64 GENIUS IN OBSCURITY. 



9 



rocks. The tide was rising rapidly, and narrowed the 

 road at every step. They at length arrived at the foot 

 of the old castle of Araya, where they enjoyed a pros- 

 pect that had in it something melancholy and romantic. 

 The ruins stood on a bare and arid mountain, which was 

 crowned with agave, cactus, and thorny mimosas, and 

 bore less resemblance to the works of man, than to 

 masses of rock which were ruptured at the early revolu- 

 tions of the globe. 



Among the mulattoes, whose huts surrounded the salt 

 lake, they found a shoemaker of Castilian descent. He 

 received them with an air of gravity and self-sufficiency. 

 He was employed in stretching the string of his bow, 

 and sharpening his arrows to shoot birds. His trade of 

 a shoemaker was not very lucrative in a country where 

 the greater part of the inhabitants went barefooted; 

 and he complained that, on account of the dearness of 

 European gunpowder, a man of his quality was reduced 

 to employ the same weapons as the Indians. He was 

 the sage of the plain ; he understood the formation of 

 the salt by the influence of the sun and full moon, the 

 symptoms of earthquakes, the marks by which mines of 

 gold and silver were discovered, and the medicinal 

 plants, which he classified into hot and cold. Having 

 collected the traditions of the country, he gave them 

 some curious accounts of the pearls of Cubagua, objects 

 of luxury, which he treated with the utmost contempt. 

 To show the travellers how familiar to him were the 

 sacred writings he took a pride in reminding them that 

 Job preferred wisdom to all the pearls of the Indies. 

 His philosophy was circumscribed to the narrow circle 

 of the wants of life. The possession of a very strong 



