PRIESTCRAFT. 



465 



very ; arsenals, dock-yards, &c., are to be 

 built here, and nothing neglected that can 

 tend to the advantage of the country, and the 

 securing of its tranquillity. 



On the summit, at the western extremity of 

 the eminence, is the Augustin Convent of Nu- 

 estra Senora de la Popa, which was formerly 

 very rich, having had a Virgin similar to that 

 of Chiquinquera. At one time, when the small- 

 pox had raged in Carthagena to an alarming 

 extent, and for a considerable time, the friars 

 waited until an entire change of the weather 

 took place; they then paraded the Virgin, 

 and gained ten thousand dollars. The altera- 

 tion in the weather checked the disease, and 

 the poor inhabitants were made to believe it 

 was by the power of the Virgin. This figure 

 was however stolen, and sent over to St. Do- 

 mingo, where she sold for forty thousand dol- 

 lars. — I saw the room where Bolivar was sit- 

 ting during the siege, when a shot entering at 

 the window, shattered the shutter, passed over 

 his head, struck the wall, bounded back, and 

 then striking the side wall, bounced out at 

 another window, without doing Bolivar any 

 injury. 



VOL. II. 2 H 



