FEOM CORUNNA TO PUERTO CABELLO. 259 



CHAPTEE II. 

 FROM CORUNNA TO PUERTO CABELLO. 



Landing at Teneriffe The Peak The Dragon-tree Multiplicity of Phe- 

 nomena Landing and first Sojourn at Cumana First Impressions 

 and preliminary Arrangements Scientific Labours Visit to Caripe 

 and Caripana, to the Mission Stations, and to the Caves of Guacharo 

 First Earthquake and Meteor Shower Visit to Caracas and Puerto 

 Cabello. 



ON the morning of June 5, 1799, the ' Pizarro ' weighed 

 anchor in the harbour of Corunna, and at two in the afternoon 

 she was under sail. ' Our gaze was fixed,' relates Humboldt, 

 6 upon the castle of St. Antonio, where the unfortunate Malaspina 

 was then languishing as a prisoner of state. 1 At the moment 

 of leaving Europe to visit lands which had been explored with 

 so much devotion by this distinguished traveller, I could have 

 wished for a theme less sad on which to occupy my thoughts.' 



The ship's course soon brought her to that expanse of ocean 

 which, according to the poetic conceptions of the ancients, 

 bathed the shores of the Islands of the Blessed, where the 

 voyager, canopied under the blue vault of heaven, glided 

 peacefully through the 'Sea of the Ladies' 2 along those equa- 

 torial currents glowing as if on fire with countless medusse. 



1 Don Alexander Marchese de Malaspina, Commodore in the Spanish 

 navy, was appointed in 1789 to the command of a fleet fitted out expressly 

 for purposes of discovery. After a very careful survey of the west coast of 

 North America, he sailed in search of the North-west Passage, an ex- 

 pedition which proved unsuccessful. On his return in 1795, he was seized on 

 suspicion of political intrigue, and thrown into prison, where he is supposed 

 to have died. (Von Zach, l Monatl. Corresp.' vol. ii. pp. 390, 564.) 



3 [El Golfo de las Damas, a name given by the Spaniards to the part of 

 the Atlantic Ocean between the Canaries and America under the idea that 

 even ladies could muster courage to navigate it, since the passage could 

 safely be effected in an open boat.] 



s 2 



