94 PESTILENT FORESTS. 



that day ; but their Indian pilot being afraid of the pri- 

 vateers who were near that port, thought it would be 

 prudent to make for hind, and anchor in the little har- 

 bour of Higuerote, which they had already passed, and 

 await the shelter of night to proceed on their voyage. 

 They found neither village nor farm there, but merely 

 two or three huts, inhabited bv fishermen. Their livid 

 hue, and the meagre condition of their children, showed 

 the voyagers that this spot was one of the most unhealthy 

 of the whole coast. The sea had so little depth along 

 these shores, that even with the smallest barks it was 

 impossible to reach the shore without wading through 

 the water. The forests came down nearly to the beach, 

 which was covered with thickets of mangroves, avicen- 

 nias, and manchineel-trees. To these thickets, and par- 

 ticularly to the exhalations of the mangroves, Humboldt 

 attributed the extreme insalubrity of the air. On quit- 

 ting the boats, and whilst they were yet one hundred 

 feet distant from the land, he perceived a faint and 

 sickly smell, which reminded him of that diffused 

 through the galleries of deserted mines. The tempera- 

 ture of the air rose to 93°, heated by the reverberation 

 from the white sands which formed a line between the 

 mangroves and the great trees of the forest. As the 

 shore descended with a gentle slope, small tides were 

 sufficient alternately to cover and uncover the roots, and 

 part of the trunks of the mangroves. The sea-water, 

 along the whole coast, acquired a yellowish brown tint, 

 wherever it came into contact with the mangrove trees. 

 The beaches around were covered with infinite numbers 

 of molluscs and insects. Loving shade and faint light 

 they sheltered themselves from the shock of the waves 



