Some twenty-five miles southward of Cumanacoa is the town of San Antonio, in Humboldt’s time a flourishing mission with a massive stone church built entirely by the Indians; the church, with its beautifully bright frescoes, is still standing, but sadly in want of repair, and one of the towers is cracked and overgrown at the base. Four or five miles to the south-east lies the Caripe valley, famous for its tobacco, and for the Guacharo cavern so well described by Humboldt. From his account a good idea may be gained of the beauty of the approach and the impressiveness of this hole in the limestone. He describes how, as he and Bonpland, with their friends and guides from the Mission Caripe, travelled up the valley, they were unable to see the mouth of the cave even at 400 paces distant, their way lying under an overhanging cliff, with the stream almost in a crevasse below them; then, turning a corner, they were suddenly in full view of the opening, 80 feet wide and 72 feet high, with stalactites and stalagmites within and huge trees above, while the aspect was different from anything of the kind in Europe on account of the luxuriant tropical vegetation all about. As they walked through the cave it was often necessary to step into the stream, which was only 2 feet deep, while overhead the Guacharos,[6] from which the cave has its name, were uttering their raucous cries. In the broader part of the cave the Indians were accustomed to venture at one season of the year to catch the young birds for their fat, which they used in cooking in the mission, but beyond they would hardly go, believing the spirits of their departed ancestors to be there. At the limit of Humboldt’s exploration in this narrower part he found an underground waterfall, which marks the visible source of the Rio Caripe. Thirty miles from San Antonio, at Aragua de Maturín, the edge of the hills is reached and the Llanos begin, but to the north-east there lies a stretch of little-known territory, chiefly forest-clad hills, capable of supporting millions of cacao-trees when a growing population shall settle there. Near Punceres there are oil-springs, and at other points in the region indications of petroleum are known, which may one day lead to the development of this rich and well-situated stretch of country, for at the east end is the old Puerto San Juan of colonial days, with a depth of water in the _caño_ of the same name sufficient for steam or sailing craft of considerable size. At present most of the produce of all the northern part of Monágas, as well as of Sucre, passes out over the hills to the Caribbean.