SS VALLEYS OF AKAGUA AND VALENCIA. 



forward, purposing no doubt to leave us to our reflections, 

 which, just at that crisis of affairs, were in no very solemn 

 strain. Our driver, however, being on the alert, the crea- 

 tures were checked in their career until we could regain 

 our seats, when the lines and the whip were both given, 

 and away we dashed wildly over the plain. 



At five p. M. we reached the small village of San 

 Joaquin, distant from Valencia six leagues. We had 

 been so detained by the badness of the roads, and the re- 

 fractory performances of our steeds, that we concluded to 

 pass the night at this place. At the early hour of three 

 in the morning we were served bread and coffee by our 

 pompous host, who, to lessen the trouble of dressing, had 

 wa'apped himself in his blanket. We w^ere soon on our 

 way, riding rapidly over the bed of an ancient lake, which 

 formerly covered the entire plains of Aragua and Valen- 

 cia. Leaving the rich and beautiful regions of Aragua 

 and Maracai, "we entered upon a broader plain, formed by 

 the receeding of the hills to a greater distance from the 

 lake. Bushes and stunted trees, alternating with belts 

 of grass-growing land, were the features which the land- 

 scape now presented. We drove for miles, meeting with 

 only an occasional hut on a cultivated plot. Within half 

 a mile of Valencia we passed to our right the Mono, a 

 rocky and precipitous semi-isolated hill, from whose sum- 

 mit can be obtained one of the finest views of the plain 

 and lake. 



It was eight a. m. when the rumblino: of our coach 

 through the streets of Valencia announced to its inhab- 

 itants an arrival, which is not an every-day occurrence, 

 but an event to be signalled by a general cessation of 

 business, and a simultaneous appearance of a multitude 

 of heads from windows, doors, and balconies. Crossing 

 the Rio de Valencia, a stream which flows through the 

 city, we passed up the principal street amid staring 



