In a recent contest, several vessels of the Paez party have been seized; and the American steamer Scourge, brought out for them, has been taken, and will be condemned. The city has been thrown into great rejoicing on the part of the existing government, to the discomfiture of the friends of the opposite side, by news from Maracaibo that the castle has been evacuated by the insurgents, who have abandoned some of their vessels and fled to New Granada. Flags were flying, drums beating, the church bells ringing, and thousands of blacks were in the streets at nine o’clock at night, crying “Viva la Republica,” “Viva la Libertad,” “Viva la Constitution,” with maddening and deafening shouts. I joined the throng at the house of the president, and found upon the Plaza about one thousand men, of mixed colors, with the black sentinels at the door, in round white cotton jackets and pantaloons, a sort of red pointed fatigue cap, and bare-footed. I entered and found the president, who is a fine military looking man, with black moustache, surrounded by his friends, who greeted him on the suspension of hostilities. I could not help thinking how little these people, without the means of education, know of real liberty, and the value of a constitution, and the respect due to a majority of voices in the popular suffrage. The present government, which is popular with the blacks and lower orders, has been obliged to make great concessions and promises, which would bring anarchy, were they not a mild and easily governed race.
The people are naturally indolent, not having the same stimulant to activity as in the cold regions of the north. Riding in the country as I do daily, on the coffee and sugar plantations, one can see how the lower classes subsist; the wild cane which grows in abundance is used with mud and straw for the sides of a cabin, the roof covered with the leaves of the palm tree, or other material; a shirt, with a pair of drawers, is their only covering; their furniture consists of an iron pot, and a jar, to contain water. Two or three bananas a day are sufficient to support life. Children up to the age of seven cost nothing for clothing. A lovely and equitable climate the year round, with a soil which, with proper cultivation, would produce anything.
The consumption of beef is greater than in any country I have yet seen; and in all parts of the suburbs are seen slaughtering-places for the cattle from the great plains, and a curious and startling sight presents itself of fences made of bullocks’ horns. Cattle in large numbers have been sold by those who feared that the government would take them for the army, or for the want of money, at two dollars per head, and delivered in the city at from three dollars to five dollars. The hides are exported, and the flesh is consumed in large quantities by all classes, particularly the lower orders; the price is as low as ten cents per six pounds. I have seen so much of it, that I have almost abandoned eating meat. There are in the country, holders of from two to three hundred thousand head of cattle on the vast plains.
I have just seen an advertisement of an exhibition at the theatre for Sunday night, called the Gran Nacimiento, or Birth of Christ, which usually takes place at this season of the year; and as curiosity led me to see the exhibition, I must describe it to you, to show the peculiar tastes of these people. There were some one thousand five hundred persons present, of all classes and colors; and among them were seen the scuttle-formed hats of the priests, and their black robes, and the white and black mantillas of the dark-eyed damsels of Caracas. The roof of the theatre over the parquette was the vault of heaven, with the mild full moon’s rays, and the twinkling of the stars, almost extinguished the light of the lamps in the carved balconies and boxes, which formed the inclosure, and extended to the roofed building in the rear, for the stage and actors. The first act represented eight children dressed as angels, after which appears Mary, and three other angels descend upon a white cloud and announce the conception; the coronation then takes place by the group of angels, with solos and duets, accompanied by the orchestra; after which appears Joseph, in oriental costume, and accompanies his spouse on a pilgrimage. King Herod and others are introduced in the performance, as well as Lucifer, from the burning pit, and his contest with the archangel Michael, who destroys him; finally comes the birth of the infant at Bethlehem, the dances of the shepherds, and the adoration of the three kings. The performers were all mulattoes and blacks.
There is a club-house and reading-room here, kept by an American, which is frequented by the foreign residents as well as the natives.
Our Minister, Mr. Shields, from Alabama, is a gentleman of talent, and a worthy representative of his nation. He occupies the house and grounds of the former president, Gen. Paez, which has protected this property from spoliation. In dining with him I made the acquaintance of two of the members of the late Congress who narrowly escaped when the attack was made upon them, and were much indebted to Mr. Shields, who secreted them in his house for some weeks until the excitement had subsided.
This is an equable and delightful climate, and more agreeable to the senses than either the extremes of heat or cold; the night and morning air is to be avoided by invalids in consequence of the vapors or clouds which sometimes descend, but during the day rise by the attraction of the sun’s rays.
L.*
Danish Brig of War, Ornen,
Island of Beatti, St. Domingo, January 25, 1849.