PUERTO CABELLO  , a

city and port of Venezuela, in the state of Carabobo, 20 M . N. by W. of Valencia, the capital of the state . Pop . (1891), 10,145 . Puerto Cabello has railway connexions with Valencia and Caracas . It stands on a small peninsula which partly shelters a large bay, called " Golfo Triste," by the early Spanish navigators . After La Guayra the harbour is the principal port of Venezuela, and it is provided with mole, wharves, railway communication with the interior, and other facilities for the handling of merchandise and produce . The town and harbour were strongly fortified in colonial times, but the port defences were greatly damaged in 1902 in a bombardment by some German vessels of the allied blockading fleet . Among the exports are coffee, cacao, dyewoods, hides, skins, and copper ores . Puerto Cabello suffered much in the War of Independence, changing hands several times and remaining in the possession of Spain down to 1823 .