72 
SAN LUIS BE CUBa. 
are formed in Europe of the intolerance, and even of the 
religious fervour of the Spanish colonists. 
San Luis de Cura, or, as it is commonly called, the Villa 
de ( 'ura, lies in a very barren valley, running north-west and 
south-east, and elevated, according to my barometrical obser- 
vations, two hundred and sixty-six toises above the level of 
the ocean. The country, with' the exception of some fruit- 
trees, is almost destitute of vegetation. The dryness of the 
plateau is the greater, because (and this circumstance is 
rather extraordinary in a country of primitive rocks) several 
rivers lose themselves in crevices in the ground. The Bio 
de Las Minas, north of the Villa de Cura, is lost in a rock, 
again appears, and then is ingulphed anew without reaching 
the lake of Valencia, towards which it flows. Cura resembles 
a village more than a town. We lodged with a family 
who had excited the resentment of government during the 
revolution at Caracas in 1797. One of the sons, after 
having languished in a dungeon, had been sent to the 
Havannah, to be imprisoned in a strong fortress. With 
what joy his mother heard that after our return from the 
Orinoco, we should visit the Havannah ! She -entrusted me 
with five piastres, “the whole fruit of her savings.” I 
earnestly wished to return them to her; but I feared to 
wound her delicacy, and give pain to a mother, who felt a 
pleasure in the privations she imposed on herself. All the 
society of the town was assembled in the evening, to admire 
in a magic Lantern views of the great capitals of Europe. 
We were shown the palace of the Tuileries, and the statue 
of the Elector at Berlin. 
An apothecary who had been ruined by an unhappy pro- 
pensity for working mines, accompanied us in our excursion 
to the Serro de Chacao, very rich in auriferous pyrites. We 
continued to descend the southern declivity of the Cordil- 
lera of the coast, in which the jdains of Aragua form a 
longitudinal valley. We passed a part of the night of the 
11th of March at the village of San Juan, remarkable for 
its thermal waters, and the singular form of two neighbour- 
nag mountains, called the Morros of San Juan. They form 
slender peaks, which rise from a wall of rocks with a very 
extensive base. The wall is perpendicular, and resembles 
