landed proprietor of Mariara, Don Domingo Tovar, had formed the
project of erecting a bathing-house, and an establishment which would
furnish visitors with better resources than lizard's flesh for food,
and leather stretched on a bench for their repose.

On the 21st of February, in the evening, we set out from the beautiful
Hacienda de Cura for Guacara and Nueva Valencia. We preferred
travelling by night, on account of the excessive heat of the day. We
passed by the hamlet of Punta Zamuro, at the foot of the high
mountains of Las Viruelas. The road is bordered with large
zamang-trees, or mimosas, the trunks of which rise to sixty feet high.
Their branches, nearly horizontal, meet at more than one hundred and
fifty feet distance. I have nowhere seen a vault of verdure more
beautiful and luxuriant. The night was gloomy: the Rincon del Diablo
with its denticulated rocks appeared from time to time at a distance,
illumined by the burning of the savannahs, or wrapped in ruddy smoke.
At the spot where the bushes were thickest, our horses were frightened
by the yell of an animal that seemed to follow us closely. It was a
large jaguar, which had roamed for three years among these mountains.
He had constantly escaped the pursuits of the boldest hunters, and had
carried off horses and mules from the midst of enclosures; but, having
no want of food, had not yet attacked men. The negro who conducted us
uttered wild cries, expecting by these means to frighten the tiger;
but his efforts were ineffectual. The jaguar, like the wolf of Europe,
follows travellers even when he will not attack them; the wolf in the
open fields and in unsheltered places, the jaguar skirting the road
and appearing only at intervals between the bushes.

We passed the day on the 23rd in the house of the Marquis de Toro, at
the village of Guacara, a very considerable Indian community. An