conversation, that I stopped, on which he
called out, "Oh, these are the aristocrats we
have here, who won't talk to any one but their
own set!" On my sitting down to play chess
with the wife of the president of one of the
states, half a dozen female servants, of every
shade, from tawny twilight to black night,
surrounded the table and began to watch the game.
The first time I went to a tailor, I was accompanied
by a Creole friend, who undertook to
show me the best place. We had to wait some
time before the gentleman of the shop appeared.
When he did, he came in with the inevitable
cigar in his mouth. He raised his hat politely
to my friend, walked straight up to me, shook
hands, and asked me how I did. He then sat
down on the counter, put various questions to
me regarding my coming to Venezuela, talked
on general subjects, and at the end of about a
quarter of an hour intimated that he was ready
to oblige me if I wanted a coat. This tailor
was an officer of rank in the army, and he was
wearing his uniform and spurs when he came in
to measure a friend of mine.

Juan was an excellent valet, but he would
have lost caste had he been too attentive to his
duties in Venezuela. So he walked off, as I
have said, to amuse himself, and left me to
think over the difficulties of the business
entrusted to me. I had no experience in South
American affairs, so my first measure had been
to secure a coadjutor, who was thoroughly au
fait in them. C., the son of an Englishman, had
all the integrity characteristic of his race, and
being a Creole by birth, that is, born in
Venezuela, knew all about the country. He
chanced to come in just as Juan left the room,
and seeing that he had taken a cigar and settled
himself for a chat, I said: "Now, tell me, C.,
how is it that this country is so wretchedly poor,
and so eternally borrowing money? For my
part, I can't make it out. You haven't a
particle of show. Your Government House looks
like an East Indian godown, your great men
make no display, and as for your soldiers, one
would think that the last successful campaign
had been against the fripiers, and that the victors
were carrying off the plunder on their backs.
It is evident that you Venezuelans are not
extravagant, and it is plain that you have great
resources if you knew how to use them. Your
soil is the richest in the world, and has never
been trodden by an invader since the Spaniard
was driven out. Then what is the reason that
you are always borrowing from other countries?
How is it, too, that while the United States of
North America have made such progress, the
population in your republic is all but stationary,
the seas and rivers without steamers, the country
without roads, and commerce languishing?"
C. knocked the ashes from the end of his cigar,
assisted thought by perching his legs
conveniently on the top of a chair, and finally replied
as follows: "You see, in the first place, there's
a difference in the breed. The Yankees are a
go-ahead lot, there's no mistake about that.
There's plenty of quicksilver in English blood,
but fog and damp keep it down in England. At
New York it rises to fever heat, and to the boiling
point down South. Besides, long before
Lexington and Bunker-hill, the North Americans
were ripe for self-government. In South
America things were very different. The
Spaniards kept their American subjects in
profound ignorance. Four-fifths of the population
could not even read, for there were no schools.
Even at Carácas, the capital, there was no
printing-office till 1816, when one was setup by
the Frenchman, Delpeche. The illiberality of
the Spaniards went so far, that, after Isabella's
death, nothing was done to introduce the
cultivation of any plant, or improve farming. The
culture of the vine and olive was prohibited, and
that of tobacco was made a crown monopoly.
Emigration, too, was all but entirely prevented,
and, in the total absence of vivifying power, the
wonder rather is that Venezuela should ever
have become free, than that it should have made
so little progress.

"Then as to the poverty of the government and
its constant borrowing, there are several reasons
for that. In the first place, the Creoles of
South America, though they have many good
qualities, are very averse to physical labour.
They won't go to work in a new country, like
Englishmen—clear away timber, stub up, and
drain. Their wits are sharp, and they do well
for superintendents; but as to work that tries
the sinews, it is my belief that all the haciendas
in the country would go to ruin, if it were not
for the Indians and the mixed breeds. Again,
the taxes levied by the Spaniards—the alcabala,
or excise, the armada and corso, or coast taxes,
the medias anatas, or deductions from salaries,
the monopolies of salt, cards, cane-liquor, and
tobacco, and numerous other imposts, wore all
so odious to the Columbians, that as soon as
they declared themselves independent, they made
a clean sweep of them, leaving only the customs
to supply a revenue to the government. Now,
it is in the customs that it is most easy to
peculate and defraud the state. With a coast
line of two thousand miles, how is it possible to
keep down smuggling? To give you an idea of
the extent of the contraband trade, I may
mention that a finance minister of Venezuela
has proved that of the two hundred million
dollars' worth of goods imported into the country
during the first sixteen years of independence,
one hundred and twenty-nine and a half millions'
worth were smuggled! But, besides that, the
venality and corruption of the custom-house
officers is such, that, as Señors Brandt and
Iribarren have shown, the defalcations of revenue
from the Aduánas up to 1852, amounted to no
less than one hundred and one and a half millions
of dollars. At present, the annual loss to
government by contraband and frauds of various
kinds, is reckoned at six millions. But don't
suppose that this calculation is based on
information furnished by the accounts kept here. If
other countries—France and the United States,
for example—did not publish the amount of
their exports to Venezuela, no one would know