272 



six toises higher than the village of San Juan, 

 and three hundred and fifty toises above the 

 level of the Llanos. The thermal waters glide 

 out at the foot of these hills, which are formed 

 of transition limestone ; they are impregnated 

 with sulphuretted hydrogen, like those of Ma- 

 riara, and form a little pool, or laguna, in which 

 the thermometer rose only to 31*3°. 



I found in the night of the 9th of March, by 

 very satisfactory observations of the stars, the 

 latitude of Villa de Cura to be 10° 2' 47". The 

 Spanish officers, who carried astronomical in- 

 struments to the Oroonoko, on the expedition 

 for assigning boundaries in 1755, certainly took 

 no observations at Cura, for the map of Caulin, 

 and that of La Cruz Omedilla, place this town 

 a quarter of a degree too far South. 



The Villa de Cura is celebrated in the country 

 for the miracles of an image of the Virgin, 

 known by the name of Nuestra Senora de los 

 Valencianos. This image, found in a ravine by 

 an Indian, about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, was the object of a contest between the 

 towns of Cura and San Sebastian de Los Reyes. 

 The vicars of this last town asserted, that the 

 Virgin had made her first appearance on the 

 territory of their parish. The Bishop of Carac- 

 cas, in order to put an end to the scandal of this 

 long dispute, caused the image to be placed in 

 the archives of his bishoprick, and kept it thirty 



