316, 
the skin, and those graver local diseases 
connected with feeble powers of the con- 
stitution, and of the circulating and 
absorbent systems. I question much 
whether the partial utility of sea bathing 
is not owing to a degree of the same 
influences that are excited by the power- 
ful methods of bathing practised on the 
banks of the Severn. 
——a—_ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
HERE is an universal bemoaning 
in London, on account of the sup- 
posed failure of the crop of apples this 
autumn, and which I see is reiterated 
at the close of the meteorological re- 
port in the Monthly Magazine for the 
past month. Ithink, therefore, it may 
be useful to say, that I returned from a 
trip through Herefordshire a few weeks 
ago, and the crop of apples is so abun- 
dant, that I saw the loaded branches 
absolutely propped with poles, to pre- 
vent the weight of fruit from breaking 
them off. 
Happening to find myself seated next 
a wholesale fruit dealer on the top of 
the Ludlow mail, I inquired respecting 
the disposal of this immense crop, and 
was surprised to hear that large quan- 
tities are packed in hogsheads, and for- 
warded by water conveyance from Wor- 
cester to Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edin- 
burgh. 
How is it, Mr. Editor, we have not 
yet had our share of these Hereford- 
shire apples? Surely, with the facilities 
of water conveyance to the metropolis, 
we shall have no longer occasion to re- 
egret a scarcity of that valuable, useful, 
and saleable fruit—the apple. 
Your old subscriber, 
London, October 2, 1824. D. 
> 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
JOURNAL of an OFFICER residing in co- 
LUMBIA, from MARACAIBO to MERIDA. 
EAVING Maracaibo early in the 
morning we proceeded by the lake 
until we arrived at Puebla Laguna, a 
small village about six leagues from 
Maracaibo, consisting of about forty 
houses or huts, on the margin of the 
lake: here we proposed breakfasting. 
Having sent one of our gondoliers, or 
bargemen, to announce our arrival to 
the villagers, the chief person came to 
the beach to invite us; and we accom- 
panied him to his habitation, through a 
long pathway, intersected with cocoa- 
nut trees of an amazing height, and 
bending with the weight of the nuts; 
Journal of a Columbian Officer. 
[Nov. I, 
this damp situation being favourable to 
the growth of them. As we entered his 
house,—an open house to the world, 
having. neither. door. nor) window— 
his daughters,..six in. number, were 
employed in making, tippets, or hand- 
kerchiefs, of the down of the golden 
heron, —myriads -of which resort to 
this lake. These tippets, made in alter- 
nate lines, were tinged with the beau- 
tiful tints which the plumage of those 
tropical birds display, especially when 
exposed to the rays of the sun. Even 
in Europe they would be. considered 
rich and beautiful. I wished te pur- 
chase one, but. was told the sale of them 
was prohibited, until the state officers’ 
ladies were first supplied... This branch 
of feather-manufacture was confined to 
the nuns of St. Clara, until the revolu- 
tion caused a schism amongst them, 
and some of them left the convent ; 
among which was Leona, .our host’s 
daughter, a fat, pleasant woman, about 
forty, who communicated her knowledge 
to her sisters. This radical nun in- 
formed me that the knowledge of their 
handicraft was obtained by the sister- 
hood from an Englishwoman, the wife 
of a deserter from Buenos Ayres, who 
left General Whitelocke’s divison, and 
died at the hospital at Merida; to 
her the nuns were also indebted for 
many recipes in cookery as well as 
millinery. A large basket of wild-fowls’ 
eggs having been brought in by an Indian 
boy, Leona began to prepare breakfast. 
As I had some curiosity respecting the 
mode of dressing plantains, I watched her 
culinary preparations, which consisted 
of lard, seasoned with Chili pepper-and . 
lime-juice, in which the plantains. were 
fried, being garnished with pomegranate- 
seed and some red berries... In like 
manner were fried the eggs, and a species 
of fish not unlike trout, except thehead, 
which resembled a mullet, of very deli- 
cate flavour. Our breakfast consisted 
of those, with the addition of cocoa-nut 
milk and coffee; and never did I break- 
fast with so much gusto; while Leona’s 
pleasant sallies made me. forget I was 
in company with one of the holy sister- 
hood of Santa Clara. Iasked her whe- 
ther she meant to return to the convent, 
now that her party were successful : 
she said, not until her poor father left 
this world, as she was his principal sup- 
port since he lost his sons in the Car- 
raccas struggle. I told her, I thought 
she was more laudably employed in this 
way than in working out her own salva- 
tion in a corner of a cell; ‘and aes 
the 
