FRIGHTENED BY A JAGUAE. 103 



ters, Humboldt found them one hundred and ninetj-two, 

 and one hundred and eighty-six feet. One side of the 

 tree was entirely stripped of its foliage, owing to the 

 drought; but on the other side there remained both 

 leaves and flowers; parasites covered its branches, and 

 cracked the bark. The inhabitants of the adjacent 

 villages, particularly the Indians, held in great venera- 

 tion the Zamang del Guayre, which the first conquerors 

 found almost in the same state in which it now remains. 

 Humboldt considered it at least as old as the Orotava 

 drasron-tree. 



On thje 21st, in the evening, the travellers set out for 

 Guacara and Nueva Valencia. They preferred travel- 

 ling by night, on account of the excessive heat of the 

 day. The road was bordered with large zamang-trees, 

 the trunks of which rose sixty feet high. Their branches, 

 nearly horizontal, met at more than one hundred and 

 fifty feet distance. The night was gloomy : the Eincon 

 del Diablo with its denticulated rocks appeared from 

 time to time at a distance, illumined by the burning of 

 the savannahs, or wrapped in ruddy smoke. At the 

 spot where the bushes were thickest, their horses were 

 frightened by the yell of an animal that seemed to follow 

 them closely. It was a large jaguar, which had roamed 

 for three years among these mountains. He had con- 

 stantly escaped the pursuits of the boldest hunters, and 

 had carried off horses and mules from the midst of in- 

 closures ; but, having no want of food, had not yet at- 

 tacked men. The negro who conducted the travellers 

 uttered wild cries, expecting by these means to frighten 

 the jaguar, but his efforts were ineffectual. 



On the morning of the 27th they visited the hot springs 



