We rested at the foot of the caverns from which the flames have issued more and more frequently as the years have passed. Our guides and the farmer, equally familiar with the local terrain, discussed, in the manner of the creoles, the dangers to which Cumanacoa might be exposed if the Cuchivano became an active volcano and 'se veniesse a reventar' (might explode). It was obvious to them that since the great earthquakes of Quito and Cumanà in 1797 New Andalusia was every day more and more undermined by subterranean fires. They cited the flames that had been seen coming out of the ground at Cumanà, and the tremors in places where there had not been any before. They remembered that in Macarapàn sulphurous smells had been noted over the last months. We were struck by these facts on which they had based their predictions, which nearly all turned out to be true. In 1812 enormous damage was done in Caracas, proof of the incredible instability of nature in the north-east of Terra Firma.