The west end of the island has a fine bay, with deep water, sheltered from the constant east wind, so that it is hard to see for what reason the city was founded at the other extremity; harder still, perhaps, to understand why it was founded at all on a barren island where practically every drop of water had to be brought from Margarita or from the Rio Manzanares at Cumaná. Its end came after its partial destruction by earthquake and hurricane in 1543, with the subsequent decrease in the output of the pearl fisheries, already spoilt by the extravagant and careless exploitation of the Spaniards, who soon paid more attention to those of the neighbouring island of Coche. It was infamous during its existence for the cruelties of its slave market, where the captive Indians of the mainland were branded with the initial letter of the city, and even after its final abandonment the memory of that fatal “_C_” rankled in the minds of the unfortunate Caribs and Chaymas. Now, however, barring the heat in the valleys and to leeward of the cliffs of its treeless surface, the island is pleasant enough, and the clear shallows with their safe bathing-places are a compensation for the midday heat, while in the rock-pools the squids, water-snakes, and many-coloured shells of the tropical seas are a continual source of delight (to the eye); often, too, one may see the giant rays splashing in the strait between the island and Margarita, like huge pieces of armour-plate leaping from the water. Coche still possesses a town in San Pedro de Coche, whose population live partly by their fisheries, but chiefly by the exploitation of the white salt of their _salinas_, almost the finest in Venezuela. Separated from Cubagua and Coche by only a few miles of shallow water is the peninsula of Araya, behind which lies the Gulf of Cariaco, a long east and west arm of the sea. At the entrance on the south side is Cumaná, capital of the State, which, since the chief city was the birthplace of José de Sucre, of revolutionary fame, is now called after him, while the actual port of Cumaná is known as Puerto Sucre. The town was founded in 1520, and has a special interest in that it owed much in its early years to the labours of Bartolomé de las Casas. It has more than once suffered severely from earthquakes, and these earth tremors have, at times, played a considerable part in its history.