50 VALENCIA AND PUERTO CABELLO. 



ing of the treacherous couch would have let him into the 

 gulf below. Picking up our rusty guns and ourselves, 

 wet and stiff from the rain and cold, we followed down 

 the bed of the torrent, climbing over the huge bowlders 

 of granite which blockaded the naiTOw gorge, forming 

 cascades and rajjids, as the waters went leaping down in 

 their haste to reach the deep valley beneath. Whetlier 

 the stream flowed into the plain of Valencia or the Atlan- 

 tic, Ave knew not, but were certain that it must be in one, 

 and, in either event, by following its course, we would ex- 

 tricate ourselves from the forest. About the middle of 

 the forenoon we reached Trinchara, a hamlet about mid- 

 way on the road from Valencia to Puerto Cabello. The 

 stream which had been our guide, descending the Cor- 

 dillera to the northward, emptied its waters into the 

 ocean. 



Trinchara was seven or eight leagues from our hacienda 

 by the main road, but by the trail OA'er the mountains the 

 distance was much shorter. The hope of gaining time 

 led us to choose the latter course, which for a while was 

 well defined, but at length became lost in a tangled thicket. 

 We cut our way through dense jungles of reeds and mat- 

 ted woods, climbed precipices, and crossed range after 

 range, until we reached a hut buried in the wilderness. 

 Learning from the occupants the nearest exit from the 

 forest, without further difliculty, save a long and weari- 

 some march, we reached, toward the close of the second 

 day of our setting out, the hacienda of the consul. The 

 native left with our mules had returned with them on the 

 previous night, bringing the tidings of our mysterious ab- 

 sence, which caused no little anxiety to our friends. Our 

 wearied condition induced us to accej^t proffered hospi- 

 tality and pass the night at the hacienda, dispatching a 

 servant for our baggage which we had left upon the moun- 

 tain. On the following morning we returned to the city, 



