FROM CORUNNA TO PUERTO CABELLO. 269 



up, even when under water, streams of air, and are probably the 

 occasion of the frequent earthquakes. The whole of this 

 town is lying in ruins. The great earthquake of Cumana was 

 the signal for the one at Quito in the year 1797, in which 

 16,000 persons lost their lives, upon which occasion the volcano 

 Tunguragua threw up more hot water and mud (terre pdteuse) 

 than lava a volcano, therefore, by which nature would seem 

 desirous of reconciling the opposing systems of the Neptunists 

 and Vulcanists ! 



' We are surrounded by tigers and crocodiles (alligators), 

 ever ready to indulge in a meal, and by no means fastidious a 

 white or a black man being equally regarded by them as a 

 dainty morsel. In size they are not inferior to the African 

 beasts of prey. And what glorious vegetation ! truly colossal 

 organisms. A ceiba, 1 out of which four canoes can be made ! 



' I am particularly anxious you should tell Counsellor 

 Blumenbach that there is a man living in this province of 

 New Andalusia who has so much milk, that since his wife was 

 unable to suckle her child, he has himself nursed it for the 

 last five months. The milk does not in the slightest degree 

 differ from woman's milk. The he-goats belonging to this old 

 man even give milk. 



'Pray receive my letter with indulgence, and regard with 

 lenity my astronomical observations. Eemember that astro- 

 nomy is only a secondary object of my journey, and that I am 

 but a beginner in the science, having only during the last two 

 years accustomed myself to the use of astronomical instruments. 

 It must also be borne in mind that this journey has been 

 undertaken at my own cost, and that an expedition fitted out 

 by a single individual, even though he be wealthy for his 

 own gratification and instruction cannot for a moment 

 compete with those extensive expeditions organised by royal 

 command and at Grovernment expense, which are able to secure 

 the services of several scientific men for carrying out investiga- 

 tions in every branch of science. I could have wished, for the 

 sake of accomplishing something really great in astronomy and 

 geography, that our friend Burckhardt had joined our expedition, 



1 [Bombax cetba, a large tree of the tropics, called the cotton-tree.] 



