16 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 



Our vessel was soon surrounded by small boats, flat-bottomed, 

 square at each end, sculled by very large and very black negroes 

 who stood on the back seat. (See illustration on page 13.) They 

 brought out the port officer and runners from the hotels across 

 the harbor from us. 



Tired of being cooped up on shipboard, we thought of going 

 over to spend the night at one of the hotels, although Captain Hop- 

 kins was kind enough to ask us to remain on the Venezuela. How- 

 ever, as I had some misgivings, I concluded to leave our baggage 

 on board until we had made an inspection, so we took one of the 

 small boats and went across, first to the Hotel Commercio, where 

 we were shown up a flight of steep and rickety stairs to some white- 

 washed, bare, and unattractive rooms over a store ; then we went to 

 the Hotel Sasso, which we found worse, and finally, discouraged by 

 the outlook, we concluded to accept the captain's invitation. Every- 

 thing is comparative in this world. In less than two months we 

 were delighted to get rooms at the Commercio, and found them 

 extremely comfortable. 



After this we took a short walk through the streets. We saw 

 swarms of negroes in every direction, men and women, both remark- 

 able for their fine size. The men wore straw hats, a light shirt, a 

 pair of trousers, and were barefooted. The women wore turbans, 

 one dress, and were barefooted, or at best wore slipshod slippers or 

 alpargatas. Some of them wore dresses but little below the knee, 

 others had long stilf-starched trains scraping and rattling over the 

 pavement behind them, whilst the front of the dress cleared the 

 ground by a foot. Children went naked, or wore but one ragged 

 garment. We saw one boy of eight or nine with nothing but an 

 old buttonless waistcoat which had belonged to a stout man, and 

 which flapped around his knees. 



The women carried their children astride of one hip ; everything 

 else they carried balanced on the head. We soon found it so hot 

 that we returned to the steamer, and later Cabell and myself went 

 out for a walk, leaving Alice on board. We strolled around the 



