OFB LADY OF THE YALENCIAtfS. 73 



the Devil's Wall, which surrounds a part of the group of 

 mountains in the Hartz.* These peaks, when seen from afar 

 in the Llanos, strike the imagination of the inhabitants of 

 the plain, who are not accustomed to the least unequal 

 ground, and the height of the peaks is singularly exag- 

 gerated by them. They were described to us as being in 

 the middle of the steppes (which they in reality bound on 

 the north) far beyond a range of hills called La Galera. 

 Judging from angles taken at the distance of two miles, these 

 hiDs are scarcely more than a hundred and fifty-six toises 

 higher than the village of San Juan, and three hundred and 

 fifty toises above the level of the Llanos, The thermal 

 waters glide out at the foot of these hills, which are formed 

 of transition-limestone. The waters are impregnated with 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, like those of Mariara, and form a 

 little pool or lagoon, in which thy thermometer rose only to 

 31/3. I found, on the night of the 9th of March, by very 

 satisfactory observations of the stars, the latitude 01 Villa 

 de Cura to be 10 2' 47". 



The Villa de Cura is celebrated in the country for tin 1 

 miracles of an image of the Virgin, known by the name oi 

 Nuestra Setiora de los Valcncianos. This image was found 

 in a ravine by an Indian, about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, when it became the object of a contest between 

 the towns of Cura and San Sebastian de los Reyes. The 

 vicars of the latter town asserting that the Virgin had made 

 her first appearance on the territory of their parish, the 

 Bishop of Caracas, in order to put an end to the scandal of 

 this long dispute, caused the image to be placed in the 

 archives of his bishopric, and kept it thirty years under 

 seal. It was not restored to the inhabitants of Cura till 

 1802. 



After having bathed in the cool and limpid water of the 

 little river of San Juan, the bottom of which is of basaltic 

 griinstein, we continued our journey at two in the morning, 

 by Ortiz and Parapara, to the Mesa de Paja. The road to 

 the Llanos being at that time infested with robbers, several 

 travellers joined us so as to form a sort of caravan. We 

 proceeded down hill during six or seven hours ; and we 

 skirted the Cerro de Florei, near which the road turns off 

 * "Die Teufels Mauer/' near Wernigerode in Germany. 



