PEOPLE. 27 



nomenon, it also shows, as Agassiz, in an address given 

 upon the hundredth anniversary of the great German 

 naturalist, has remarked, that Humboldt was a believer in 

 a personal, superintending Providence. This fact has 

 been so often denied, and Humboldt ca^cu pronounced an 

 atheist, that we feel the cause of truth justifies us in 

 making this slight digression. 



Dr. Tschudi, in his " Travels in Peru, " uses the follow- 

 ing language in illustrating the effects of an earthquake 

 upon the residents of the country and upon travellers : 

 " No familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt the feel- 

 ings. The inhabitant of Lima, Avho from childhood has 

 frequently witnessed these convulsions of Nature, is roused 

 from his sleep by the shock, and rushes from his apart- 

 ment with the cry of '■llisericordia ! ' The foreigner from 

 the north of Eui'ope, who knows nothing of earthquakes 

 but by description, waits with impatience to feel the 

 movement of the earth, and longs to hear with his own 

 ear the subterranean sounds which he has hitherto con- 

 sidered fabulous. With levity he treats the apprehen- 

 sion of a coming convulsion, and laughs at the fears of 

 the natives ; but, as soon as his wish is gratified, he is 

 terror-stricken, and is involuntarily prompted to seek 

 safety in flight. " 



The inhabitants of Caracas, ethnologically and so- 

 cially, present but few interesting features. The entire 

 population of the city, as near as can be estimated, is fifty 

 thousand ; while that of the whole republic, including In- 

 dians, is one and a half millions. It consists of whites, 

 mainly of Spanish extraction, negroes, and the various 

 classes produced by the intermingling of these. The 

 descendants of the foreign element, of whatever color, are 

 denominated Creoles, 



The negroes were formerly kept in slavery ; but by 

 virtue of a law which compelled the master to give free- 



