NATIVE MANNER OF LIVING. 
50a 
of our departure : we had seen him asleep at night, but it 
was deemed indispensable that we should see him awake in 
the morning. We promised to describe his features exactly 
to his father, but the sight of our books and instruments 
somewhat chilled the mother’s confidence. She said “ that 
in a long journey, amidst so many cares of another kind, 
we might well forget the colour of lier child’s eyes.” 
On the road from Maracay to the Hacienda de Cura we 
enjoyed from time to time the view of the lake of Valencia. 
An arm of the granitic chain of the coast stretches south- 
ward into the plain. It is the promontory of Portachuelo 
which would almost close the valley, were it not separated 
by a narrow defile from the rock of La Cabrera. This place 
has acquired a sad celebrity in the late revolutionary wars 
of Caracas ; each party having obstinately disputed its pos- 
session, as opening the way to Valencia, and to the Llanos. 
La Cabrera now forms a peninsula : not sixty years ago it 
was a rocky island in the lake, the waters of which°gra- 
dually diminish. We spent seven very agreeable days at 
the Hacienda da Cura, in a small habitation surrounded by 
thickets. 
We lived after the manner of the rich in this country; 
we bathed twice, slept three times, and made three meals 
in the twenty-four hours. The temperature of the water 
of the lake is rather warm, being from twenty-four to 
twenty-five degrees ; but there is another cool and delicious 
Dathing-place at Toma, under the shade of ceibas and large 
zamangs, in a torrent gushing from the granitic mountains 
of the Kincon del Diablo. In entering this bath, we had 
not to fear the sting of insects, but to guard against the 
little brown hairs which cover the pods of the Dolichos 
pruriens. When these small hairs, well characterised by 
the name of picapica, stick to the body, they excite a violent 
irritation on the skin; the dart is felt, but the cause is 
unperceived. 
Hear Cura we found all the people occupied in clearing 
the ground covered with mimosa, sterculia, and Coccoloba 
excoriata, for the purpose of extending the cultivation of 
cotton. This product, which partly supplies the place of 
indigo, has succeeded so well during some years, that the 
cotton-tree now grows wild on the borders of the lake ol 
