177 



places ; the jaguar skirting the road, and ap- 

 pearing only at intervals between the bushes. 



We passed the day on the 23d in the house 

 of the Marquis de Toro, at the village of Gua- 

 cara, a very considerable Indian community. 

 The natives, of whom the corregidor, Don Pedro 

 Penalver, was a man distinguished by the culti- 

 vation of his mind, were in tolerably easy cir- 

 cumstances. They had just gained a cause at 

 the Audiencia, that replaced them in the pos- 

 session of some lands, the property of which had 

 been contested by the Whites. An avenue of 

 carolineas leads from Guacara to Mocundo. It 

 was the first time that I had seen in the open 

 air this majestic plant, which forms one of the 

 principal ornaments of the extensive hot-houses 

 of Schoenbrunn *. Mocundo is a rich plantation 

 of sugar-canes, belonging to the family of Toro. 

 We there find, what is so rare in that country, 

 even a " luxury of agriculture," a garden, arti- 

 ficial clumps of trees, and on the border of the 

 water, upon a rock of gneiss ^ a pavilion with 

 a mirador, or belvidera. The view is delightful 

 over the western part of the lake, the surround- 



* Every tree of the carolinea princeps at Schoenbrunn has 

 sprung from seeds collected by Messrs. Bosc and Brude- 

 meyer from one single tree, of an enormous size, near 

 Chacao, East of Caraccas. 



+ Direction of the strata of gneiss, hor. 3—4. Dip BO 6 

 to the South-East. 



VOL. IV. N 



