26 
PUNTA ZAMTJKO. 
showed us his house, a little hut covered with palm-leaves, 
situated in an enclosure at a small distance, on the bank 
of a rivulet, communicating with the bath. He assured us 
that we should there find all the conveniences of life ; nails 
to suspend our hammocks, ox-leather to stretch over benches 
made of reedB, earthern vases always Idled with cool water, 
and what, after the bath, would be most salutary of all, 
those great lizards (iguanas), the flesh of which is known 
to be a refreshing aliment. We judged from his harangue, 
that this good man took us for invalids, who had come to 
stay near the spring. His counsels and offers of hospitality 
were not altogether disinterested. He styled himself 1 the 
inspector of the waters, and the pulpero* of the place.’ 
Accordingly all his obliging attentions to us ceased as soon 
as he heard that we had come merely to satisfy our curi- 
osity; or as they express it in the Spanish colonies, those 
lands of idleness, para ver, no mas, ‘ to see, and nothing 
more.’ The waters of Mariara are used with success in 
rheumatic swellings, and affections of the skin. As the 
waters are but very feebly impregnated with sulphuretted 
hvdrogen, it is necessary to bathe at the spot where the 
springs issue. Farther on, these same waters are employed 
for the irrigation of fields of indigo. A wealthy lauded 
proprietor of Mariara, Don Domingo Tovar, had formed 
the project of erecting a bathing-house, and an establish- 
ment which would furnish visitors with better resources 
than lizard’s flesh for food, and leather stretched on a bench 
for their repose. 
On the 21st of February, in the evening, we set out from 
the beautiful Hacienda de Cura for Guacara and Nueva 
Valencia. We preferred travelling by night, on account 
of the excessive heat of the day. We passed by the hamlet 
of Punta Zaniuro, at the foot of the high mountains of Las 
Viruelas. The road is bordered with large zamang-trees, 
or mimosas, the trunks of which rise to sixty feet high. 
Their branches, nearly horizontal, meet at more than one 
hundred and fifty feet distance. I have nowhere seen a 
vault of verdure more beautiful and luxuriant. The night 
was gloomy: the .Rincon del Diablo with its denticulated 
rocks appeared from time to time at a distance, illumined 
• Proprietor of a pulperia, or little shop where refreshments are sold. 
