4 FROM LA GUAIEA TO CAKAGAS. 



render tlie place impregnable to an approach from the sea, 

 -which is the only side upon which an attack can well be 

 made. 



We cared not to protract our stay on the hot_and arid 

 coast of La Guaira. We were also admonished, by the 

 death from yellow fever, the day before we arrived, of one 

 of om* countrymen who had been for some years a resi- 

 dent of the place, that it would not be well for us to 

 remain long where that epidemic was raging. We there- 

 fore determined to leave on the morrow for the more ge- 

 nial and salubrious clime of the table-land of Caracas. 

 That beautiful and fertile valley is situated directly over 

 the mountain from La Guaira, at an elevation of some 

 four thousand feet above the sea. There are two roads 

 leading to it from the coast, the shorter but more precipi- 

 tous of which is a mule-path, leading over the summit 

 between the peak of Naiguanata and the Ccrro de Avila, 

 the two forming what is called the Silla, or saddle, of 

 Caracas. The other, and the one we preferred, is a car- 

 riage-road which reaches the capital by a circuitous 

 route of fourteen miles. The old road, which was in use 

 at the time of Humboldt's visit to the country, was be- 

 tween the two we have mentioned. Before allowed to 

 take our departure for Caracas, we were what they termed 

 subjected to the inspections and extortions of custom- 

 liouse officials. Our arms, ammunition, and some other ar- 

 ticles, which were pronounced subject to duty, they were 

 willing, in consideration of the object for which we vis- 

 ited their country, to allow to pass upon the payment of 

 what they termed the reasonable amount of forty dollars, 

 although they claimed that much more was rightly due 

 them. Such " reasonableness " we hope it may be our 

 good fortune not often to meet Avith. Our coach, with 

 three abreast, at the appointed hour, is at the door of our 

 Ijotcl, oiirselves and baggage stowed within, and all is 



