83 



Mr. de Xavedra, one of the most enlightened 

 intendants of Caraccas, he was going to em- 

 bark for Europe, when that celebrated states- 

 man became minister. But the governor of the 

 province, dreading the influence of Mr. de Mon- 

 terola, caused him to be arrested in the port ; 

 and when orders arrived from the court to put 

 an end to so arbitrary a confinement, that 

 minister was already out of favour. At a dis- 

 tance of one thousand five hundred leagues 

 from Equinoxial America, it is not easy to ar- 

 rive in time to profit by the power of a man in 

 place. 



The farm we inhabited is a fine plantation of 

 sugar-canes. The ground is as smooth as the 

 bottom of a drained lake. The Rio Tuy winds 

 among grounds covered with plantains, and a 

 little wood of hura crepitans, ery thrina corallo- 

 dendron, and fig-trees with nymphea leaves. 

 The bed of the river is formed of pebbles of 

 quartz. I never met with more agreeable 

 baths than those of the Tuy. The water, as 

 clear as crystal, preserves even in the day a 

 temperature of 18*6°; a considerable coolness 

 for these climates, and for a height of three 

 hundred toises ; but the sources of the river are 

 in the surrounding mountains. The house of 

 the proprietor, situate on a hillock, of fifteen or 

 twenty toises of elevation, is surrounded by the 

 casas of the negroes. Those who are married 



g 2 



