RECEPTION AT TRINIDAD OF CUBA. 265 



observing the passage of certain stars over the me- 

 ridian, 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 the mountains of San Juan. The 

 travellers were received with the kindest hospitality 

 by the administrator of the Real Hacienda, M. Mu- 

 noz. The Teniente Governador, who was nephew 

 to the celebrated astronomer Don Antonio Ulloa, 

 gave them a grand entertainment, at which they met 

 with some French emigrants of Saint Domingo. 

 The evening was passed very agreeably in the house 

 of one of the richest inhabitants, Don Antonio Pa- 

 dron, 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 Gu- 

 aurabo in a splendid carriage, and an ecclesiastic 

 dressed in velvet celebrated in a sonnet their voyage 

 up the Orinoco. 



The population of Trinidad, with the surrounding 

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

 the distance of about four 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 and foliage. These insects 

 (Elater noctilucus) are occasionally used for a lamp, 

 being placed in a calabash perforated with holes ; 

 and a young woman at Trinidad informed them that, 

 Z 



