In the women perhaps the Spanish character appears with less alteration than among the men; and their dress and manners are exact counterparts of what we see in Old Spain. Here, as in Spain, their principal morning occupation seems to be going to mass dressed in black, with their mantillas over their heads, their feet particularly ornamented with silk stockings, and flirting their fans which they keep constantly in motion. On this occasion a female slave, frequently more beautiful than her mistress, follows her, carrying a small carpet on which she may kneel at her devotions. This carpet is a great mark of distinction, and is only allowed in the churches to white women; on which account, perhaps, they are particularly proud of having it thus borne in procession, at a slow space, through the streets. It is in contemplation however to abolish the restriction; and, as a beginning, during my stay, special leave was granted by a public ordinance to the women of a coloured family, in a distant town to make use of these carpets. This innovation, slight as it may appear, excited great dissatisfaction among the higher classes of Caracas, and a proportionate cagerness and hope of change anong the coloured families. Upon the whole, the women of Caracas are handsome, sprightly, and pleasing. To their natural charms they know how to add the attractions of dress and of graceful motions. They are uniformly kind and affable in their manners.' p. 58.

Who can tell how much this contested claim to be followed to church by half a yard of carpet, may have conduced to the revolution of South America! Religion, if it may be so called, not only serves, as in this instance, as a commodions ground for contesting points of rank and etiquette upon; it is also the chief, and most favourite and comprehensive amusement.

To this' (the cultivation of music) the religion of the country has greatly contributed, as both solemn and sprightly music are daily employed in aid of its rites. Indeed, in Roman Catholic countries, the ceremonies of religion, as they are generally practised, may well be rankedamong the amusements of the people, or rather they form the very first class, Cards and billiards occupy only a few; but gilded images, carried about in procession; churches adorned with vessels of gold and silver, and dazzling with lights; streets illuminated; the firing of guns and the ringing of bells; all these united form, indeed, a brilliant show, which interests all ranks, from the ancient Spaniard down to the Negro imported yesterday. In vain would reason propose the sincere and humble worship of the heart, as more acceptable to heaven than all this pageantry. It will be found almost universally that man seeks to please himself in his mode of worshipping God; and frequently thinks himself most devout, when he is most gratifying some hidden feeling, wholly unconnected with the professed object of his veneration.' p. 61.

The rank now held by the town of Caraccas, the capital of the province (or as it now demands to be called, the sovereign state) of Venezuela, was held, it seems, two centuries since

by Coro; which lost it in consequence, partly, of the archbishop and the dean and chapter transferring themselves and the archbishopric, voluntarily, and in spite of all the remonstrances of the deserted people, to the much more pleasant situation of Caraccas. The effects, however,' says Mr. Semple, of this transaction are still felt, and a deadly animosity exists between the two cities, for which I fear much blood will yet be shed.'

He made an excursion westward, to Valencia, and to Puerto Cabello, the only place deserving the name of a harbour on the whole coast of the province. He passed through extensive tracts of beautiful and fertile country nearly uninhabited. At one station he met a party of Indians; the young women, many of whom were of 'pleasing features,' going to seek work in the coffee plantations, where they pick the berries; and the men carrying ponderous cages, of several stories, filled with fowls, parrots, or monkies, to the Caraccas market. They will come thither from a distance of a hundred miles, carrying each a burden of two hundred pounds weight.

The men were in general strong and stout, but though large, not so well limbed as the Indians of North America. Their colour was of a yellowish cast, inclining to copper; their hair long, coarse, and black, growing low down upon a narrow forehead: the nose at the point suddenly becoming sharp, like that of a person worn out by long illness; the eyes black, melancholy, and inexpressive; the lips thick, and the mouth somewhat large. The general air of these Indians was heavy, sad, and sullen. Some of them, while they rested their burdens, amused themselves by blowing into a species of flute, if it can be so called, without doubt one of the rudest ever sounded by the human breath. They con sisted of single joints of cane with one longitudinal opening in the side, too long to be covered with the whole palm of the hand when applied.'

The grand plain of Valencia, with its lake, and remote border of high mountains, presented one of the most magnificent views he had ever beheld. The town of Valencia, re cently in a prosperous and rapidly advancing state, very much the result of the industry and enterprize of the Spanish inhabitants, was now dull and almost dreary, in consequence of the compelled exile of some of them, and the voluntary removal of others, who felt their property, and even their lives, endangered by the suspicious and vindictive spirit of the na tive Americans, now rising into power and arrogance,

They had almost all been many years in the country were married, and had establishments, either commercial or agricultural, where they had introduced many improvements; they had declared their resolution to take

no hostile measures, and to be bound by every legal restriction; but the patriotic party were not satisfied.'

Valencia and Puerto Cabello are in the same relation to each other as Caraccas and La Guayra; the same chain of mountains, (which indeed 'stretches from the Gulph of Paria to the westward of Carthagena, and forms a lofty barrier between the interior continent and the sea,') passing between the ports and the inland cities to which they belong. In crossing this chain, from Valencia to its port, our traveller had a succession of most romantic scenery. The harbour is described as excellent, excepting that

'the worm makes great ravages in the bottom of such ships as are not coppered. In no part of the world is it more destructive; and a small vessel left unattended, in a very few months would founder at her moorings from this cause alone.'

It is inhabited almost entirely by people of colour, and is rapidly increasing, notwithstanding the destructive fevers which frequently rage here in the summer and autumn,' to such a degree, that few strangers can then visit it with impunity, or at least without great danger; and there have been instances of vessels losing the greater part of the crews in a very short time.' This insalubrity is attributed to the exhalations from low swampy grounds. The greatest part, however, of the tract which Mr. Semple traversed, he pronounces favourable to health; and notices, as somewhat of a compensation in the unwholesome spots, that they are exuberantly fertile. But it should seem that every part of the country is quite sufficiently indulgent, in its great productiveness, with little toil, to human wants and indolence. The valley of Caraccas has all the advantages of irrigation, an expedient well understood by the inhabitants. But the use of the plough is unknown.

All work is done with the spade and hoe, and chiefly by slaves. The lighter work is performed by Indians, and free labourers, which last class is increasing rapidly. Maize and plantains form the basis of their food, to which are added beef and garlic. The maize is generally eaten in the form of cakes, being first soaked, deprived of the husk, and then ground, or rather rubbed into a moist paste, by means of a roller, and a smooth curved slab of a stone. This operation falls to the lot of the women. Beef seldom exceeds two pence sterling a pound.' Poultry is scarce and dear. Mutton is unknown. Although this country has been colonized nearly three centuries, the sheep has not yet been introduced upon these mountains, where it could not fail to multiply rapidly. The flesh of goats is used instead.' p. 114.

The mode of cooking is entirely Spanish. The people are represented as generally a sober race, but as drinking freely at entertainments, in which they have adopted the English custom

of toasts. The ladies sit among the gentlemen, or in a contiguous apartment, with the door open. 'The conversation is free; for an Englishman frequently too much so.'

In a word, the general manners and customs are those of Spain, by no means improved by crossing the Atlantic, or by the mixture of Indian and negro blood with that of the first conquerors. It may be laid down as an axiom, that whereever there is slavery there is corruption of manners. There is a re-action of evil from the oppressed to the oppressor. Here it has been weakened by the general mildness observed towards domestic slaves; but it has not been destroyed, and even should slavery be finally abolished, its influence over private life will long be felt. After great debates, the importation of slaves has been forbidden by the new legisla ture; although many still remain of opinion that they are necessary to the prosperity of the country. Whenever a slave can by any means make up the sum of three hundred dollars to his owner, he is free. He is not even obliged to give this sum at once, but may pay it in single dollars, or half dollars, till the whole be complete. A slave has also the liberty of seeking a new master, and may go about to sell himself.".

Almost the whole commerce of the country is carried on by European Spaniards, and a class of people originally from the Canaries; who, by a spirit of union, and frequently an impenetrable dialect, have a great advantage against foreigners in

commercial transactions.

An interesting brief account is given of a distinct population, rapidly forming on an extensive territory, consisting of great plains, to the south of Caraccas. They are employed in looking after the vast herds of catile, the proprietors of which reside in the great towns. They are a bold, lawless, and barbarous race, of very coarse and vicious manners, and some of them are professed robbers. Swinging about in their hammocks, smoaking cigars, gambling to excess, and tormenting of bulls, are among their principal amusements.

The last chapter, partly historical and partly speculative, relates to the politics and the civil war of this new state, and it makes a rather gloomy representation both of what is past and of what is to come. Mr. Semple considers the people of Spanish America as much too ignorant and immoral and superstitious for real freedom and wise self-government, at the same time that he deems it perfectly idle to expect that any thing can prevent or long retard their complete and final independence of European power. But the course by which they have thus far advanced towards it, has been marked by nume rous acts of severity and injustice towards the Spanish settlers; by great want of union among themselves; by a profusion of plots, intrigues, and outrages; by a plentiful display of the ambition and self-importance of individuals; and by the most ruinous mischief to the state of commerce and agriculture. Incalculable injury has been sustained by these interests, in

consequence of the expulsion of a vast number of active and considerably intelligent Spaniards, who were the principal improvers of the country, and at whose tameness in suffering themselves to be so easily overborne, Mr. S. expresses great astonishment. He says, the descendants of the earlier Spanish colonists feel not the smallest partiality to what is called the mother country, but, on the contrary, cherish, many of them, such a resentment on account of the wrongs they have suffered from the European government, as to forget they have ever received any benefits. But whatever sentiments it would be decorous for them to express towards Old Spain, a philanthropic observer will be of opinion, that no condemnation can well be too severe on a state that has suffered its colonies to grow up to such a numerical magnitude in that moral and intellectual condition, which renders them utterly unfit to govern themselves, when the inevitable period of their separation and independence arrives.

Art. X. A Tour to Hafod, in Cardiganshire, the seat of Thomas Johnes Esq. M. P. &c. &c. &c. by James Edward Smith, M. D. F. R. S. &c. President of the Linnæan Society. London: printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, for White and Co. Horace's Head, Fleet Street. 1810.

THE public have been long in possession of a very interesting "Sketch of a Tour on the Continent," which embraced observations on whatever was particularly curious in the more celebrated parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy; and from this specimen of it's author's talents, the literary world has ever since been induced to hope, that some fresh occasion might call forth the exertions of Dr. Smith in its service. On this account, it is certainly to be regretted, that the performance now before us was not published in a less splendid and expensive form; so that a far greater number of readers might have been enabled to become aeacquainted with the picturesque scenery and romantic beauties of Hafod. In its present magnificent and costly shape, few perSons can hope to possess the work, however ardent may be their admiration of sublime and extensive scenery. Possibly, however, the splendour of the book may be considered as emblematical of the elegant abade which it is the author's principal object to describe. Indeed the letter-press scarcely extends beyond what is absolutely essential for an explanation of the beautiful plates,-which are fifteen in number, and will be noticed as they respectively occur.