1824.] 
over whose burrows we had to’ pass, 
and who took good care to give their 
visitors a very unwelcome reception: 
the emission of this scent is exceeding 
unpleasant to an European, being 
worse than the escape of gas from the 
pipes. Even the cattle seemed to go 
near their burrows with evident re- 
luctance. 
We arrived at Moreno exhausted 
from fatigue, where we halted a day 
ortwo. It being the Sabbath, I had 
the curiosity to go and see their mode 
of worship, in a handsome chapel, 
hung all round with images of saints, 
decorated with plumes of feathers of 
various colours very fancifully. Here 
was a clumsy Virgin, made of wood, 
and of the rudest workmanship, with 
astout infant in her arms ina Scottish 
highlander’s uniform, and a plume of 
ostrich feathers in his bonnet; I was 
much surprised at this, where I sup- 
posed the face of a Scot had never 
been seen, but was reminded, by an 
intelligent young Creole boy, that that 
costume once belonged to M‘Gregor, 
and was made an offering to the offend- 
ed Madona, for the use of her Son, in 
gratitude for inspiring this heretic to 
get his men intoxicated, and then 
abandon them to their enemies. The 
priest stood at the entrance to give his 
benediction to all those that left either 
Tipe plantains, sugar, rum, grapes, or 
fowl; on the forehead of each he sig- 
nificantly signed the cross, while a 
lusty negro lashed them about the 
head with a huge white horse-tail, dip- 
ped in water. All ranks now kneeled 
down, and the priest continued to say 
mass in broken Latin, pronounced 
after Spanish, neither one or the other 
quite intelligible to all present, nor to 
himself, [ believe, either. This cere- 
mony being over, we retired to our 
quarters, recommending Capt. Smyth, 
a Scotchman, to dress in the Highland 
costume, and pay the young Sawney 
Messiah a visit; but, this being too 
_hard a joke for him to bear, he con- 
sulted some of his countrymen then in 
the legion, who went at night, and un- 
robed the Messiah, and dressed him as 
an Indian. This had like to have 
caused much mischief among the su- 
perstitious Creoles, even the other 
Catholics did not like it. The people 
live in affluence and plenty; but are 
ignorant, superstitious, and false,— 
instruments of the priests perfidy, for 
whose treachery and defection they 
had their town burnt and demolished, 
Journal of an Officer serving in Columbia. 3 
We left Baranca Victoria in April, 
and marched through a narrow road, 
cut by the natives, in order to catch 
hogs and cattle; two horses.could not 
pass abreast, but at several places 
interstices are scooped out large 
enough to admit two men, or even.a 
horse, where the natives hide them- 
selves, and can attack the hogs with 
success, and even the tiger, as the road 
is so narrow as to prevent his turning 
about, while the man can annoy him 
with ease from astage, erected inside 
the height. We have been assured that 
Indians sometimes destroy as many as 
ten tigers, whom they decoy by roast- 
ing horse-flesh, and carrying into those 
narrow roads by night. 
On the third day we arrived at a 
plain at the foot of a large mountain, 
where we encamped for the night, on 
the bank of the finest waterfall I ever 
beheld, on the brink of which were 
the largest trees I ever met with ; they 
are mahogany, and two of them, whose 
branches intersected one another, af- 
forded shelter to eight hundred of our 
men at one time. As the foliage pre- 
vented the rays of the sun from reach- 
ing us, our request to sleep, and spend 
another day here, was complied with, 
and we were very happy. Indeed we 
had the advantage of bathing, and the 
men had time to wash their linen, of 
which they stood in need. But night 
changed the scene; the trees were 
visited by groupes of green monkeys, 
who kept up such horrid chattering 
during the night, as prevented our en- 
joying a single moment’s rest until 
day, when we were beset by immense 
flocks of parrots, paroquets, and ma- 
caws, more noisy than our nocturnal 
visitors. I had an opportunity of wit- 
nessing the ingenuity and cunning of 
the Indian guides, one of whom pro- 
posed to rid us of the monkeys, pro- 
vided he got a handsome pen-knife as 
areward. He went outside the trees 
with a bottle, in which he put some 
pease; putting down his fingers now 
and then, he took out some, which he 
eat with seeming satisfaction ; leaving 
a few strewed around, he retired ; and 
the monkeys, who are very minute in 
their observance of man’s actions, de- 
scended very cautiously, and having 
found some of the pease, a quarrel en- 
sued; but one, more crafty than the 
rest, peeped into the bottle, and, de- 
termining to secure a good handful, 
thrust down his hand, and filling it, he 
sect up a titter, as he found he ¢ould 
not 
