 Humboldt hired this Indian, named Carlos del Pino, as a guide.Venezuela from the 16th to the 18th centuries was a relative backwater compared to the seats of the Spanish viceroyalties based in New Spain (Mexico) and Peru, but during the Bourbon reforms, the northern portion of Spanish South America was reorganized administratively, with the 1777 establishment of a captaincy-general based at Caracas.A great deal of information on the new jurisdiction had already been compiled by François de Pons, but was not published until 1806.