72 SAN LUIS DE CUBA. 



are forme* m Europe of the intolerance, and even of the 

 religious fervour of the Spanish colonists. 



San Luis de Cura, or, as it is commonly called, the Villa 

 de Oura, lies in a very barren valley, running north-west and 

 south-east, and elevated, according to my barometrical obser- 

 vations, two hundred and sixty-six toises above the level of 

 the ocean. The country, with the exception of some fruit- 

 trees, is almost destitute of vegetation. The dryness of the 

 plateau is the greater, because (and this circumstance is 

 rather extraordinary in a country of primitive rocks) several 

 rivers lose themselves in crevices in the ground. The Eio 

 de Las Minas, north of the Villa de Cura, is lost in a rock, 

 again appears, and then is ingulphed anew without reaching 

 the lake of Valencia, towards which it flows. Cura resembles 

 a village more than a town. We lodged with a family 

 who had excited the resentment of government during the 

 revolution at Caracas in 1797. One of the sons, after 

 having languished in a dungeon, had been sent to the 

 Havannah, to be imprisoned in a strong fortress. With 

 what joy his mother heard that after our return from the 

 Orinoco, we should visit the Havannah ! She entrusted me 

 with five piastres, "the whole fruit of her savings." I 

 earnestly wished to return them to her; but 1 feared to 

 wound her delicacy, and give pain to a mother, who felt a 

 pleasure in the privations she imposed on herself. All the 

 society of the town was assembled in the evening, to admire 

 in a magic lantern views of the great capitals of Europe. 

 We were shown the palace of the Tuileries, and the statue 

 of the Elector at Berlin. 



An apothecary who had been ruined by an unhappy pro- 

 pensity for working mines, accompanied us in our excursion 

 to the Serro de Chacao, very rich in auriferous pyrites. We 

 continued to descend the southern declivity of the Cordil- 

 lera of the coast, in which the plains of Aragua form a 

 longitudinal valley. We passed a part of the night of the 

 llth of March at the village of San Juan, remarkable for 

 its thermal waters, and the singular form of two neighbour- 

 ing mountains, called the Morros of San Juan. They form 

 slender peaks, which rise from a wall of rocks with a very 

 xtensive base. The wall ia perpendicular, and resembles 



