205 



and so steep, that you are upon it almost before 

 you have any warning of it. 



I have been somewhat diffuse in my descrip- 

 tion of the site of Cumana, because it appeared 

 to me important to make known a place, which 

 for ages has been the focus of the most tre- 

 mendous earthquakes. Before I speak of these 

 extraordinary phenomena, it will be useful to 

 collect the scattered traits of the physical posi- 

 tion of which I have just given the sketch. 



The city, placed at the foot of a hill destitute 

 of verdure, is commanded by a castle. No 

 steeple or dome attracts from afar the eye of the 

 traveller, but only a few trunks of tamarind, 

 cocoa, and date trees, which rise above the 

 houses, the roofs of which are flat. The sur- 

 rounding plains, especially those on the coasts, 

 wear a melancholy, dusty, and arid appearance, 

 while a fresh and luxuriant vegetation points 

 out from afar the windings of the river, wMcft 

 separates the city from the suburbs, the popula- 

 tion of European and mixed race from the na- 

 tives with a coppery tint. The hill of fort St. 

 Antonio, solitary, white, and bare, reflects a 

 great mass of light, and of radiant heat : it is 

 composed of breccia, the strata of which contain 

 pelagian petrifactions. In the distance, toward 

 the south, a vast and gloomy curtain of moun- 

 tains stretches along. These are the high cal- 

 careous Alps of New Andalusia, surmounted by 



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