I.") 2 VICISSITUDES OF TRAVELLING. 



the currents to bis bare coast, sees in tlie moon plains 

 covered with forests. The Indian of the forests of 

 Oroonoko there beholds open savannahs, where the 

 inhabitants are never stung by mosquitoes." 



Another source of suffering to the travellers, 

 especially while traversing the vast steppes or 

 Llanos of these rivers, was the intense thirst occa- 

 sioned by the heat and drought. One of the most 

 striking scenes, on arriving at an encampment, was 

 the dispersion of the animals, mules, and horses, in 

 search of water. The poor brutes were set at 

 liberty to go whither instinct directed in the 

 savannah ; and no sooner were they released than 

 they rushed, their tail raised, their head thrown 

 back, running against the wind, stopping, from 

 time to time, as if they were exploring space, and 

 at length announcing, by prolonged neighings, the 

 neighbourhood of water. On one of these occa- 

 sions, M. Humboldt says, " we followed our mules 

 in search of a pool. After having passed two 

 nights on horseback, and sought in vain by day for 

 some shelter from the ardour of the sun beneath 

 the tufts of the murichi palm-trees, we had ar- 

 rived before night at a little farm called El Cayman 

 (the alligator). It was a solitary house in the 

 steppes, surrounded by a few small huts, covered 

 with reeds and skins. We were covered with dust 

 and tanned by the sandy wind, which burns the 



