Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — COVETED BY ENGLAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COVETED BY ENGLAND

THE FLOURISHING REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA. A Country of Immense \\ ealth—ForP e«ts with Kvery Kind of Precious Wood, Mines of All Valuable Metals —Unlimited Agricultural Resources. Bulldozed by Britain.

>. JJ. OR the last fifteen r years readers of the press have heard now and then of the progress made by Great Britain in extending her rule (H(m from the indefinite boundary line of British Guiana over ' a considerable por{Snail* tion of Venezuela. rTV It was vaguely un- ' derstood that the

Monroe doctrine was being disregarded; that a weak little nation was being despoiled. and that the United States was nsing up reams of paper in diplomatic correspondence on the question. Yet so well did John Bull prosper in the acquisition of land on American soil that in 1887 the British official publications announced that British Guiana contained 109,000 square miles. Just the year before the official record, and the authorized records of all civilized countries, gave the area as 70,000 miles. Where did the South American colony of Englnnd get its increase? No new survey had been made; no territory had been gained by cession or accretion from the sea, or by a new adjustment of boundary lines. England had got 33,000 square miles of land, an area as large as the State of Indiana, and Venezuela had been robbed of that much. The astonishing part of the whole affair was that no one entered a protest loud enough to be heard. The world accepted the usurpation, new maps were made of the territory. By 1890, in spite of the diplomatic correspondence, the report of the International Conference contains two maps of South America, both of which agree that there is no dispute about boundaries between Venezuela and British Guiana, and that the latter contains all the area latest claimed for it in 1887. The new boundary is accepted by the United States, a boundary made by England and protested against by Venezuela. The scale upon which England’s continued encroachments have been prosecuted is shown by the map. Cuyani line is as far to the westward of the Schomburgh line as that is from the Esequibo River—the legitimate boundary (according to Venezuela) of British Guiana. This Is rapid progression. Within six years Great Britain has acquired a territory nearly as large ns the State of Illinois,

without war or cession or purchase. The process is instructive. The boundary dispute recently called tip has had the effect of greatly interesting the people of the United States in the residents of a country, which, ulthough separated from us by thousands of miles 6f sea and land, is yet brought near by the ties created by a similar form of government. Although a small and weak power, Venezuela is a large country, having a length from east to west of more than 900 miles, a breadth from north to sduth exceeding 700, and an area of over 51)4,000 square miles. Roughly speaking, therefore, it is about as long as from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico and about as wide as from St. Louis to the Atlantic Ocean. If a line were drawn direct from St. Louis to Washington, and from St. Louis to the Gulf, the territory lying to the south and east of these lines would approximate in extent that of Venezuela. It is over twice as large as either Texas or France, nearly twice as large as Germany and ten times as large as England. In so extensive a territory even under a tropical sun, there is ample room for almost every kind of climate, and Venezuela can boast of more climates than any other land on the American side of the world, excepting Mexico. The innumerable varieties, however, reduce themselves to three species: the intensely hot, the moderately hot and the temperature, or, as a recent traveler expressed the idea, “One is hot enough to cook an egg in a minute, the second takes ten minutes and the third is cool enough to keep an egg fresh for a couple of days.” Along the seacoast and especially round Lake Maracaibo, the thermometer frequently stands at 110 degrees in the shade all day long; a little further inland, on lands somewhat elevated above the marshes, the mean temperature is about 80, while on the elevated tablelands of the interior a very moderate climate prevails most of the year, with occasional flurries of snow in the winter. From the diversity of climate it might be supposed that Venezuela is capable of growing any sort of agricultural product that is known anywhere else in the world, but this is not thecase, for the elevated plateaus of Venezuela, unlike those of Mexico, are by no means fertile, and large portions, comprising thousands of square miles, are quite unfit ;for cultivation, even of the primitive kind «aoßt popular among the Venezuelan Indians. But there is plenty of room for the farmer in the less elevated regions of the republic, for it is estimated that

throughout all Venezuela only one acre in 800 is cultivated, so the two and a quarter million*. Of population have ample non to spread and it is not likely that

for a good many years to come Venezuela will be over-crowded. It i» the best watered country on the globe. Within its limits there are over 1,000 rivers of navigable size, besides in numerable creeks and smaller streams, and nearly all this vast number have their rise within the boundaries of the republic, springing from the mountain ranges that divide, in almost every direction, the territory of Venezuela from that of her neighbors. With so great a number oi rivers, Venezuela ought to be one of the best known and best explored countries on the globe, but it is not, from the fact that the luxuriance of nature is such that the rivers flow through almost unbroken and impenetrable forests. Everywhere trees in closest array, the branches interlacing and forming an archway over the stream; everywhere a network of creepers and vines, through which it is impossible for the traveler to make his way. Yet these forestß themselves, which now stand as a barrier in the path of civilization, are destined, in the future, to form one of the principal sources of the national wealth. At the National Exposition of Venezuela, held at the capital in 1883, there were exhibited 2,070 different varieties of wood, composing 000 distinct species and embracing every kind of wood used in the arts and architecture. There were several kinds of rosewood, mahogany, cedar and other ornamental woods, with oak, pine and others which are found in equal or greater abundance elsewhere. But not for their wood only are the forests of Venezuela valuable, for the forest products may become an almost equal source of revenue. Thousands of square miles are covered with the trees that produce rubber, thousands more with cinchona forests that have never been touched with the ax. while plants useful in medical art and practice are numbered

by the hundred. If Venezuela had nothing but forests the State would be wealthy; but there is reason to believe that the mineral products are equally rich. Gold has been found in every portion of the republic, from the desert steppes of

the highlands to the marshes of Maracaibo. As is very well known, the richness of the gold mines in the territory near the British line has induced the En-

glish to claim land to which they have not a shadow of title; and no doubt is felt that when the mines of Venezuela are properly worked the world’s output of precious metal will be largely increased. Some of the mines now worked produce seven ounces to the ton, and the labors

of prospectors have discovered others that will be quite as rich. Silver is almost as plentiful as gold; copper is found in quantities so large and in situations where the metal is so easily worked, that the copper of Venezuela is already competing in Europe with that from other countries. Iron ore is found

in inexhaustible quantities; lead and tin exist in great abundance. Asphaltum enough to pave the streets of all the cities in the w'orld is found in the marshes and islands of the coast, and petroleum and coal enough to light them is near at hand. Extensive deposits of salt and soda exist in various places along the coast, while many other minerals of more or less value are to be found in various parts of the republic. In short, there is as much wealth below the roots of the Venezuelan forests as can be found above them. The fertility of the Venezuelan soil, when the forests can be subdued and native vegetation checked to a sufficient extent to permit the growth of cultivated crops, is said to be almost incredible, and so many stories are told of the quantities of food products raised on a single acre thit imagination is fairly staggered at the narratives. Of course, the greatest production is in the line of tropical plants and fruits, and, no doubt, when plans are devised to transport ripe tropical fruits long distances without impairing their quality, a new source of wealth will be added to the State. At present the richest fruits grow almost spontaneously, while the cultivation, even in the careless fashion common among the Indians, of garden vegetables brings princely returns. The staple productions are coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugar, corn, tobacco and wheat. It is estimated that about 400,000 acres are now planted in coffee trees, and us the quality of Venezuelan coffee is excellent, and by some persons

the bean is preferred even to that oi Java, the acreage is annually increasing More coffee is produced in Venezuela thai in any other country of the new world except Brazil. Besides coffee, however Venezuela has another source of wealtl in the cocoa tree. The cocoa belt, or re

gion, in which the tree best flourishes it comparatively restricted, and a large pari of the region most favorably adapted to the grow th of this tree lies within the limits of Venezuela. The urban population of Venezuela is not large; though there are many small towns and villages. Only two cities are of considerable size. In the marshy regions the Indians live in huts elevated on poles above the water, and it was this peculiarity of habitation that gave a name to the State, Little Venice, it being so called by the early Spanish explorers. The capital, Caracas, and La Guayra, the chief seaport, are the most important cities from either a social, political or commercial point of view. The former, only seven miles in a direct line from the latter and the sea, is over twenty miles distant by the stage route, for a range of rugged mountains intervenes between the capital and the sea, and only recently has a railroad been constructed that enables a shorter line to be taken. The city is beautifully laid out in the center of a beautiful valley, and has all the appointments of-a modern city. The population, according to the census of four years ago, is 70,000, only 20,000 more than it had at the beginning of this century, but besides going through the horrors of a merciless war with the Spaniards, it was almost utterly destroyed in 1812 by an earthquake, that, coming without notice, prostrated nearly every house in the city. How many lives were lost on that occasion will never be known, for the living were too few to bury the dead, so the bodies w’ere gathered in heaps here and there and burned. A volume would not do justice to the

flourishing republic that Great Britain now seeks to dismember, much less an article.

WHERE BOLIVAR IS BURIED.

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.

PRESIDENT JOACHIM CRESPO, OF VENEZUELA.

A COLLEGE IN MARACAIBO.

LAKE DWELLINGS.