COLUMBIA AND VENEZUELA.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 13 November 1901, Page 3

COLUMBIA AND VENEZUELA.

The South American countries, .which are now at war, were probably better known to Englishmen in Queen Elizabeth’s reign than they are to-day (remarks a London paper). The shores of both Columbia and Venezuela are washed by the “ Spanish Main,” and their coast towns were the scene of some of the most daring exploits of the Elizabethan seamen. Caracas, the present capital of Venezuela, was sacked in June, 1595, by Sir Francis Drake, who landed at La Guayra with 500 men, and marched on Caracas by a secret road, while the garrison came out to meet him by (the high road to La Guayra. "When the garrison returned Drake entrenched himself in the municipal the church, but after a siege pf eight days he marched out and succeeded in reaching La Guayra without loss! Headers of Kingsley’s “Westward Ho!” will remember that Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayer de Soto was made Governor of Caracas; that it was at La Guayra that Amyas and Frank Leigh saw Rose Salterne, and Frank was captured ; that Rose and Frank were burnt at Carthagena (in Columbia); and that when Amyas Leigh and his companions burnt their ship and marched inland, they passed the city of Santa Fe, now the capital of Colombia.