The lakes of Venezuela are not numerous, for we can hardly give that appellation to the sheets of water produced by the periodical swell of the Orinoco, or the rains, and which are generally without any depth; the lake of Valencia has been already described. The rivers of Venezuela are more numerous than in any other part of Spanish America. Every valley has its stream, and though many of them are not of sufficient size to be navigable, yet all afford ample supplies of water to irrigate the plantations on their banks. The principal of these, which run from the mountains of Caraccas and Coro into the Caribbean sea, are the _Guiges_, _Tocuyo_, _Aroa_, _Yaracuy_, and the _Tuy_. The _Guiges_ falls into that sea sixteen leagues west of the city of Coro; the _Tocuyo_ discharges its waters twenty-five leagues east of the Guiges or Gaigues; its source is fifteen leagues south of the town of Carora, at the distance of nearly one hundred miles from the ocean; and it is navigable as far as the village of Banagua, at the distance of forty leagues from its mouth; its banks furnishing abundance of timber of the largest size, and fit for every kind of building. The _Aroa_ rises in the mountains, west of the town of St. Felipe, and enters the ocean near Burburata bay. The _Yaracuy_ is another river which enters the Caribbean sea, near the latter; and the _Tuy_ discharges itself into the sea, thirty leagues east of La Guayra; it rises in the mountains of St. Pedro, ten leagues from the capital, and being joined by the _Guayra_, becomes navigable, and serves to transport the produce of the cultivated plains or valleys of Aragoa, Tacata, Cua, Sabana, Ocumara, Santa Lucia and Santa Teresa, through which it passes, and which particularly abound in cacao of the best quality.