PUERTO OABELLO, foiu'
My
hours.
for the
before
139
reconnoitiing seemed to bring good luck,
wind sprang up ahnost immediately, and we ran
it
at the rate of eight or nine knots
our destination.
make
glasses, to
an hour, towards
In a short time we were able, with our out the Mirador of Solano, or Castle of
Puerto Cabello, which stands on a rock
hundred
five
feet
high, about a quarter of a league to the south-east of the
harbour.
We
now began
to
hug the
shore,
and passed
fu-st
of Tm-iamo, nine miles east of Puerto Cabello,
those of Patanemo and Bm'burata.
by narrow Islands,
strips of
the
Bay
and then
Here the coast
is
Imed
low land, covered with bushes, called the
on which the sea breaks very heavily.
I observ'ed
that from these the coast runs in a great curve to the north-
west and north, making
much more
By
appears from the maps.
of a semicircle than
this cm^ve of the coast is
a great bay called the Golfo Triste, wliich lugubrious well desen^es, the coast being, perhaps, the
title it
most unhealthy
At a quarter past 7 we were rounding
in the world.
fonned
a spit
of land wliich runs out about half a mile from the coast in a
north-westerly direction.
Having rounded the
extremity of which stands built,
spit, at
the
Hghthouse, extremely well
but which has never once been used, we entered a bay
between the
from
a
all
ourselves
spit
and the mainland, which
thus protected
is
winds, on the east, north, and south, and found
m the
far-famed harbour of Puerto Cabello.
It
only required a glance to see that the port was secui'ed from
storms on the west also, partly by islands, and partly by the cui-ve of
the
mainland.
In short, there
harbom- in the world where the sea as at Puerto Cabello.
is
is at all
This being the case,
it
perhaps no
times so calm is
surprising