Account of Travels Itt ween the Tropics. 335 



Spanish Guyana. After determining the longitude of Cu- 

 niana, Caraccas^ and several other points by observations 

 of the satellites of Jupiter; after collecting plants on the 

 summits of Caripc and Silla de Avila, crowned by Befaria, 

 they set out for the capital of Caraccas in February 1800, 

 and the beautiful valleys of Aragua, where the large lake 

 of Valentia calls to remembrance that of Geneva, but em- 

 bellished by the majestic vegetation of the tropics. 



From Portocabello they proceeded south, penetrating 

 from the coast of the sea of the Antilles as far as the boun- 

 daries of Brazil towards the equator. They first traversed 

 the immense plains of Calabozo, Apure, and Lower Ore- 

 noko ; the Llanos, deserts similar to those of Africa, where 

 by the reverberation of the heat, but under the shade, Reau- 

 mur's thermometer rises to 33° or 3 7°, and where the 

 scorching soil, for more than 2000 leagues, differs in its 

 level only five inches. The sand, similar to the horizon at 

 sea, exhibits every where the most curious phsenomena of 

 refraction and elevation. Without any vegetation, in the 

 dry months it aifords shelter to the crocodile and the torpid 

 boa. 



The want of water, the heat of the sun, and the dust 

 raised by the scorching winds, harass in turns the traveller, 

 who directs himself and mule by the course of the stars, or 

 by some scattered trunks of the viaurlttti and emhuthriwn 

 which are discovered every three or four leagues. 



At St. Fernando d'Apure, in the province of Varinas, 

 Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland began a laborious navi- 

 gation of nearly 500 nautical leagues in canoes, during 

 which they made a chart of the country by the help of 

 timekeepers, the satellites, and luiiar distances. Thev de- 

 scended the river Apure, which falls into the Orenoko in 

 the latitude of seven degrees. Having escaped from the 

 danger of imminent shipwreck near the island of Pana- 

 numa, they ascended the latter river as far as the mouth of 

 the Rio Guaviare, passing the famous cataracts of Atures 

 and Maypure, where the cavern of Atafnipe contains nmm- 

 mies of a nation destroyed by the war of the Caribs and 

 Maravitalns. From the nioutli of the Rio Guaviare, which 

 descends from the Andes of New Granada, and which fa- 

 ther (iumlUa erroneously took for the sources of the Ore- 

 noko, they quilted the latter and ascended the small rivers 

 Alabapo, Tuamini, and Teuii. 



From the mission of Javita they proceeded by land to the 



sources of the Gu^tinia, which the Luropeans call the Rio 



Negro, and which Condamine, why saw it only at its 



Z i' moutii 



