Caraccas, the capital of the former captain-generalship of Venezuela, is more known to Europeans on account of the earthquakes by which it was desolated than from its importance in a political or commercial point of view. At the present day it is the chief city of a district of the same name, forming part of the republic of Columbia; though, at the time of Humboldt's visit, it was the metropolis of a Spanish colony which contained nearly a million of inhabitants, and consisted of New Andalusia, or the province of Cumana, New Barcelona, Venezuela or Caraccas, Coro, and Maracaybo, along the coast; and in the interior, the provinces of Varinas and Guiana.

In a general point of view Venezuela presents three distinct zones. Along the shore, and near the chain of mountains which skirts it, we find cultivated land; behind this, savannahs or pasturages; and beyond the Orinoco, a mass, of forests, penetrable only by means of the rivers by which it is traversed. In these three belts, the three principal stages of civilisation are found more distinct than in almost any other region. We have the life of the wild hunter in the woody district—the pastoral life in the savannahs—and the agricultural in the valleys and plains which descend to various parts of the coast. Missionaries and a few soldiers occupy advanced posts on the southern frontiers.