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here tierra blanca. The scientific men of the 

 country have made several attempts to calcine 

 this earth ; mistaking it for the porcelain earth 

 proceeding from the decomposition of strata of 

 feldspar. We stayed some hours with a family 

 equally enlightened and respectable, the Usta- 

 rizes, at Concesion. The house, which contains 

 a collection of choice books, is placed on an 

 eminence, and surrounded with plantations of 

 coffee and sugar-canes. A grove of balsam - 

 trees (bahamo*) gives coolness and shade to 

 this spot. We observed with a lively interest 

 the great number of scattered houses in the 

 valley, inhabited by freedmen. In the Spanish 

 colonies the laws, the institutions, and the 

 manners, are more favourable to the liberty of 

 the Blacks, than in the other European settle- 

 ments. 



San Matheo, Turmero, and Maracay, are 

 charming villages, where every thing announces 

 persons in the most easy circumstances. We 

 seemed to be transported to the most industrious 

 parts of Catalonia. Near San Matheo we find 

 the last fields of wheat, and the last mills 

 with horizontal hydraulic wheels. A harvest of 

 twenty for one was expected : and, as if the pro- 

 duce were but moderate, I was asked, whether 

 corn produced more in Prussia and in Poland, 



* Amyris data. 



