Margarita. 59 



but plain clothes. These poor boys who serve as police 

 or in the execution of any public or even private work at 

 20C. a day, are pounced upon on the estates by a kind of 

 press gang when wanted, and are quite innocent of the 

 elements of drill or ihe use of the rifle, which by the 

 way they carry as if it were a hoe, pitch fork or other 

 agricultural implement, frequently shooting themselves 

 or their friends from ignorance ; two such casualties 

 happened the day before I arrived (of course there are 

 very differently equipped regiments in Caracas). A 

 line of poor shops, restaurants, etc., was all else 

 that could be seen of Carupano from the sea, but a small 

 tram-car with a little mule was waiting outside the 

 Custom House to convey passengers into the heart of 

 the town, which consists of one long street going inland. 

 At the end of it (one mile and a half) was the place 

 of business of the steamer's agents — a wealthy Cor- 

 sican House — the seniors residing in Paris. All the 

 trade of the place seems to be in the hands of these 

 keen men of business and wonderfully clannish they are. 

 They have so systematically favoured the French Line 

 that the Royal Mail Steamers decline to stop there any 

 more. At this establishment I observed the very latest 

 and most improved machinery for the preparation of 

 coffee and cocoa. Both merchants' stores and private 

 dwellings present sorry frontages to the street, the latter 

 being provided with iron gratings and heavy shutters 

 instead of windows (taken from the Moors,) but 

 at the back cool corridors extend on each side, en- 

 closing a court yard or Patio, as it is called, with flowers 

 and ornamental palms. I noticed several exotics which 

 hailed from the Trinidad Botanic Gardens ; and taken 



