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CARACAS CARAFA DE COLOBRANO 765 and in the dense forests, where ague is prevalent. About half the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture, and the rest in cattle raising, commerce, and arts. Coffee, cacao, indigo, cotton, tobacco, sugar, maize, rice, wheat, plantains, and the greater number of the tropical fruits and vegetables, with a few of the European, are produced. The state is divided into 16 cantons and 97 parishes. The chief port is La Guayra. II. An inland city, capital of the state and of the United States of Venezuela, in hit. 10 30' 50" N., Ion. 67 4' 45" W., 7 in. from its port, La Guayra, on the Caribbean sea, with which it is connected by railway ; pop. about 00,000. The city stands at an elevation of 3,100 ft. above the sea. On one side a slope gradually descends toward the river Guaire, fordable in all seasons except immediately after heavy rains, when it swells suddenly and rushes rapidly along, but very soon subsides; toward the south is another descent to the river Arauco, here crossed by a handsome bridge. The Caroata, a sort of rivulet, separates the suburb San Juan from the city proper; and the water of the Catuche, which flows through the town, supplies the public fountains and private residences. The streets are straight and cross each other at right angles. The houses, some of which have several stories, are well and strongly built, and generally handsome. Among the wealthy there is a great tendency to luxurious display in their dwellings. There are 10 churches, in- cluding the cathedral, an unsymmetrical edifice, which was injured by an earthquake in 1826. Six monasteries and nunneries have been con- verted into school houses, and the cloistral en- dowment suspended. Caracas has a university, founded in 1778 : a seminary; three academies, military, painting, and music; several public and a number of private schools, a theatre, and patriotic, agricultural, and emigration societies. There are eight fine bridges. Of the eight public squares, the largest has an area of 3J acres, is well paved, and is surrounded by the principal public buildings and the general market. There are in the city several printing offices and newspapers, and a number of pri- vate societies and corporations. The climate, compared by Humboldt to a perpetual spring, is delightful and very salubrious. Caracas communicates by a railway with its port La Guayra, and is the centre of an important com- merce with the interior and with foreign na- tions. (See VENEZUELA.) Caracas was found- ed by Diego Losada in 1567, in the Valle de San Francisco, and was named Santiago de Leon de Caracas ; but the last word, the name of the indigenous inhabitants of that region, who energetically strove to maintain their indepen- dence, has alone been preserved. In 1766 the city and the beautiful valley which surrounds it were visited by smallpox, which carried off 8,000 of the inhabitants. In 1812, when the population was 50,000, an earthquake destroy- ed the city, burying 12,000 persons beneath the ruins. Political perturbation following that catastrophe reduced the population to about 35,000 ; but it afterward began to grow anew, and has since steadily advanced. CARACCIOLI. I. Domenieo, marquis, an Italian statesman, born in Naples in 1715, died in 1789. In 1763 he was ambassador to London, and in 1770 he was sent in the same capacity to France, where he became acquainted with D'Alembert, Diderot, Condorcet, and other encyclopaedists. In 1781 he was appointed viceroy in Sicily, where he distinguished him- self principally by the abolition of torture ; and six years afterward he was made minister of foreign affairs. II. Francesco, prince, a Neapoli- tan admiral, born at Naples in 1748, died in 1799. He repeatedly commanded the Neapolitan fleet, when acting in concert with the English against the French. In 1798 he commanded one of the vessels which conveyed the royal family to Sicily under the command of Nelson. Hav- ing returned to Naples, he joined the republi- cans, was appointed commander-in-chief of the navy of the " Parthenopean Republic," and suc- cessfully opposed with a few ships the landing planned by the combined English and Sicilian fleets. Naples having been retaken in 1799, he was arrested, and, in violation of the capit- ulation by which the officers of the late repub- lican government were allowed to leave the country unmolested, he was brought a prison- er on board Nelson's ship, arraigned before a Sicilian court martial, and condemned to be hanged. A request was presented in his name to the English admiral for a less ignominious mode of death ; but Nelson, through the in- fluence of Lady Hamilton, declined acceding to it, and Caraccioli was suspended from the yard arm of a Neapolitan frigate. CARACTACUS, king of the Silures, an ancient British people who inhabited Wales, d"ied about A. D. 54. He resisted the Romans for nine years. Ostorius, sent by the emperor Clau- dius, at length, defeated him and took his wife and children prisoners. He himself took ref- uge with Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes (York), who delivered him for a reward to the emperor. He was taken to Rome (51) and ex- hibited to the people; he afterward addressed the emperor in a speech which has been pre- served by Tacitus. His proud bearing and noble and pathetic speech so won the admira- tion of Agrippina and Claudius, that they par- doned him and discharged him with presents. CARAFA DE COLOBRANO, Miehele, an Italian composer, bora in Naples, Nov. 28, 1785, died in Paris, July 26, 1872. He studied music under eminent masters, but enlisted in the Italian army, was captured by the French in 1806, be- came equerry of Murat, and subsequently serv- ed under him in Sicily and in Russia, leaving the army in 1814 with the rank of chief of squadron. Returning to Italy, several of his operas were successfully produced at Naples, Venice, Milan, and Vienna; and in 1821 he became a permanent resident of Paris. Promi-