CAllACCAS. 15 



range of conical hills partly intercepts the 

 view, but through the intervals betv^een 

 them the plains are seen, stretching av^ay 

 towards the horizon, the extremity being 

 lost in the distant range of mountains, 

 clothed with brushwood, and of majestic 

 forlns. 



f 



The city appears from this point directly 

 beneath the eye, and has a very imposing 

 effect. On approaching the guard-house of 

 the barrier to pay the toll which is exact- 

 ed from travellers, I was struck with the 

 wretchedness of its appearance, the filth 

 which surrounded it, and the squalid figures 

 of the soldiery, whose small stature, dirty 

 ragged clothing, half-polished musquets, and 

 lack of shoes and stockings, afforded the 

 most convincing proofs of the exhausted and 

 miserable state to which intestine war had 

 reduced this fine country. From this bar- 

 rier, the ro£^d lies along a ridge to the ei^- 



