CHAPTER VII. 



Convent of Caripe. — Cavern of the Guacharo. — 

 Nocturnal Birds. 



An alley of perseas led us to the Hospital of 

 the Arragonese Capuchins. We stopped near 

 a cross of Brazil wood, erected in the midst of 

 a square, and surrounded with benches, on which 

 infirm monks seat themselves to say their ro- 

 saries. The convent is backed by an enormous 

 wall of perpendicular rocks, covered with thick 

 vegetation. The stone, of resplendent white- 

 ness, appears only here and there between the 

 foliage, It is difficult to imagine a more pic- 

 turesque spot. It recalled forcibly to my re- 

 membrance the valleys of Derbyshire, and the 

 cavernous mountains of Muggendorf in Fran- 

 conia. The places of the beaches and maple- 

 trees of Europe are here occupied by the prouder 

 forms of the ceiba, and the palm-trees, praga 

 and irasse. Numberless springs gush out from 

 the sides of the rocks, which encircle the basin 

 of Caripe, and of which the abrupt slopes pre- 



