and sold with all despatch. After ten minutes'
pause another bull was admitted, and was
similarly tortured. And so it fared with four
more bulls.

The sixth bull was a very tall gaunt animal,
whose tactics were quite different from those of
the others. He came in without a rush, looked
warily about, and could hardly be induced to
follow the torero. In short, The was so sluggish,
that the people, enraged at his showing so
little sport, shouted for a matador to kill him in
the arena. Hereupon, one of the toreros darted
up to stick a banderilla into the sluggard. But
the bull, being quite fresh, not only defeated
this attempt by a tremendous sweep of his
horns, but almost struck down his assailant,
who was taken by surprise at this unlooked-for
vigour on the part of an animal which seemed
spiritless. However, by a desperate effort the
torero escaped for a moment, but the bull
followed him like lightning, and, as ill luck would
have it, before the man could reach the shelter
of the palisades his foot slipped in a puddle and
he fell back. Expecting that the charge would
end as all previous ones had ended, I had got
up with the intention of leaving, and I was thus
able to see more clearly what followed. As the
man fell backward, the bull struck him on the
lower part of the spine with such force that the
blow sounded all over the building. The
unfortunate torero was hurled into the air, and
came down with his head against the palisades,
and there lay, apparently dead, in a pool of
blood. A sickening feeling of horror crept over
me; the bull was rushing upon the poor fellow
again, and would no doubt have crushed him as
he lay motionless, but, just in the nick of time,
one of the toreros threw his cloak so cleverly
that it fell exactly over the bull's head and
blinded him. WhiIe the brute was trampling
and tossing to free himself, the matador came
up and drove a short sword into the vertebræ;
of his neck, and down he went headlong. At
one moment full of mad fury, the next he was a
quivering mass of lifeless flesh. A few minutes
more, and the dead bull, and seemingly lifeless
man, were removed from the arena, and another
bull was called for. I, however, had witnessed
enough, and gladly made my exit.

It wanted still several days to that appointed
for my meeting the ministers, and I determined
to spend them in visiting the few buildings of
interest in the city. My first expedition was to
the Municipal Hall, and indeed l had but a little
way to go, as it is close to the Gran Plaza.
This hall is one of the oldest buildings in
Carácas, and externally is not only plain, but
almost shabby. Inside, however, there is a very
respectable council chamber, with handsome
gilt arm-chairs for the president and eleven
members, who impose the town dues, and
discharge the ordinary functions of civic
authorities. Round the room are hung some very
tolerable portraits. Among these are that of
the ecclesiastics who filled the archiepiscopal
chair of Carácas in 1813, and those of President
Monagas and his brother. There are also
portraits of Bolivar, of Count Tovar, and Generals
Miranda and Urdaneta, and one remarkable
picture of the reading of the Act of Independence,
with likenesses of the leaders in the
revolution. The mob are represented compelling
the Spanish general to take off his hat and
salute. As a pendant to this picture hangs a
framed copy of the Act of Independence. But
the great curiosity of all is the flag of Pizarro,
sent from Peru in 1837, and enshrined in a case.
All the silk and velvet are eaten off, but the
gold wire remains, with the device of a lion, and
the word Carlos. The flag is about five feet
long and three broad, and being folded double
in the frame, only half is seen, and they will not
allow it to be taken out. There are also two
flags of Carlos the Fourth, taken from the
Spaniards, and the original MSS. of the Act of
Independence, and other important documents,
bound up together.

A day or two after, I went to see the
university of Carácas, which, with the House of
Assembly, the National Library, and a church,
form one great block of buildings. The National
Library does not contain more than ten thousand
volumes, and in that of the university there are
about three thousand five hundred. The department
of divinity seemed best represented; but
there was no great evidence of the books being
cared for. The professors of the university were
most obliging, and showed me all there was to
be seen in the college, which is massive and not
ill suited for its present purpose, though originally
it was a convent of Carmelite friars. The
departments of chemistry and medicine seemed
the best organised. I concluded my inspection
with a visit to the dissecting-room, and that for
anatomical preparations. Among other things,
I was shown the skull of a man whose bones
had turned to chalk. The skull was from an
inch to an inch and a half thick, and if a piece
of it had been broken off and shown separately,
no unscientific person would have guessed it to
be, or to have ever been, a human bone. One
of the professors then went with me to the
Hall of Congress, where also are pictures of
Bolivar, and of the meeting at which the Act
of Independence was settled. The locality
seemed to inspire my cicerone, for, though I,
and a man who sat there reading, and
never raised his head, were his sole audience,
he delivered with the greatest animation an
eloquent harangue on the subject of liberty.
If it be true that still waters are the deepest,
I should fear that the republicanism of South
America is somewhat shallow, it does so babble
as it runs. However, I was glad to hear the
orator express himself with great warmth as
regards England, saying that she was the only
power that had assisted them in their great
struggle with the Spaniards, and that without
her they would hardly have secured their
independence.

The time had now come for my interview with
the ministers on the business I had in hand.
C. came for me at 11 A.M. on the appointed day,
and we walked together to Government House.