74 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. V.-B. S. 
cliase ten pounds of the dark saponaceous compound 
which she had just been boiling, and also, if I would 
take her advice, relieve her of ten pounds of coffee, 
which she could spare me if I paid her a good price. 
I told her that this was a very inopportune time to 
drive a bargain, as we were dreadfully hungry, and 
she would stand a much better chance of disposing of 
her soap and coffee to advantage if she would sell 
us in the first instance ten eggs and ten corn-cakes; 
perhaps it might also not prove a bad speculation to 
let us first taste some of her coffee. 
The scenery about here was truly grand. At the 
back of the rancho there were thick pine forests, in 
front green savanas, sloping down to a rivulet, and, 
further on, the Montana de Yale, which we entered 
the next morning, and where the vegetation was more 
luxuriant and fresher than we had seen it in any 
other part of the country. There were beautiful tree- 
ferns, and elegant cane-palms, liquidambars of truly 
gigantic dimensions, one hundred and fifty feet high 
and thirty feet in circumference, being the leading 
trees, and all being just in leaf, a fine May green, 
presented an appearance almost equal in beauty to that 
of a beech forest at home in early summer. How well 
this locality would be suited for growing coffee! About 
six leagues from the “Boca” is the village of San 
Rafael, which is situated in a plain, and is composed of 
forty houses. The people declared there were about 
2000 souls in the place and' its immediate neighbour¬ 
hood, which, as there are many farms, may be true. 
Taking a hasty breakfast, and purchasing some 
