THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL, 



April, 1820. 



Art. I. Journal of an Excursion from St. Thome de An- 

 gostura, in Spanish Guayana, to the Capuchin Missiotis of 

 the Caroni. 



[Concluded flora Vol. YIII. p. 287.] 



November 20th. OUR beasts being fatigued with our 14 

 leagues' ride of yesterday, halted, and merely rode to the tobacco- 

 ground, about a league distant towards the north. Soil ap- 

 peared rich and good, but the tobacco had been planted too 

 late and wanted rain ; yet the crop was pretty abundant, con- 

 sidering the want of hands. Had much conversation with the 

 old overseer, and learnt, that for one rial per day, much more 

 labour might be set in activity, as all would turn out for pay. 

 At present, with 'much difficulty, twenty were brought into 

 the field, who worked but half the day. Found this officer 

 in rags, but quartered in a pretty little hut oi find, built by his 

 own hunds in a beautiful spot : the pay of his situation was for- 

 merly 70 dollars per annum ; at present the government has 

 nothing to give. On our return, passed the cotton-ground ; 

 it was weedy, but looked well and promised a good crop. It 

 was an area of not more than from 30 to 40 acres. Palmar, the 

 most eastward of these missions, is a pretty town, seated upon 

 a rising ground, which seems to terminate on this side the 

 plains of Pastora ; beyond it the country sinks towards the 

 level of the Orinoco. From this place it is said to be practi- 

 cable to cut a path to the Cano del tore, the branch of the 

 Imataca, which takes its rise in the mountains southward near 



Vol. IX. B 



