Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/311

 VENEZUELA 291 gling of these and negroes. Of pure-blooded Indians Codazzi in 1841 enumerated 49 wild and independent tribes, numbering in all 52,- 415, of whom 9,000 were Goajiros occupy- ing the eastern half of the Goajira peninsula claimed by Venezuela. The coast line, from Cape Chichibacoa in the N". E. extremity of the peninsula of Goajira to the boundary line with British Guiana, nearly 2,000 m., follow- ing the sinuosities, about one tenth of which is washed by the Atlantic, is notched by numer- ous gulfs, bays, and inlets. The first deep in- dentation, beginning at the east, comprises the main mouth of the Orinoco, between Points Mocomoco and Araguapiche, 65 m. apart. About 90 m. W. of the latter point, at the N. W. extremity of the great swampy delta of the Orinoco, is the gulf of Paria, the shores of which are mostly bold and rocky, 100 m. long and 47 m. wide, separated from the Caribbean sea by the peninsula of Paria, and from the At- lantic by the island of Trinidad. The gulf of Cariaco is a narrow inlet, nearly 50 m. long, be- tween the peninsula of Araya and the Cumana coast, presenting a picturesque and commo- dious roadstead. From Cumana westward to Barcelona the coast, though still rocky, becomes gradually lower and more even ; and from the latter port to Cape Codera it is low and sandy, and interspersed with extensive salt marshes. Between Cape Codera and the gulf of Triste (formed by a rectangular northward bend of the coast, 25 m. W. of the port of Puerto Ca- bello) is comprised the most rugged portion of the seaboard, flanked by the Venezuelan coast range of mountains, and notched by a series of inlets fringed with luxuriant vegetation. This strip of coast is 150 m. long. Beyond Point Tncacas, at the N". "W. extremity of the gulf of Triste, the shore is again low and sandy, with intervals of mangrove marshes, and oc- casional low spurs from a branch of the far distant M6rida mountains. From the middle of the Goajira coast to Cape Chichibacoa it pre- sents an uninterrupted perpendicular wall of rock. Enclosed between the Goajira peninsula on the west, the rocky peninsula of Paraguana on the east, and the main coast on the south, lies the gulf of Maracaybo, or more properly of Venezuela, the largest of the republic, hav- ing an area of about 6,500 sq. m. The eastern branch of this gulf, called by native geographers the golfete de Coro, has an area of about 1,000 sq. m., and, being completely sheltered from the