, as has been said, from Maracaibo.
The town is inhabited by about 1,500 persons, whereof four hundred may
bear arms; the greatest part of them keep shops, wherein they exercise
one trade or another. In the adjacent fields are numerous plantations of
sugar and cocoa, in which are many tall and beautiful trees, of whose
timber houses may be built, and ships. Among these are many handsome and
proportionable cedars, seven or eight feet about, of which they can
build boats and ships, so as to bear only one great sail; such vessels
being called piraguas. The whole country is well furnished with rivers
and brooks, very useful in droughts, being then cut into many little
channels to water their fields and plantations. They plant also much
tobacco, well esteemed in Europe, and for its goodness is called there
_tobacco de sacerdotes_, or priest's tobacco. They enjoy nigh twenty
leagues of jurisdiction, which is bounded by very high mountains
perpetually covered with snow. On the other side of these mountains is
situate a great city called Merida, to which the town of Gibraltar is
subject. All merchandise is carried hence to the aforesaid city on
mules, and that but at one season of the year, by reason of the
excessive cold in those high mountains. On the said mules returns are
made in flour of meal, which comes from towards Peru, by the way of
Estaffe.

Lolonois arriving at the gulf of Venezuela, cast anchor with his whole
fleet out of sight of the Vigilia or Watch Isle; next day very early he
set sail thence with all his ships for the lake of Maracaibo, where they
cast anchor again; then they landed their men, with design to attack
first the fortress that commanded the bar, therefore called _de la
barra_. This fort consisted only of several great baskets of earth
placed on a rising ground, planted with sixteen great guns, with several
other heaps of earth round about for covering their men: the pirates
having landed a league off this fort, advanced by degrees towards it;
but the governor having espied their landing, had placed an ambuscade to
cut them off behind, while he should attack them in front. This the
pirates discovered, and getting before, they defeated it so entirely,
that not a man could retreat to the castle: this done, Lolonois, with
his companions, advanced immediately to the fort, and after a fight of
almost three hours, with the usual desperation of this sort of people,
they became masters thereof, without any o