I 



270 ' . 



of some fruit-trees, is almost destitute of vege- 

 tation. The dryness of the flat is so much the 

 greater, because several rivers, which is rather 

 extraordinary in a country of primitive rocks, 

 lose themselves in crevices in the ground. The 

 Rio de Las Minas, North of the Villa de Cura, 

 disappears in a rock, again appears, and is in- 

 gulfed anew without reaching the lake of Valen- 

 cia, toward which it flows. Cura resembles a 

 village more than a town. The population is 

 only four thousand souls ; but we found many 

 persons of highly cultivated minds. We lodged 

 with a family, which had excited the resentment 

 of government in the revolution at Caraccas in 

 1797. One of the sons, after having languished 

 in a dungeon^ had been sent to the Havannah, 

 to be shut up in a strong fortress. With what 

 joy his mother heard, that, after our return from 

 the Oroonoko, we should visit the Havannah ! 

 She entrusted me with five piastres, (i the whole 

 fruit of her savings." I earnestly wished to re- 

 turn them to her ; but how could I help fearing 

 to wound her delicacy, to give pain to a mother, 

 who finds a charm in the privations she imposes 

 on herself? All the society of the town was as- 

 sembled in the evening, to admire in a magic 

 lantern the views of the great capitals of Europe. 

 We were shown the palace of the Tuileries, and 

 the statue of the great Elector at Berlin. It 

 excites a singular sensation, to gaze on our 



