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Encyclopedia Britannica

MARGARITA

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 704 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAL-MAR

MARGARITA , an island in the Caribbean Sea belonging to Venezuela, about 12 M. N. of the peninsula of Araya, and constituting, under the constitution of _ igo4iwith Tortuga, Cubagua and Cochea political division called the Eastern Federal

District

DISTRICT

. The island is about 40 M. long from

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

to west, has an area of 400 sq. m., and consists of two mountainous extremities, nearly separated by the Laguna Grande on the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

, but connected by a low, narrow isthmus. The highest

elevation

ELEVATION

on the island is the

peak

PEAK, THE

of Macanao, 4484 ft., in the western part, the highest point in the eastern part being the

peak

PEAK, THE

of Copei, 4170 ft. The higher valleys of the interior are highly fertile and are well adapted to grazing and stock-raising. The principal

industries

INDUSTRIES

are fishing and the making of salt. The pearl fisheries, which were so productive in the 16th and 17th centuries, are no longer important. A domestic industry of the women is that of making coarse straw hats, which are sold on the mainland. The products of Margarita, however, are insufficient to support its population, and large numbers periodically emigrate to the mainland, preventing the increase in population which its healthful climate favours. The population was estimated in 1904 at 40,000, composed in

great

GREAT

part of half-caste Guayqueri Indians. The

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

is Asunci6n (pop. about 3000), on the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

side of the island, and its principal port is Pompatar on the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

coast. The two small ports of Puebla de la Mar (Porlamar) and Puebla del Norte are merely open roadsteads.
-
The island of Margarita (from Span. Margarita, pearl) was discovered by Columbus in 1498, and was bestowed in 1524 upon Marceto Villalobos by Charles V. In 1 561 the freebooter Lope de Aguirre ravaged the island, and in 1662 the town of Pompatar was destroyed by the Dutch. For- a long time Margarita was attached to

Cumana

CUMANA

, but in the eighteenth century it was made administratively independent. Its traders and sailors rendered invaluable assistance to the revolutionists in the war of independence, and the Spanish general, Morino, was driven from its shores in 1817; in recognition of this it was made a separate state and was renamed Nueva Esparta (New Sparta). In 19o4-1909 it was a part of the Federal

District

DISTRICT

with Asunci6n as its

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. The first Spanish

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

in South America was Nueva Cadiz, founded in 1515 on the barren island of Cubagua; but the place was abandoned when pearl-fishing and slave-trading ceased to be profitable.

End of Article: MARGARITA

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