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268 EXCURSION TO MONTSERRAT. 



I mounted her mule myself, and we again 

 set forward, sometimes scrambling up an 

 almost perpendicular acclivity, where the 

 animals we rode could scarcely find a se- 

 cure footing; at other times, advancing by 

 a zigzag path, with a tremendous abyss 

 on one side, which seemed opening its 

 jaws to engulph us. At every forty or 

 fifty yards, we stopped to contemplate the 

 perpetually varying scenery around, gra- 

 dually obtaining a bird's-eye view of the 

 picturesque plain below. There are no 

 trees higher than Bolivar's Quinta, and the 

 brushwood terminates before you reach the 

 summit. About one o'clock we arrived at 

 the top, where is situated the church of 

 Nuestro Senor, dedicated to our Saviour; 

 it is a small building with the clergyman's 

 house attached, which has several spare 

 rooms in it, formerly allotted for the resi- 

 dence of monks, or of military officers sent 



