AND A JOURNEY OVER THE LLANOS OF CUMANA. 



was too well experienced to allow me to deceive myself with re- 

 gard to them. The heat was most oppressive ; the sun of this torrid 

 region, its heat reflected from the bare surface, unmitigated by the shel- 

 ter of a cloud, and unsoftened by the presence of any distinguishable 

 moisture, was almost overpowering. After a time the solitary trees too 

 left us, and we appeared moving over a track of country utterly de- 

 serted by all living beings. Nothing produced more weariness than the 

 interminable prospect before us ; the horizon seemed to mock us, ever 

 keeping at the same precise distance; there was nothing, therefore, save 

 our own weariness to note our progress. On the afternoon of the third 

 day a grove of palm-trees in a circular form, appeared in the distance. 

 The aching of our tired vision was at once relieved, and we set off, 

 men and mules, whose instinct was as easily roused as our own wishes, 

 at an increased pace. We were doomed to considerable disappoint- 

 ment. The effect of the mirage had brought the trees much nearer 

 in appearance than they were in reality, and it was not before we 

 had toiled on for nearly four hours that we approached them. 



An accident happened to me here which had very nearly proved fa- 

 tal, both in its immediate and remote consequences. Almost maddened 

 by thirst and a violent irritation of the skin, brought on by being 

 constantly covered with the fine vegetable dust in incessant motion 

 over the desert, and which, from its stimulating effects, must have 

 contained a large portion of some very active rubefacient plant, I 

 rushed forward in advance of my company, and penetrating the circle 

 of the grove, and forcing my way through a sauso hedge, I found 

 myself standing by a muddy-looking and stagnant pool. Without 

 waiting to examine whether it would be safe to venture, I hastily 

 stripped off a portion of my dress, and plunged into it. I sunk in a 

 mixture of mud and water nearly breast high, and was congratulating 

 myself on my comfortable position which, however, had nothing 

 very particular to recommend it, as the fluid had a temperature but 

 little less than that of the atmosphere when I suddenly felt a very 

 smart shock on my knee, as if I had been struck by a musket-ball. 

 I gazed about me with great surprise, expecting to see some maroon 

 robber eying me from the thicket. I had, however, heard no report 

 as of the discharge of fire=arms, and I could see nothing to warrant 

 my suspicions. Again I felt the same shock, but to a much more 

 painful degree, extending along the whole of one leg and thigh : so 

 powerful was its impression, that I had great difficulty in support- 

 ing myself, calling aloud to hurry on my attendants. I endea- 

 voured to scramble out, but found myself almost benumbed by a 

 succession of intense shocks, now extending themselves over both 

 extremities and the lower parts of my body. Not only did I feel 

 benumbed and in exquisite pain, but it seemed to me as if I was 

 held tightly in the grasp of some animal. It struck me I must have 

 been seized by an alligator, which I had disturbed in its retreat, when 

 my attention was called to a portion of the body of a monstrous snake 

 of a livid colour, which was gradually enfolding me in its horrid 

 coil. I again called out in a voice of desperation for assistance. The 

 Indian approached hastily, and seeing the predicament in which I was 

 placed, threw me in the noose of an agave rope, which I had hardly 

 power to hold, so completely was I paralyzed. The two Zambos now 



