GOOD GARA. 
91 
arriving there from Georgia, have equal occasion to make acknow¬ 
ledgments for safety past, as to beseech still further the Divine 
protection. 
Nothing can paint the terrific situation of the road which 
opened before us at Good Gara. It seemed little better than a 
scramble along the perpendicular face of a rock, whence a fall 
must be instant destruction. The path itself was not in fact 
more than from ten to twelve feet wide, and this wound round 
the mountain during the whole circuit, with a precipice at its 
side of many hundred fathoms deep. While pursuing this 
perilous way, we saw the heads of high hills, villages, and 
spreading woods, at a depth so far beneath, the eye could not 
dwell on it for a moment without dizziness ensuing. At the 
bottom of the green abyss, the Aragua appeared like a fine silver 
line. I dared not trust myself to gaze long on a scene, at once 
so sublime and so painfully terrible. But leading my horse as 
near as I could to that side of the road whence the Good Gara 
towered to the sky, and therefore opposite to that which edged 
the precipice, I looked with anxiety on my fellow-travellers, 
who were clinging to the stony projections, in their advance up 
this horrid escalade. What we dreaded most was, that the 
horses which drew the carriages might make a false step, or 
get frightened; in either case, nothing could save them from 
rolling down the precipice. But my admiration was great as 
my surprise, on witnessing the steadiness and total absence of 
personal fear, with which the soldiers kept close to my caleche 
at scarcely a foot distance from the brink of the abyss, support¬ 
ing the wheels with their hands, lest the loose or large stones 
which cumbered the path, might throw it off its balance. A 
length of full three English miles, we dragged on in this way, 
■ n 2 
