The town of San Fernando, which was founded only in 1789, is advantageously situated on a large navigable river, the Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco, near the mouth of another stream which traverses the whole province of Varinas, all the productions of which pass through it on their way to the coast. It is during the rainy season, when the rivers overflow their banks and inundate a vast extent of country, that commerce is most active. At this period the savannahs are covered with water to the depth of twelve or fourteen feet, and present the appearance of a great lake, in the midst of which the farm-houses and villages are seen rising on islands scarcely elevated above the surface. Horses, mules, and cows, perish in great numbers, and afford abundant food to the zamuros or carrion vultures, as well as to the alligators. The inhabitants, to avoid the force of the currents, and the danger arising from the trees carried down by them, instead of ascending the course of the rivers, find it safer to cross the flats in their boats.

San Fernando is celebrated for the excessive heat which prevails there during the greater part of the year. The travellers found the white sand of the shores, wherever it was exposed to the sun, to have a temperature of 126·5°, at two in the afternoon. The thermometer, raised eighteen inches above the sand, indicated 109°; and at six feet, 101·7°.