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which is the mere or laguna. Night overtook us 

 while we were in a narrow path, bordered on one 

 side by the sea, and on the other by a range of 

 perpendicular rocks. The tide was rising ra- 

 pidly, and narrowed the road at every step. We 

 a length arrived at the foot of the old castle of 

 Araya, where we enjoyed a prospect that had 

 in it something lugubrious and romantic. Here 

 however, neither the coolness of a deep and 

 gloomy forest, nor the grandeur of the vegetable 

 forms, heightens the beauty of these ruins ; which, 

 standing single on a bare and arid mountain, 

 crowned with agave, with columnar cactus, and 

 thorny mimosas, resemble less the works of man, 

 than those masses of rock that were ruptured at 

 the first revolutions of the Globe. 



We were desirous of stopping to admire this 

 majestic spectacle, and observe the setting of 

 Venus, the disk of which appeared at intervals 

 between the yawning crannies of the castle ; but 

 the muleteer, our guide, was parched with thirst, 

 and pressed us earnestly to return. He had long 

 perceived, that we had lost our way ; and as he 

 hoped to work on our fears, he continually warn- 

 ed us of the danger from tigers and rattlesnakes. 

 Venomous reptiles were in fact very common near 

 the castle of Araya ; and two jaguars had been 

 lately killed at the entrance of the village of Ma- 

 niquarez. If we might judge from their skins, 

 which had been preserved, their size was not less 



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