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 VENEZUELA 295 mand in the European and American markets. The other principal articles of export are cot- ton, cacao, sugar, indigo, tobacco, salt, hides, cattle, tallow, horns, sarsaparilla, and dye and cabinet woods. The imports include cotton, linen, and silk goods, flour, provisions, hard- ware, wines, and specie. The total value of the exports in the year 1872-'3 was $21,320,- 495, and of the imports $11,264,976. The articles exported and the quantities in 1872-'3 wre as follows : coffee, 23,998,585 Ibs. ; cot- ton, 5,648,323 Ibs.; indigo, 182,976 Ibs. ; sugar, 5,017,469 Ibs. ; cacao, 7,573,586 Ibs. ; tobacco, 1,100,297 Ibs.; hides, 130,000; skins (deer and goat), 150,000; cattle, 6,831 head. The total value of the exports to the United States (port of New York) in the years ending June 30, 1870 and 1875, respectively, was $1,897,800 and $4,206,264; of the imports from New York in the same years, $1,122,195 and $1,980,- 775. The exports to the United States have thus increased by more than 100 per cent, in five years. The articles shipped to that destina- tion are usually coffee, cacao, cotton, indigo, hides, skins, woods, and drugs. The shipping movements for the port of La Guayra in 1872 -'3 were : entered, 177 vessels, tonnage 93,424 ; cleared, 128 vessels, tonnage 131,110. For the port of Puerto Cabello in 1874 they were : en- tered, 212 vessels, tonnage 105,046 ; cleared, 126 vessels, tonnage 78,227. The number of vessels entered at all the ports of the republic in 1874 was 2,200. In the year ending June 30, 1875, Venezuelan ports were visited by 17 steamers and 41 sailing vessels from New York, of 21,546 tons. The principal Caribbean ports are now visited monthly by the steamers of one American and seven European lines. The coasting trade, which is considerable, is carried on by national craft only, as are also the fish- eries. The traffic between Caracas and its port La Guayra is conducted by means of road locomotives of recent introduction. Telegraphs have been established between Caracas and La Guayra, Coro, and other coast towns; and in February, 1876, materials were shipped from New York for several other lines. By the terms of the constitution of March 28, 1864, Venezuela became a federal republic closely modelled after that of the United States. The executive power is vested in a president elected for four years, aided by the six ministers of in- terior and justice, foreign affairs, finance, pub- lic works, war and the navy, and public credit. The president has no veto power. The legisla- tive power resides in a congress composed of a senate and a house of representatives, whose members are deputed from the corresponding houses in the individual states. The central judicial power is confided to the supreme court, three superior courts, and the courts of first instance, of which there is one for each canton. The municipal government is conducted by the council of each canton. The constitution in its other provisions resembles that of the Uni- ted States of America; but its modifications and amendments have of late been too frequent and too numerous for mention here. The army was said, in the president's message of February, 1875, to be 30,000 strong; but a subsequent official publication gave it at 10,- 000 infantry and artillery, and 78,000 militia. The national revenue amounted in 1873-'4 to $5,570,401, of which $4,565,857 proceeded from the customs and from public storage and tonnage dues ; and the expenditures amounted to $5,209,351, although three fifths of the in- come was to have been appropriated to de- fraying the expenses of the government, and the remainder to be applied on the amortiza- tion of the national debts. On June 30, 1873, the home debt amounted to $16,439,383, and the foreign debt to $46,575,337. The govern- ment has recently resumed payment of the interest on these debts, after a suspension of several years. Education, which has ever been more advanced in Venezuela than in the sister republics, though only in the higher branches, has become the object of most zealous care on the part of Guzman Blanco's administration, under whose auspices primary instruction, gra- tuitous and compulsory, has been decreed, and primary schools have begun to multiply rapid- ly. The university of Caracas had in 1874 19 professors and 165 students; and there are be- sides in that city a medical faculty and a school of arts founded by Guzman Blanco in May, 1870. Elsewhere in the republic there are national and private colleges, and a seminary (called university since the abolition of the seminaries by decree of September, 1872). A semi-official report published in 1875 set down the number of primary schools for the whole republic at 541, of which 141 were federal and the remainder municipal and private schools ; the attendance at the former was 7,064, and at the latter 11,017. The religion of the peo- ple is the Roman Catholic, but all others are tolerated. The clergy are strictly subordinate to the civil power ; the government exercises the patronage of the church, and the papal sanc- tion, when required, is transmitted through it. The archiepiscopal see is at Caracas, and there are two bishoprics, one at Mrida and the other at Ciudad Bolivar. The island of Margarita and the E. part of the coast of Venezuela were dis- covered by Columbus in 1498, and the whole coast by Ojeda and Vespucci in 1499. On en- tering Lake Maracaybo, they found an Indian village constructed on piles over the water (a common occurrence in those portions of the country liable to inundation), and thence called it Venezuela (Little Venice). This name, ori- ginally applied only to the region near the lake, was eventually extended to the whole country. The Spanish conquerors at first gave it the name of Costa Firme, and included under this name New Granada and Ecuador also ; at the present day only the E. coast of Venezuela is known as Costa Firme. The first settlement was made about 1520, at Cumana, which is con- sequently one of the oldest cities in the new