122 



travellers are looked upon by their hosts as the 

 safest means of communication. There are 

 indeed posts established, but they make such 

 great circuits, that private persons seldom en- 

 trust them with letters for the Llanos, or savan- 

 nahs of the interior. The child was brought to 

 us at the moment of our departure ; we had 

 seen him asleep at night, but we must see him 

 awake in the morning. We promised to de- 

 scribe his features exactly to his father, but the 

 sight of our books and instruments somewhat 

 chilled the mother s confidence. She said, " that 

 in a long journey, amid so many cares of 

 another kind, we might well forget the colour 

 of her child's eyes." Soothing habits of hospi- 

 tality ! Ingenuous expressions of such confi- 

 dence, as marks the first dawn of civilization ! 



On the road from Maracay to the Hacienda 

 de Cura we enjoyed from time to time the view 

 of the lake of Valencia. An arm of the granitic 

 chain of the coast stretches toward the South 

 into the plain. It is the promontory of Porta- 

 chuelo, which would almost close the valley, if 

 it were not separated by a narrow defile from 

 the rock of La Cabrera. This place has acquired 

 a mournful celebrity in the late revolutionary 

 wars of Caraccas ; each party having obstinately 

 disputed it's possession, as opening the way to 

 Valencia, and to the Llanos. La Cabrera now 

 forms a peninsula ; not sixty years ago it was a 



