the country, allowing for the circumstances to which we have referred, the description has been the more circumstantial, though the example was one of the very worst I had seen. The place we took outside was the raised bank, which formed a continuation of the platform within, and afforded a seat upon which the sergeant, with an untiring attention and anticipation of our comfort, placed some dry hides to interpose between our garments and the floor. Here we had an excellent chicken stew, some good potatoes, apios, sweet yuccas, and an abundance of eggs, and arepa, or bread of Indian corn, to which keen appetites gave a delicious and enviable flavour; and as we had brought a small supply of wine, as much as our means of transport would admit, we were here sufficiently fatigued to derive all the benefit and pleasure it could afford. Our little oval alcaldi appeared to delight in our good spirits, laughter, and fun, in which we were accustomed to indulge on the sights we had seen, or in the mind's eye.

I could not but contrast, in this kind of cogitation, the habitations at Palmas, with the light, airy, ever clean bungalows of Hindustan; where filth never remains an inmate, nor the garment ever soiled; where the pure sweet mat covers the commonest floor, where no garment is worn that does not testify to its snowy purity. The taste and luxury of smoking was not less striking. In Hindustan, as in South America, all persons smoke, every man, every woman, every child; in South America, the luxury is in the acrid aroma of the tobacco, augmented by the perfume of the vanilla. In Hindustan, it is the poorest people only who smoke the cherut, (or cigar,) in its raw state; the waterman, who carries his goat-skin leather bag full of water all day at a cent a bag; the bearer, who travels with a human load on his shoulders, in a palankeen, from morning to night, or after, at two hundred' cents a month, refines in the luxury of smoking, and embalms his tobacco with aromatics or assafoetida, and di

vests it of acridity by passing the vapour he inhales through pure water—and, when he can, through rose-water. A fe male, of the same relatively humble station, would scarcely use a cocoa-nut for this purpose; art and ingenuity had made smoking not only inoffensive but salubrious, by means of what is called a hooka, which, I make no doubt, will find its way, along with commerce, to the plains and cities of the Andes, when, instead of concealing the cigar from the consejo, they will be proud to exhibit its elegance, and smoke with him-con-amore-out of the same pipe. But we are yet in a world that has been locked up three hundred years. Before the Colombians have reached an equal national antiquity with the children of Bramah, they will, perhaps, abandon cigars, and adopt the hookah. It is but justice to say of the lovely women of Colombia, that they applaud the ladies of the United States for not adopting this custom from the men it continues to be the custom in South America to hand cigars, as it is in India to hand beetil, or a nosegay, or to pour rose-water on the hands of visitors. At the public and private assemblies and feasts at which I was a guest, both in Caracas and Bogota, and at the theatre, where smoking was formerly general, it is no longer in practice. in some private houses the practice of smoking is continued, * and I have been sometimes so well clouded or smoked, that with a little aid of the imagination I might presume that I was on my way to the seventh heaven of Mohamed; where nothing could be seen except it was the black eyes of the angels, peeping and twinkling like stars through the clouds.

201

CHAPTER XIV.

Leave Palmas-Tinaco-hospitality there-kind manners-abundance of fish→→→ visitors, their kindness-move before sunrise-bivouac-march in the evening-storm approaching-take shelter-oriental customs-a frail habitation -oil-cloth cloaks beyond value-men and mules huddled in a small spaceheavy rain-delightful sleep-San Carlos-very Asiatic looking city-churches resemble mosques-female peepers-latticed windows-military commandant, his lady and her sister-amiable frankness-their excellent chocolategood cream-wheaten cakes-sweetmeats-apprize us of bad roads-passed St. Jose-Ceyba-fine-flavoured cow's milk-a venerable widow-Cayesita-El Altar, a remarkable pass-obliged to climb it-Humboldt's ficus gigantica or buttress tree-Bejucas-rio Coxede, here called rio Claro-some notices of fig-trees.

AFTER sleeping, fearless of impending showers from the roosts above us, and indifferent to the little pools of ungracious scent beneath our hammocks,-we were on our mules, before the dawn could reveal what more was to be seen; the alcalde, with his chubby, good-natured face, and his japanned leather breeches, was as punctual as his promise (a very novel occurrence among some of that species). Some bottles of fine cow's milk were ready for delivery, a basket of eggs, and some indifferent oranges, which he excused for not being as good as they should be, because, he said, he did not make them.-The roosting, milk, eggs, and all, did not require a dollar to pay the whole reckoning -and in Palmas, I question, if we could be found better for a thousand.

It was on the morning of the thirtieth, and we had a long warm ride over the elevated ridge of Palmeria. As goodnatured alcaldes are, in this part of the country, rather scarce, we pushed for the handsome and gay village of Tinaco, or, as some of the inhabitants named it, Tanac, standing on a brilliant river of the same name, which is a

tributary to the Portugueza and Apure. As we rode along the street of entrance, a military officer, who had just come to the gate, seeing us a little dusty, perhaps languid, politely invited us to enter; the gates being thrown open, our grenadier, without stopping to enquire what we should do, made his salute, and rode promptly into the patio; and we, "nothing loth," were soon unhorsed, our mules placed in the coral, with a rich service of young sugar cane; our cook gave us our chocolate, almost as soon as our ham. mocks were slung up, and we took our breakfast, while a gay cantarista, in an adjoining apartment, strummed her gui tar, and sung a lively air, unconscious of so many strange listeners: This town was neat, the quarters clean and commodious, and, though the sun shone so bright and warm, the air was quite sweet and elastic; the bed of the river, just in sight, was throughout almost as white as snow, composed of pebbles, against which the sprightly stream seemed to sparkle. The sergeant, who knew what was peculiar to all parts of the route, procured a basket, and was not absent five minutes, when he returned with it nearly full of fish, much resembling the winter perch of the Delaware, and these added variety to our day's dinner. Fruit was abundant and fine, and, unless it was for the use of our attendants, we rarely sought beef or pork; the poul try being every where fine, and the eggs and chocolate always a ready and pleasant repast, in quarters, or in the forest, or on the cool paramo.

Several of the most respectable 'citizens of both sexes honoured us with a visit of courtesy, and I remarked how solicitous they were not to appear too inquisitive; the young folks, in the usual ingenuousness of their years, pressed us to stay a week at least, and assured us that our time should be made agreeable; some sent fine bananas and pine apples, others, some small, but fine flavoured oranges, as evidences of their earnestness for our stay; we were not behind

them in expressions of thanks and respect, and refused, with an assurance, that good inclinations were not wanting, but that our stay could not be protracted. We took the opportunity to lay up in some baskets, arepa bread, rice, sweet bananas, some raspadura or cakes of sugar, some bottles of fresh milk, a small basket of limes, plenty of young onions, a dozen of live fowls-and closing our evening with chocolate and arepa-we were in our hammocks before nine o'clock, determined to rise before the sun.

On the first of December, at three o'clock, A. M. we were in motion, and had made considerable progress by eight o'clock, when we halted under the shade of a lofty forest, on a bank, from which issued a limpid stream. We hung up our hammocks, resolved to rest and refresh during the heat of the day. By the aid of the sergeant's magazine of flint, steel, and matches, a fire was soon blazing in front, and our chocolate was soon frothing. Our limes, which were excellent, enabled us while they lasted to make a beverage of lemonade, with the aid of the raspadura, and some tortumas, that is, bowls made of the shell of the calabash; no traveller goes without a tortuma, for the convenience of drinking on the road. We had a pleasant nap in the shade, while the heat abroad was more than usually ardent; our mules had alongside a rich pasture, and were well refreshed by three o'clock, P. M. when we moved off the ground.

We soon emerged from the forest upon the open sloping plain; the ridges on our right were much diminished by distance, those on our left obscured by clouds; a delightful green sward, with a few dispersed clumps of low thicket, some few trees of various figures and elevation, were scattered over the plain; the green sod was ornamented with wild flowers and flowering shrubs, some of which were familiar, and the greater number strangers to us; the atmosphere, however, soon became humid, and the air close and sultry, the clouds appearing ready to burst in the south-east. An