54 VALENCIA AND TUEKTO CABELLO. 



broiiglit in full view of the ocean. We recalled the time 

 when, from the heights of Silla, we took our farewell look 

 of the Atlantic, but little expecting to see it again nntil 

 we should behold it three thousand miles away, npon the 

 eastern shore of the continent. 



At the point where the road reaches the coast and 

 turns eastward is Palito, a settlement of a dozen hovels, a 

 wretched posada for travellers, and three or four j^ulperias. 

 Reaching here before sunset, we enjoyed a refreshing 

 bath in the sea, which breaks upon this unprotected coast 

 in heavy surges. We then sauntered through the tOAvn 

 and along the line of railway which is building from 

 Puerto Cabello to San Feliiie, fifty miles to the westward. 

 This heathenish place of Palito is to be the first station, 

 and also the junction with a branch road that is to diverge 

 over the mountains to Valencia. But it is extremely 

 doubtful whether the lines will ever be completed ; opera- 

 tions upon them have been suspended, owing to the inability 

 of the government to fulfil its contract with the company. 



Sabbath was spent at Palito, and Monday morning, long 

 before day, we left for Puerto Cabello, following the line of 

 tlie coast to the eastward over a sandy plain a league in 

 breadth. We forded the Pio Caliente and a number of 

 other streams, which, by their overflow, form stagnant, 

 malarious pools, and sedgy, serpent-abounding jungles — 

 real Stygian marshes. As Ave approached the city, the 

 plain became more fertile and cultivated, and we passed 

 broad fields of maize, plantations of the broad-leaved 

 banana, and extensive groves of cocoa-nut palms. With- 

 in two miles of Puerto Cabello we stopped at a hacienda, 

 where we spent a few days. At night we swung our ham- 

 mocks in the front corridor ; and here we slept — no, con- 

 tended with sancudos (mosquitoes) and fleas, and chafed 

 under the exciting efiects of poison-ivy, aggravated by 

 an almost unendurable heat. The plant referred to is the 



