His wealth excited the rapacity of the viceroy Count Lemos, who, to obtain possession of it, accused him of exciting the natives to rebellion, and cast him into prison. In vain Salcedo entreated that he might appeal to the mercy of the king, and promised to give the viceroy a bar of silver daily, from the time the ship left the port of Callao to her return from Europe, which would probably be upwards of a year; but the viceroy, instead of listening to the proposal of Salcedo, ordered him to be hung. No sooner was this known to the natives than they destroyed the works, and so carefully concealed the entrance, that even to the present day it is unknown. The tribes afterwards dispersed, and even cruel tortures could not induce them to reveal the secret. There can be no doubt that there are many rich lodes in existence worked by Indians, who, knowing that they will be compelled to labour for the benefit of their masters, carefully conceal them. In many of the mines of Peru, the natives having almost been exterminated, the proprietors endeavoured to kidnap the inhabitants of the Pacific to supply their places, but after several hundreds had been nefariously captured, the Governments of England and France interfered and put a stop to the practice. In another part of South America, near the town of Cumana, is a vast cavern in the Valley of Caripe, which was many years ago visited by Baron Humboldt, who found it inhabited by a remarkable species of nocturnal bird, called the guacharo. The mouth of the cavern is pierced in the side of the cliff looking towards the south, in the form of an arch, eighty feet wide and seventy-two in height. The summit of the cliff is covered with trees of gigantic size, and with shrubs and plants growing in all the luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, while a variety of creeping plants hang in elegant festoons before its entrance. Visitors can proceed for upwards of 430 feet without being compelled to light their torches. When the light of day begins to fail, the hoarse cries of the nocturnal birds are heard coming out of the dark recesses of the interior. The guacharo is of the size of the common fowl; its hooked bill is white, like that of the goat-sucker, and furnished at the base with stiff hairs, directed forwards. The plumage is of a sombre brownish grey, mixed with black stripes and large white spots. Their eyes are incapable of bearing the light of day, and their wings are disproportionately large, measuring no less than four and a-half feet from tip to tip. The birds quit the cavern only at nightfall, to feed on fruits. A most horrible noise is made by them in the dark recesses of the cavern, and the clamour increases as they are disturbed by the visitors advancing deeper into it with torches, and those nestling in the side avenues begin to utter their mournful cries. When the first sink into silence, it seems as if the more remote inhabitants were