cheated, the fraud becomes innocent; so it was attempted to be justified to me by one of the concerned; but it must be obvious, that it is, when sanctioned or tolerated by a government, and institutions established and supported by government for the support of this fraudulent currency, it is a connivance in favour of the opulent to the plunder of the poor-it is privilege for the knowing gambler to cheat the ignorant and unsuspicious.

In treating of the money and mint of Colombia, I may probably take some farther notice of this pernicious currency; which requires of the government, in justice to its own character, and the interests which it is their duty under a representative government to protect, to apply an effective remedy, which, reinforced by the banking system so unfitly and unfortunately introduced, may entail evils not less afflicting to the public and to families, than the thraldom which the revolution has destroyed.

After resting at Antonia de Cucuta, and chatting with the agreeable people who lived in the house, and who came in actuated by a curiosity no way impertinent nor unpleasant, we crossed the principal stream of the Tachira, and reached Rosario de Cucuta about half-past five o'clock, being the 10th January.

The alcalde, here, was not to be found. I dispatched the sergeant to St. Joseph, the head quarters of the military commandant, and sent by him the letter of General Clemente, and the sergeant returned, before it was yet night, with an order to provide us with the best accommodations of the city, and whatever we should else require. We were accordingly conducted to as good a house as there was in Cucuta, in sight of the Plaza; where we had ample and comfortable accommodations. It had been the house of Pedro Sopo, a French gentleman long resident there, but who having attached himself to the Bourbons, fled, and the property was confiscated. The house was in the usual oriental style, with an ample patio, good lodging apartments, spare rooms

for accommodation; a very spacious interior corridor and dining room, and a private chamber lighted from the street. The cocineria was out of sight, but with abundant room, and though it had suffered from the confiscation, there remained evidence that l'art de viver had due homage under its original possessor, though the stew-holes were now neither whole nor cleanly. In the spacious yard or area, to the rear of all, there stood by much the largest tamarind I had In Bengal the tamarind tree rarely rises to fifteen feet high, nor its stem to more than four or five inches diameter; this beautiful tree was between forty and fifty feet, and the stem twenty-two inches diameter, at four feet from the ground. It was clustering in fine fruit, abundant, but not yet ripe.

ever seen.

This valley rivals Barquisimeto, in the richness of its soil, the number of its plantations of cacao, coffee, sugar; and the usual products of the warm climates, oranges, lemons, limes, pine-apples, and the numerous fruit of the country, were here in the utmost perfection and abundance, though the mountains appear wild and savage.

351

CHAPTER XXIV.

Rosario de Cucuta-rich country-cultivators-changes-incidents at Cucutathe Indians, excellent husbandmen and labourers-go to a fandango-minute account of-column of troops-an interview-departure-Valley of Desolation-an inhospitable occurrence-ascend a dreary road-Post-house at Saltikal-cold, comfortless night-depart early without food-Alanaderoascend a luxuriant mountain-bivouac and sleep-Indian population-enter Indian cottage-kindness-feast-Chopo-fine cabbages-adventure and departure-Witches in a fog-Pamplona-first impressions-source of the Sulia -antipathy to fires.

THE road, after crossing the Tachira, and leading to Rosario de Cucuta, which is something more than two miles distant, is luxuriant and fertile. The forest trees are lofty, like those of all the warm valleys. The parroquets, in numerous flocks, flit across and along the woods, and give an infallible indication, by their discordant screams, of the presence of cacao plantations; they are never separate, it would appear. Sugar-mills and refineries abound in this neighbourhood, and their riches are evident in the magnitude of the structures for the conservation of the productions, as well as in the fashion and size of the dwellings. The effects of war were indeed evident, but it was also evident that nature was too bountiful, and the people here too industrious and numerous, for those effects to remain very long visible. Every thing was already in movement, and the proverbial gaiety of the population was palpable, though not so much so in Rosario as in Antonio, and the rural habitations. The mills here were the best I had seen since I left San Mateo. The families of palm trees were here more numerous than I had before seen them on this journey, and more flourishing, giving an oriental aspect, at least to my perceptions, and made the landscape very much more agreeable than otherwise it would be to me.

Rosario is not so extensive nor so busy a scene as Antonio de Cucuta. The streets are much wider than at the latter, though both have the usual excellent pavement. The streets here do not exceed twenty-five feet, and the houses are not generally so spacious, though there are apparently more of two stories. The stillness of the towns in such a country, at this season, is by no means an evidence of its want of population. The plantations afford more enjoyment and agreeable occupation; it is as quiet every day as Philadelphia of a Sunday, but very unlike Philadelphia at night. After ele-ven, in Philadelphia, the only evidence of a town to the hearing, is the occasional drone of the watchman calling the hours. In Cucuta, the evening sets in with the buzzing noise of a gay, prattling, moving crowd. The streets are all alive, and the Plaza Mayor, which is a spacious and beautiful carpet of short grass, on which, if the moon shines, as it happened to do when we were there, the space appears alive with a playful population; the guitar, the tambour, and the maraca, or cadence calabash, are heard on every side, as if the people, dead all day, had risen to dance and sing all night. I had been impressed with other ideas, by perusing some writings of Palacio Faxar; and my observations in this place afforded me, upon a comparison with his account, proof that the revolution had already antiquated his account of Cucuta, which is to be found in the third volume of the British Journal of Sciences, p. 337; for, although there can be no doubt of the truth of his written descriptions, published in 1817, those descriptions would not now in many cases apply; and, from what I have seen there and elsewhere, I feel persuaded, that, as has happened in the United States since the revolution, the accounts which may now be given of the wealth, population, arts, society and manners, will so continue to change in successive periods, as that the account of any one antecedent period of three or four years will not be suitable to describe the circumstances at any subsequent. The face of nature

and its grand anatomy, the climate, and its riches, will be of the same character; but all things that depend upon institution must undergo a still more extraordinary change and amelioration than the United States, because nature has done more for Colombia, and man has yet every thing to do: indeed the old institutions appear to have been intended to retard rather than to profit by the bounties of nature.

Our quarters were contiguous to the south-west angle of the Plaza Mayor, and the house was very spacious; the pavement which sloped from the corridore into the patio, shewed the name of Soro, and the date of the building, as I supposed, which were displayed in round white pebbles on a ground of blue. An aged female mulatto, whose limbs, though lusty, appeared too feeble to sustain the volume of material flesh and blood and bacon, which she carried about her not very well concealed, had taken possession of the kitchen, that she occupied since the flight of her master, and which, she said, she meant to hold till he returned, or she should die; the remainder of her story was an eulogy, and by good accounts a well merited one, on the generosity and kind-heartedness of Señor Sopo; she had no comfort now but in doing as he did, shewing every kindness in his power to the passing stranger, and his neighbours all around. Repulsive as her loose attire and looser flesh were, the consolement of her being heard and permitted to speak of her former master's virtues, was evident; and it was not possible but to sympathise with her, when her feelings, overcome, found vent in a flood of tears.

We had notified the alcalde that we proposed to depart the next day, and requested mules, which he promised á la mañana, but that mañana was succeeded by another; the sergeant equipped in his full regimentals, grenadier's cap, and a brighthilted sabre, I dispatched to the superior officer of the district, whose residence was at San José, about four miles north. I addressed him a note, with some papers, that were calcu