PUERPERAL FEVER. See Septicaemia.

PUERTO CABELLO, a town and seaport in the South American republic of Venezuela, in the province of Carabobo, used to rank next to Cartagena, and possesses one of the finest natural harbours in that part of the world. It is backed at the distance of about 5 miles by a range of mountains 3000 feet high, across which pass, at a height of 1800 feet, the road (36 miles) and the railway now (1885) in course of construction to Valencia, the capital of the province. The old town used to lie on an island (originally a coral bank) joined to the mainland by a bridge; but since about 1850 the narrow channel between the town and the more extensive suburbs on shore has been filled up and covered with blocks of building, so that now Puerto Cabello occupies a kind of headland projecting into the bay. Formerly the lowness of its site and the mangrove swamps which fringed the whole coast rendered it appallingly unhealthy: at the time of Humboldt’s visit, for example, the surgeon of the hospital reported that in seven years he had 8000 cases of yellow fever, and there were instances of the authorities having to take possession of vessels in the harbour because the entire crew had perished (Eastwick). But yellow fever has not been known at Puerto Cabello since about 1868, and the general deathrate of the place is quite normal. A good supply of water is obtained from the Rio Esteban by m¾ns of an aqueduct 3 miles long. The harbour, about 2 miles long and from one-fourth of a mile to a mile in breadth, is formed by a narrow spit of land or coral ledge running out for about 2 miles from the coast in a northerly and westerly direction. The entrance, about 90 feet deep, is so clear that no pilot is required; and in the outer bay (100 to 300 feet deep) there is safe anchorage. On a high rock ...

PUERTO DE SANTA MARIA, probably the “Menesthei Portus” of Ptolemy, commonly called El Puerto (“The Port ”), a town of Spain, in the province of Cadiz, 7 miles to the north-east of that city (21∣ miles by rail; see sketch map, vol. iv. p. 627), near the mouth and on the right bank of the Guadalete, which is here crossed by a suspension bridge. It is a pleasant and well-built though somewhat dull town, in a fertile country, and its houses resemble those of Cadiz, though they are often larger and profusely decorated with painting. Calle Larga, the principal street, is handsome and well-paved; there are several “alamedas” or public promenades, that of La Victoria being the finest. The place is famous for its bull-fights, that given here in honour of Wellington being the subject of the considerably idealized description in Byron’s Childe Harold. Among the public buildings is a large Jesuit college, recently established. Puerto is chiefly important as a wine-exporting place; the “bodegas” or wine-stores are large and lofty, but hardly equal to those of Xerez. The harbour is formed by the river; its mouth is considerably obstructed by a bar. There is regular steam communication with Cadiz. Timber and iron are the chief imports. The population of the municipality in December 1877 was 22,125.

PUERTO PRINCIPE, or now more correctly Ciudad del Principe, a city at the head of the central department of the island of Cuba. When first founded in the beginning of the 16th century by Velazquez, it was, as its more familiar name implies, on the sea-coast; but it has been more than once shifted southward and inland, and is now nearly as far from the north as from the south side of the island. Though for some time after the surrender of San Domingo to France in 1800 Principe was the seat of the central government and supreme courts of the Spanish West Indies, it is no longer a place of much importance. The population is estimated at 31,000. Since 1840 the city has been connected by a railway with its port, which is sometimes called by its own name and sometimes by that of a smaller town on the bay about 11 miles from its entrance, San Fernando de Nuevitas. The harbour or bay is large, completely sheltered, and capable of admitting vessels of the largest draught; but it is entered by a narrow crooked passage 6 miles long, which, though there are no hidden dangers, makes the assistance of a pilot desirable.

PUERTO RICO. See Porto Rico.