NEW VALENCIA. ]o3 



used with success in rheumatic swellings, old ulcers, and CHAP. xiv. 

 the dreadful affections of the skin called bubas. 



On the 21st February the travellers set out from the Nicl't tra- 

 Hacienda de Cura for Guacara and New Valencia. As ^"^ '"^' 

 the heat was excessive, they preferred travelling by 

 night. Near the hamlet of Punta Zaniuro, at the foot 

 of the lofty mountains of Las Viruelas, the road was 

 bordered by large mimosas sixty feet in height, and 

 with horizontal branches meeting at a distance of more 

 than fifty yards, so as to form a most beautiful canopy 

 of verdure. The night was gloomy, and the Rincon del 

 Diablo with its serrated cliffs appeared from time to 

 time illuminated by the burning of the savannahs. At 

 a place where the wood was thickest their horses were 

 frightened by the yelling of a large jaguar, which 

 seemed to follow them closely, and which they were 

 informed had roamed among these mountains for three 

 years, having escaped the pursuit of the most intrepid 

 hunters. 



They spent the 22d in the house of the Marquis de ^(y^^e of 

 Toro, at the village of Guacara, a large Indian commu- the Marquis 

 nity ; and in the evening, after visiting Mocundo, an ® ^^°' 

 extensive sugar-plantation near it, they continued their 

 journey to New Valencia. They passed a little wood of 

 palms of the genus Corypha, the withered foliage of 

 which, together with the camels feeding in the plain, 

 and the undulating motion of the vapours on the arid 

 soil, gave the landscape quite an African character. The sterility of 

 sterility of the land increased as they advanced towards tiie land. 

 the city, which is said to have been founded in 1655 by 

 Alonzo Diaz Moreno, and contains a population of six 

 or seven thousand individuals. The streets are broad ; 

 and as the houses are low, they occupied a large extent 

 of ground. Here the termites or white ants were so 

 numerous that their excavations resembled subterranean 

 canals, which, being filled with water in rainy weather, 

 became extremely dangerous to the buildings. 



On the 26th they set out for the farm of Barbula, to j^-^^ ^^^^^ 

 examine a new road that was making from the city to 



