COFFEE PLANTATIONS. 145 



eighty negroes, lyin^' on skins of oxen spread on the CHAP. xrv. 



floor, while a dozen fires were burning in the yard, at c. 



which people were cooking. plantation. 



A great predilection for the culture of the cofFee-tree Coffee 

 was entertained in the province. The young plants P''"it'i'^oo- 

 were chiefly procured by exposing the seeds to germina- 

 tion between plantain-leaves. They were then sown^ 

 and produced shoots better adapted to bear the heat of the 

 sun than such as spring up in the shade of the planta- 

 tions. The tree bears flowers only the second year, and 

 its blossoms last only twenty-four hours. The returns 

 of the third year are very abundant ; at an average 

 each plant yielding a pound and a half or two pounds oi 

 coSiee. Humboldt remarks, that although it is not yet 

 a century since the first trees were introduced at 

 Surinam and in the West Indies, the produce of 

 America already amounts to fifteen millions of piastres, 

 or £3,1 87,500 jsterling. 



On the 8th of February the travellers set out at sun- Ascent 

 rise, and after passing the junction of the two small *° ^* . 

 rivers San Pedro and Macarao, which form the Rio 

 Guayra, ascended a steep hill to the table-land of La 

 Buenavista. The country here had a wild appearance, 

 and was thickly wooded. The road, which was so much 

 frequented that long files of mules and oxen met them 

 at every step, was cut out of a talcose gneiss in a state 

 of decomposition. Descending from that point they 

 came upon a ravine, in which a fine spring formed 

 several cascades. Here they found an abundant and 

 diversified vegetation, consisting of arborescent ferns, 

 more than twenty-seven feet high, heliconias, plumerias, 

 browneas, gigantic figs, palms, and other plants. The 

 brownea, which bears four or five hundred purple 

 flowers in a single thyrsus, reaches the height of fifty 

 or sixty feet. 



At the base of the wooded mountain of Higucrota g^^ p^ 

 they entered the small village of San Pedro, situated in 

 a basin where several valleys meet. Plantains, potatoes, 

 and coff"ee, were sedulously cultivated. The rock was 



