FRANCISCO LOZANO -CUMANACOA. 79 



head of the establishment observed, the custom of 

 marrying at a very early age contributes greatly to 

 the rapid increase of population. 



In the village of Arenas, which is inhabited by 

 Indians of the same race as those of San Fernando, 

 there lived a labourer, Francisco Lozano, who had 

 suckled a child. Its mother happening to be sick, 

 he took it, and in order to quiet it, pressed it to his 

 breast, when the stimulus imparted by the sucking 

 of the child caused a flow of milk. The travellers 

 saw the certificate drawn up on the spot to attest 

 this remarkable fact, of which several eyewitnesses 

 were still living. The man was not at Arenas during 

 their stay at the mission, but afterward visited them 

 at Cumana^. accompanied by his son, when M. Bon- 

 pland examined his breasts, and found them wrinkled, 

 like those of women who have nursed. He was 

 not an Indian, but a white descended from European 

 parents. Alexander Benedictus relates a similar 

 case of an inhabitant of Syria, and other authors 

 have given examples of the same nature. 



Returning towards Cumana, they entered the small 

 town of Cumanacoa, situated in a naked and almost 

 circular plain, surrounded by lofty mountains, and 

 containing about two thousand three hundred inhabit- 

 ants. The houses were low and slight, and with very 

 few exceptions built of wood. The travellers were 

 surprised to find the column of mercury in the ba- 

 rometer scarcely 7'3 lines shorter than on the coast. 

 The hollow in which the town is erected is not more 

 than 665 feet above the level of the sea, and only 

 seven leagues from Cumana; but the climate is 

 much colder than in the latter place, where it scarcely 

 ever rains ; whereas at Cumanacoa there are seven 

 months of severe weather. It was during the winter 

 season that our travellers visited the missions. A 

 dense fog covered the sky every night ; the ther- 

 mometer varied from 64 '8 to 68 ; and Deluc's hy- 

 grometer indicated 85. At ten in the morning the 



