VILLA DE CURA. 187 
the rest following in regular succession. The dis- 
tance to which their howlings may be heard was as- 
certained by Humboldt to be 1705 yards. The 
Indians assert that one always chants as leader of 
the choir; and the missionaries say that when a 
female is on the point of bringing forth, the howl- 
ings are suspended till the moment when the young 
appears. 
The travellers pasatid the night at the village of 
Guigue near the lake, where they lodged with an _ 
old sergeant, a native of Murcia, who amused them 
with a recital of the history of the world in Latin, 
which he had learned among the Jesuits. Leaving 
this place, they began to ascend the chain of moun- 
tains which extends towards La Palma, and from 
the top of an elevated platform took their last view 
of the valleys of Aragua. The rock was gneiss with 
auriferous veins of quartz. Arriving at the hamlet 
of Maria Magdalena, they were stopped by the in- 
habitants, who wanted to force their. muleteers to 
hear mass. Seven miles farther on they came to 
the Villa de Cura, situated in an arid valley almost 
destitute of vegetation. Here they remained for the 
night, and joined an assembly of nearly all the re- 
sidents in the town to admire in a magic-lantern 
a view of the great capitals of Europe. This place, 
Which contains a population of four thousand, is 
celebrated for the miracles performed by an image of 
the Virgin found by an Indian in a ravine. 
Continuing to descend the southern declivity of 
the range, they passed part of the night of the 11th 
at the village of San Juan, remarkable for its hot- 
springs and the singular form of two mountains in 
the neighbourhood, called the Morros, which rise 
