‘New Chapel and Burial-Ground of the British Protestant Residents at Caracas, the Capital of Venezuela, in South America’, in The Saturday Magazine, No. 147

18 October, 1834

Private collection

London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

Jane Porter was one of the most popular novelists of the early nineteenth century. Her brother, the artist and writer Sir Robert Ker Porter, served as British Consul to Venezuela in the 1830s, and Jane was anxious to promulgate her brother’s successes. To do so, she often hid her identity behind a pseudonym. This article, signed ‘A Spectator’, describes the ceremony marking the opening of the first Protestant cemetery in Venezuela. The piece appears to be the work of an eyewitness. In fact, Porter based her article on her brother’s description of the event. Robert also provided a drawing for the engraver.