the sixteenth century. The term is likewise applied to a native bird of prey, known to naturalists as the pyloborus, a sort of cross between the vulture and the mountain eagle, and a terror to smaller and weaker birds. From a fancied resemblance of its harsh and disquieting notes to the sound of the caraca or rattle trap, used instead of the bells during the last days of Holy Week, the old Spaniards called this ferocious bird the caracas. But I know of no explanation of this coincidence of name among peoples who spoke a different language, and who were at the time supposed to be unconscious of each other's existence.

In the year 1560, one Francisco Fajardo (or Faxardo) the illegitimate son of a Spanish adventurer by the daughter of an Indian chief, made the first attempt to found what is now the city of Caracas. He was, however, soon driven from the place by a tribe of hostile Indians, and fled to the Spanish settlement at Cumaná, where he was assassinated by one of his own countrySeven years later, Don Diego de Losada entered the Chação valley with a strong military force, pitched his tents near the central plaza of the present city of Caracas, built a few houses, and called the place Santiago de Leon de Caracas, which in process of time became simply Carácas (with accentuated second syllable), and finally plain Caracas.

men.

The city is regularly laid out in blocks or squares of uniform size extending from the banks of the Guira, on the south, to the height of several hundred feet up the slope of the mountain, on the north. The streets are generally narrow, though somewhat wider than those of the average Spanish-American city, and are generally well paved with stone, macadam, or asphaltum. The sidewalks are barely wide enough to accommodate two pedestrians walking abreast, but are neatly overlaid

with Roman cement and quite smooth. Near the Plaza Bolívar, the conventional centre of the city, two main thoroughfares cross each other at right angles, and extend toward the four cardinal points. These central avenues are designated as "North and South" "East and West " Avenues. All streets running northward from East Avenue are classified as "North Ist, 3d, 5th," and so on, omitting the alternate even numbers; while all running northward from West Avenue are known as "West 2d, 4th, 6th," and so on, omitting the alternate odd numbers. A like classification is made of the streets running southward from North and South Avenues, omitting alternate even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other. The houses are all carefully numbered in corresponding series; so that when the name and number of any street or house is given, its exact position with respect to the central plaza is known at once.

Methodical and convenient as this arrangement is, it seems never to have commended itself to the common people; perhaps only for the reason that it is of modern origin, for it was one of the " reforms introduced by Guzman Blanco. The simple-minded peasantry still adhere to the old Spanish colonial method of naming the corners at the street-crossings, and then designating houses as number so and so between such and such corners. Thus, if you direct a servant to go to "No. 25, North 2d Avenue," he will stupidly stare and affect not to understand you; but if you say to him, "Go to No. 25, between the corners of Las Ybarras y Maturin," he will be off at once on his errand.1

1 Among the old names of the streets in common use as late as 1780, we find the following: Encarnación del Hijo de Dios ("Incarnation of the Son of God"), Nacimiento del Niño Dios ("Birth of the ChildGod"), Circuncision y Bautismo de Jesús ("Circumcision and Baptism of

Carcacas, unlike most Spanish-American cities, abounds with public parks and flower-gardens. There are some twelve or fourteen altogether, and some of them are well kept and exquisitely beautiful. In the centre of nearly every one of them is a costly statue in bronze or marble, erected in honor of some popular hero or statesman of the country; and generally the plaza takes the name of the person whose memory is thus sought to be perpetuated. Thus we have the Plaza "Bolívar," Plaza "Falcon," Plaza "Miranda," Plaza "Guzman," and so on. About the only exception is the Plaza Centenaria, or Centennial Square, in the southern part of the city; and even this is more generally known as Plaza " Washington," from the circumstance that it is adorned by a life-size statue in bronze of our own Washington. It was erected as late as 1883, during the reign of Guzman Blanco, possibly in recognition of the fact that a very indifferent likeness in bronze of General Símon Bolívar already occupied a conspicuous place in Central Park, New York.

But the largest and most beautiful of these public gardens is the Plaza Mont Calvario. It occupies the crest of a mountain spur which projects into the city from the west side, and is made accessible by beautiful drive-ways which wind zigzag up the acclivity amid dense groves of trees, bamboo, and choice shrubbery. Jesus"), Dulce Nombre de Jesús ("Sweet Name of Jesus "), Adoración de los Reyes ("Adoration of the Kings "), Presentación del Niño Jesús en el Templo (" Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple "), Santísimo Trinidad (“ Holy Trinity”), Huida á Egypto (“" Flight to Egypt”), El Niño perdido y hallado en el Templo ("The Child lost and found in the Temple "), Transfiguración del Señor ("The Lord's Transfiguration"), Triunfo en Jerusalem ("Triumph in Jerusalem "), Santísimo Sacramento ("The Most Holy Sacrament "), Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man"), El Santo Sepulcro ("The Holy Sepulchre "), El Juicio Universal ("The Universal Judgment "), and many others of like import.