight hundred leagues, and a log of wood dropped into the sea opposite Senegal would go, as many other sticks do, " on circuit," and return to its starting place hi two years and ten months.

We passed, I say, the Azores on the 23rd of June, and forthwith the weather waxed hot. We had not yet caught the trade-winds, and, though there were occasional squalls, on the whole it was sultry, with a rather lurid sky at night. On the 25th it was particularly close and oppressive. I had been playing chess all the morning. It was 2 p.m., and I was lazily talking to my late antagonist, a good looking Frenchman, who, though he was, he informed me, thirty-five, looked like a mere youth, owing to an entire absence of beard, whiskers, and moustache. Groups of THE STOEY INTERRUPTED. 7 people, some reading, others playing chess or draughts, sat or lounged around us. It was a dead calm, and the polished inirror of the sea gave back the sun's rays with interest. " Monsieur voyage pour son plaisir ou pour les affaires ?

" I inquired. " Pom* nion plaisir ? " repeated the Frenchman, with some surprise, "du tout, du tout, monsieur. Je suis medecin, monsieur, et j'ai aussi une fabrique de bottes a Lima." " Quoi, monsieur," said I, raising myself a little on my elbow, " medecin et marchand de bottes a la fois — vous plaisantez ! " The Frenchman opened liis hps to reply, but just at that moment there was a tremendously loud crash, followed by a strange whizzing noise, and almost immediately afterwards by a succession of terrific thuds, as if some Cyclops had suddenly commenced hammering in the engine-room. At the same time showers of splinters came flying from the starboard paddle-box, and a dense cloud of steam and smoke burst all along the deck, so as almost to hide the funnel from sight. Great confusion of course ensued.

Chess-tables and chairs were overset ; screams of ladies, questions of men shouted in various languages, rushes of sailors amid the cloud of steam, oaths and scuffling, added to the din. It was curious to see in that moment of terrible uncertainty, when an explosion, or some other catastrophe was expected by all, how some of the foreigners who had been sneering at religion all the way out, suddenly betook themselves to prayer. For myself, I felt exactly as I did some years ago in a railway accident. In both cases I expected every moment to be killed, and yet the most trivial circumstances did not escape me, while my general thought was, as I looked at the bright sun and quiet sleep of Nature, that a violent death was all the VENEZUELA. more shocking with everything around so quiet and peaceable.

Hah a minute, perhaps, had passed, but it seemed a long time, and I was rushing forward to see what really had happened, when I felt myself stopped by a powerful arm, and the huge figure of Juan blocked the way. " Best stop here," he said, with a grin ; " I have got finely scalded myself, without being of no use. Now. the engines are stopped, the captain will soon put matters to rights, if any one can ; but, Caramba ! this all comes of sailing on a Friday. I never hur-red of no good from sailing on a Friday." Destiny, however, was for this time to let us off with only a fright. The thundering blows ceased with the stoppage of the engines, the steam and smoke gradually cleared away, and the hubbub abated. It was then we learned that the great shaft which connects the paddle wheels with the machinery had suddenly snapped, and, starting up like a snag, had caught some ponderous gear, which it whirled round with each revolution of the engines, smashing the paddle-box and everything near it.

In the confusion there had been an upset of hot coals and an escape of steam, which scalded several men, and drove the others out of the engine-room. The danger of the late accident was soon forgotten, and some of those who had been most alarmed were unmercifully quizzed. About one short fat Creole in particular the jokes were never ending. He was in his cabin when the crash took place, and fancying from the smoke and steam which entered his quarters that the ship was on fire, he actually contrived to thrust his corpulent body through the round window, though one would have thought it too small for the TUE PEOFESSOE'S EUSE. 9 passage of a fat rabbit. From the window he somehow scrambled on deck, and made his appearance, steaming with perspiration, with one sleeve of his coat torn off, and with a face and figure, as every one declared, considerably elongated by his squeeze through the bull's-eye.

How the damages were repaired I know not, but, in a few hours, we were going on much as usual ; so much so, indeed, that the Frenchman, who had told me he was doctor and bootmaker at once, could now finish his story and explain himself. "When I commenced my career," said he, " I found that no one would trust me to prescribe, on account of my juvenile appearance. In despair, I con sulted a friend, who said to me, ' My dear fellow, with that child's face of yours, you will never have a patient. But stay ! I know a certain college in which a Greek professor is wanted. You shall be the Greek professor ; you shall have the place ! ' In vain I protested that I knew nothing of Greek. ' I make it entirely my business,' replied my friend ; ' you shall have the place.' Accordingly, I found myself at the college, with a letter of introduction to the lecturer, who had been temporarily discharging the duties of the defunct professor of Greek.

I had counted on several days to prepare myself, but, on handing him the letter, he said, in a sharp voice, ' Charmed to see you, and to resign my functions. The students will be ready for you in ten minutes. I will send a man to show you the lecture-room. ' At that moment I felt my knees tremble under me, and my uneasiness was so great, that I almost resolved to jump into an omnibus I saw pass, chive to the station, and return to Paris. Somehow, I found myself at the lecture-room, and just then a lucky thought occurred to me. ' Range VENEZUELA. yourselves,' I said to the students, ' as you ranked at the last examination. Now,' I continued, when they had done so, ' let the lowest read first.' When he had finished, I said to the next, ' What mistakes has he made, and how do you correct them ? ' He mentioned one or two blunders, and I then put the same question to others, till no one had any thing left to say.

The reading and the corrections occupied a long time, at the end of which I said, ' That will do for the first lecture ; at the next I shall have more to say to you.' In fact, when the next seance came, I had, by great industry, prepared myself a little, and managed to deliver a discom*se, and, in the meantime, I had the satisfaction of hearing that my fame was great among the students, who were tickled with the novelty of my system, insomuch that my senior colleague congratulated me on abandoning the career of a physician, and assured me that I was born to be a professor ! I longed, however, to return to my original employment, and, as I did not see my way hi France, I went out to Lima, where I married a Creole, fell ill of dysentery, and, as I could not recover my health in Peru, I opened a shoe-shop, left my wife hi charge of it, and returned to Paris, and I am now going out to bring home my daughter to be educated."

Next day we arrived within the influence of the trade winds. We had now frequent squalls and thunder and ligh tning till the 30th, on which day, at seven p.m.,. we made, as the sailors say, the little island of Sombrero, or "Hat Island." It is only three-quarters of a mile long and nine hundred feet broad ; is a perfectly flat rock, about twenty feet above the level of the sea ; and derives its name from its fancied resemblance to a cardinal's hat. In 1850 it HAT ISLAND. 11 was miinhabited, except by sea-fowl and black lizards : the only place of landing was at a bight on the west side : and getting on shore was what Yankees would term a caution to snakes. "Under very favourable circumstances," says a nautical writer, " by watching an opportunity, you may jump on to a flat ledge to the cliff, and with some difficulty ascend to the summit."

The almighty dollar, however, would make a landing anywhere, and as there was abundance of guano on the rock, the Americans had taken possession of it, and we saw them hard at work with cranes and carts loading vessels with the precious deposit. At 3 p.m. on the 1st of July we anchored in the harbour of St. Thomas. I looked in vain for the little steamer which I expected would be ready to convey me to La Guaira. Instead of it I was shown a schooner of about eighty tons, which was to sail next day for that place. Viewed from the decks of the gigantic Royal Mail Steamer, she looked like a cockle-shell. Spite of the heat, I landed at once, and went straight to the store of a young merchant, whose family I knew. He was a handsome fellow of about two-and-twenty, with bright blue eyes and curly hair, and with such an overpowering share of good nature that all his other qualities seemed absorbed by it.

He produced some excellent brandy, and still better cigars, and we began to discuss how I should amuse myself till the schooner was ready to start. Of course I had a list of commissions, all of which it was agreed should be executed at a cooler hour next morning. Then we began to talk about the harbour, and I happened to ask if there were many sharks in it ? Hereupon my host brightened up, and said : "If you would hke to see a few, I'll show you some. A horse of mine was VENEZUELA. 12 taken ill last night, and is just dead. We'll tow the carcase off with a boat to the mouth of the harbour, take a couple of rifles and a harpoon,' and it's odd if we don't have some sport." No sooner said than done. Orders were at once given to drag the dead horse to the water's edge, and my host, followed by myself and a big negro, who carried the rifles and the harpoon, walked down to the boat.

It was a large boat, with four rowers and an awning, and as the boat men, notwithstanding the heat, pulled with a will, we made way rapidly, and before long had got past the steamers, and were nearing the mouth of the harbour. As yet I had seen nothing, and was becoming rather impatient. "Why," said I, " I don't believe there are any sharks. I have not seen a single back fin above water." In reply, my host checked the rowers for a moment, when, as the surge we made subsided, several dark lines showed themselves just astern of the horse. " Give way," said he to the boatmen; " we have not yet reached the place where we can fire safely, and if we stop another half-minute the horse will be torn to ribbons." When the boat had gone a few hundred yards further, he said to me, " Now cock your rifle, and look out !

The instant we stop, the sharks will rise, and the first that turns to seize the horse, fire right into his belly. I'll give him both barrels, too, and four conical pills should settle him. Are you ready ? " " Quite ready," I replied, and the boat stopped. In an instant the dark lines were visible again, but this time they came rapidly up to the surface, and five monstrous sharks showed themselves. The apparition was so sudden, and the sharks were so huge, so much larger than any I had seen before, that I started, and, had I cocked my rifle as I A BATTLE WITH THE SHAEKS. 13 had been told to do, there is no knowing where I might have sent my random shot. But it has always been my practice not to cock till I see the object ; and this has prevented my making many a bad miss. In a moment I recovered myself, and, as the foremost shark tinned on his back and darted at the carcase, I took good aim, and fired nearly at the same moment with my friend.