262 RECEPTION AT TRINIDAD OF CUBA. 



CHAP. XXI. 80-6° (luring the day. Passing in succession the marshy 

 Kio Guaiir ^^^^ ^^ Camarcos, the entrance of the Bahia de Xagua, 

 •bo. and the mouth of the Rio San Juan, along a naked and 



desert coast, they entered on the 14th the Rio Guaurabo 

 to land their pilot. Disembarking in the evening, they 

 made preparations for observing the passage of certain 

 stars over the meridian, but were interrupted by some 

 merchants that had dined on board a foreign ship newly 

 arrived, and who invited the strangers to accompany 

 them to the town ; which they did, mounted two and 

 two on the same horse. The road to Trinidad is nearly 

 five miles in length, over a level plain covered with a 

 beautiful vegetation, to which the Miraguama palm, a 

 species of corypha, gave a peculiar character. The 

 houses are situated on a steep declivity, about 746 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and command a magnificent 

 view of the ocean, the two ports, a forest of palms, and 

 Keception hy the mountains of San Juan. The travellers were 

 received with the kindest hospitality by the administrator 

 of the Real Hacienda, M. Munoz, The Teniente 

 Governador, wlio was nephew to the celebrated astro- 

 nomer Don Antonio Ulloa, gave them a grand entertain- 

 ment, at which they met with some French emigrants 

 of San Domingo, The evening was passed very agree- 

 ably in the house of one of the richest inhabitants, Don 

 Antonio Padron, where they found assembled all the 

 select company of the place. Their departure was very 

 unlike their entrance ; for the municipality caused them 

 to be conducted to the mouth of the Rio Guaurabo in a 

 splendid carriage, and an ecclesiastic dressed in velvet 

 celebrated in a sonnet their voyage up the Orinoco. 

 Population of The population of Trinidad, with the surrounding 

 Trinidad farms, was stated to be 19,000. It has two ports at the 

 distance of about ^.our miles, Puerto Casilda and Puerto 

 Guaurabo. On their return to the latter of these the 

 travellers were much struck by the prodigious number 

 of phosphorescent insects which illuminated the grass 

 rnd foliage. Tlicse insects {Elate)' noctilucus) are 

 occasionally used for a lamp being placed in a calabash 



