414 



a valley of such small breadth, on a table-land 

 exposed to the winds, and near the seacoast ; 

 but the atmosphere was not sufficiently calm 

 during our abode in those parts, nor was I 

 furnished with the triple apparatus of mete- 

 orological instruments, which those experi- 

 ments required, and which I recommend to 

 those natural philosophers who may hereafter 

 visit that country. 



When I passed for the first time that table- 

 land, on my way to the capital of Venezuela, 

 I found several travellers assembled round the 

 little inn of Guayavo, to rest their mules. 

 They were inhabitants of Caraccas, and were 

 disputing on the efforts toward independence, 

 which had been made a short time before. Jo- 

 seph Espana had perished on the scaffold ; and 

 his wife groaned in a prison, because she had 

 given an asylum to her husband when a fugi- 

 tive, and had not denounced him to the govern- 

 ment. I was struck with the agitation which 

 prevailed in every mind, and the bitterness with 

 which questions were debated, on which men 

 of the same country ought not to have differed 

 in opinion. While they descanted on the ha- 

 tred of the Mulattoes against the free Negroes 

 and whites, on the wealth of the monks, and 

 the difficulty of holding slaves in obedience, 

 a cold wind, that seemed to descend from the 

 lofty summit of the Silla of Caraccas, enve- 



