174 THE 8AVANNA OF ARIPO. 



destruction or tlioiightless squandering of vegetable treasures 

 have destroyed the character of Xature ; and, terrified, man 

 himself flies from the arena of his actions, leaving the 

 impoverished earth to barbarous races or to animals, so 

 long as yet another spot in virgin beauty smiles before him. 

 Here, again, in selfish pursuit of profit, and, consciously or 

 unconsciously, following the abominable principle of the 

 great moral vileness which one man has expressed ' Apres 

 nous le deluge,' he begins anew the work of destruction. 

 Thus did cultivation, driven out, leave the East, and perhaps 

 the Deserts formerly robbed of their coverings : like the wild 

 hordes of old over beautiful Greece, thus rolls the conquest 

 with fearful rapidity from east to west through America ; 

 and the planter now often leaves the already exhausted 

 land, the eastern climate becomes infertile throuoh the 

 demolition of the forests, to introduce a similar revolution 

 into the far West." 



For a couple of miles or more we trotted on through 

 this jungle, till suddenly we saw light ahead ; and in five 

 minutes the forest ended, and a scene opened before ns 

 which made me understand the admiration which Hum- 

 boldt and other travellers have expressed at the far vaster 

 Savannas of the Oroonoco. 



A large sheet of grey-green grass, bordered by the forest 

 wall, as far as the eye could see, and dotted with low bushes, 



