a whit more dignified in appearance—which is
saying about as little for its dignity as need be
said.

On the west side of the Plaza is the house of
General Uslar, an old Hanoverian soldier, who
served under Wellington in the German Legion,
and was one of the duke's orderlies at the battle
of Waterloo. When the war was over, he entered
Bolivar's army, and having been taken prisoner
by the Spaniards, was made to work in chains
among tlie labourers employed in making the
bridge over the river of Valencia. He had his
revenge, however; for having been exchanged
for some Spanish officer, he commanded Bolivar's
body-guards at the crowning victory of Carabobo.
The northern side of the square is made
up of some private houses and the cathedral,
beside which passes a long street, which leads
northward to a good bridge over the river, the
identical bridge at which General Uslar worked.
Thence the road passes on to the Lake of
Valencia and the valleys of Araguas.

If my room at the Posada had had a window
—if there had been any privacy and quiet in the
place—any food beside pork and sardines—I
would not have migrated, for the Gran Plaza at
Valencia is really a charming place to live in.
It is dry and healthy, and there is always a
breeze from one of the long streets which
stretch away from the corners of the square to
the hills. There are beautiful views, too, of
the mountains and lake, not to mention the
strings of pretty Creoles who are always passing
to and from the cathedral. But as I had no
fancy for undergoing a process of etiolation in
the den without light that had been assigned to
me, I determined to quit the Posada forthwith.
It happened that the first person who paid me
a visit was a Senor Colon, or Columbus, a name
extremely à propos for a voyage of discovery in
South America; so I resolved to put myself
under his pilotage, and at once go in quest of a
new lodging. I soon found one: a house
belonging to Senor A., above mentioned, perfectly
clean, being only just finished, and with an
upper story commanding an enchanting view of
the lake.

It was Sunday morning when I entered my
new abode. A very pretty Indian girl, about
fourteen years of age, with bare feet, and such
feet!—Cinderella's were clubs in comparison—
came and arranged the few articles of furniture
that a friend had sent for my room. My hammock
from the Rio Negro, which, with its gay
flowers of feather-work, was of itself a sight
worth seeing, was suspended by Juan so
judiciously, that as I lay I could descry the lake
glittering some nine miles off, beyond innumerable
plantations which stretch all the way from the
city to its shores. I thought myself fortunate
in having such a view; but there were other
good things in store for me. On going to the
windows looking into the street, I beheld two
lovely Creoles, beautifully dressed, coming home
from mass, enter the house opposite mine, and
afterwards take their seats at the window on
the ground floor in front of me. From the
garden, too, behind my house came the musical
laughter of girls. Unluckily, the window in
this direction was so high from the floor, that
it was only at rare intervals, and with great
caution, that I could reconnoitre, lest I should
be caught in the undignified attitude of a peeper.
It was quite evident, however, that there was
more than one Eve in the paradise to which I
was now translated.

I had resolved to stop a whole month at
Valencia, but I thought it as well to commence
lionising as soon as possible. Accordingly, in
spite of the heat, which was not less than that
of a bright day in summer at Naples, I sallied
out before noon to inspect the cathedral. This
edifice, styled "a very pretty structure " in the
guide-book to Venezuela, published in 1822, is,
in point of fact, a perfectly plain building of
stone, with two towers in front, about eighty
feet high. These towers are exactly alike, even
to the extent of injury they have suffered during
the two centuries which have elapsed since they
were built. In attempting to ascend them, I
was brought to a stand-still at exactly the same
place in each that is to say, about half way up
the second story. There are four stories, the
three lower ones square, and that at top
octagonal, with a cupola roof. Descending into
the body of the church, I found a congregation
of, say a hundred women and five or six men,
with a mumbling priest and a discordant choir.
Several mangy curs had also put in an appearance,
and ran about among the rows of worshippers,
behaving altogether more like heathens
than good Catholics. One pertinacious individual,
of a foxy red, ran three times under the nose
of a kneeling Spaniard, a tall, lean man, of a
grave aspect, whose bile was so moved by the
annoyance that he at last bestowed a violent
cuff on the offender. This produced a dismal
howl, which agreed ill with the music, and
caused a slight titter amongst some of the
younger women. I came away anything but
favourably impressed with the cathedral
service. The bells, however, are worthy of any
church, having a noble sound, clear, ringing,
deep.

From the cathedral I went to the church of
Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria, which is one
cuadra to the south of the Gran Plaza, and was
built in 1802. It is a very small building, not
capable of containing more than three hundred
persons, and I found it crammed from end to
end. As usual, there were at least twenty
women to one man, many of them very beautiful
women, and one astonishingly so. I passed
next to the Franciscan monastery, where there
is a neat chapel, which was nearly empty at the
time of my visit.

There is no dust at Valencia, and water-carts
are never needed. Nature does the business
of watering the streets gratis. I had a specimen
of her performance in this line on my
return from visiting the churches. The sun
was shining brightly when I entered the
Franciscan monastery, and I stopped there only a
few minutes; but on my coming out the scene