24 Travels and Adventures 



was in apprenticeship. The interior of the town is 

 miserably disappointing compared with the magnificent 

 sight which the harbour presents from the sea. The 

 streets are inconveniently steep and narrow, rendering 

 them almost impassable for any vehicle, being more 

 like large drains made to carry off the enormous 

 flow of water which rushes down the mountain-side 

 in the rainy season. The appearance of the people 

 of La Guayra is scarcely more prepossessing to the 

 foreigner than the place itself. Those who are not 

 of the dark, woolly-headed negro breed belong to 

 the slim, tall, elegant Spanish dandy type, but differing 

 from their Spanish relations in possessing a much 

 deeper shade of colour and a peculiarly sinister ex- 

 pression of features, which, when excited by anger, 

 becomes almost fiendish, giving the visitor an im- 

 pression that these are scarcely the people to trust 

 himself with in a lonely road on a dark night. A 

 burning sun every day, striking on a dry, sandy 

 soil, runs the thermometer up to over ioo degrees in 

 the shade, and renders the heat almost unbearable : 

 this considered — with the want of all convenience 

 in the house, and the uninviting appearance of the 

 people — putting all sarcasm aside, the most charitable 

 would scarcely be justified in advising La Guayra as 

 a health-resort for invalids. 



