United States or Egypt ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Pizarro stood in as close as possible to the fort, to be under its protection. It was on this shore, that, in the landing attempted by the English two years before our arrival, in July 1797, admiral Nelson had his arm carried off by a cannon-ball. The situation of the town of Santa Cruz is very similar to that of La Guayra, the most frequented port of the province of Caraccas.
Therefore so ran his argument La Guayra must be sacked and laid in ashes before he could consider his duty as thoroughly finished. As a consequence, shortly after midnight the boats of the fleet stole silently out from under the sheltering lee of their parent vessels, and made swiftly and noiselessly, with muffled oars, for the town.
There we halted for the night, and on the following day we proceeded along the right bank of the Rio Guayra as far as the village of Antimano, by a very fine road, partly scooped out of the rock. We passed by La Vega and Carapa. The church of La Vega rises very picturesquely above a range of hills covered with thick vegetation.
The whole of the morning was devoted to a full and particular recital on our part of everything which had transpired from the moment of our boarding the Pinta until that of our leaving her; after which we formed ourselves into a committee to discuss the outfit of the craft; and we now learned, somewhat to our chagrin, that Carera and his boat's crew, having duly turned up at Port Royal, had made such representations to the admiral as had induced that distinguished officer to release them and the felucca forthwith, upon the understanding that they were to return at once to La Guayra, and were not to attempt to communicate, either directly or indirectly, with Merlani or any of the other pirate gangs on the Cuban coast which it was proposed that we should attack.
The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope. "The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron," whispers Cary, "and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the captain of the Madre Dolorosa." At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards of the stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the complete silence.
Your experience of the country so far has not been happy." "Well, I certainly have had rather a lively time of it since I landed at La Guayra, if that is what you mean." "Very. And I should almost advise you to leave the country, if that were possible. But reaching the coast in present circumstances is out of the question.
This breccia, or calcareous sandstone, is a local and partial formation, peculiar to the peninsula of Araya, the coasts of Cumana, and Caracas. We again found it at Cabo Blanco, to the west of the port of Guayra, where it contains, besides broken shells and madrepores, fragments, often angular, of quartz and gneiss.
They could, of course, have reached the Gulf of Mexico much more quickly by sailing down the Windward Channel and along the southern coast of Cuba, and by the Yucatan Channel into the gulf; but they had heard of the treasure-ships that made La Guayra their port of departure, and were anxious not to miss any of them.
The examination of the thermometric observations made during nine months at La Guayra by an eminent physician, enabled me to compare the climate of this port, with those of Cumana, of the Havannah, and of Vera Cruz. This comparison is the more interesting, as it furnishes an inexhaustible subject of conversation in the Spanish colonies, and among the mariners who frequent those latitudes.
The voyage from Cadiz to Punta Barima is performed sometimes in eighteen or twenty days. The return to Europe takes from thirty to thirty-five days. These mouths being placed to windward of all the islands, the vessels of Angostura can maintain a more advantageous commerce with the West Indies than La Guayra and Porto Cabello.
Word Of The Day