274 INTENSITY OF THE PLAQUE. 



cumstances that are difficult to characterise. It may be 

 observed that the plague of mosquitos and zancudos is not 

 so general in the torrid zone as is commonly believed. On 

 the table-lands elevated more than four hundred toises 

 above the level of the ocean, in the very dry plains remote 

 from the beds of great rivers (for instance, at Cumana and 

 Calabozo), there are not sensibly more gnats than in the 

 most populous parts of Europe. They are perceived to 

 augment enormously at Nueva Barcelona, and more to the 

 west, on the coast that extends towards Cape Codera. 

 Between the little harbour of Higuerote and the mouth of 

 the Bio Unare, the wretched inhabitants are accustomed 

 to stretch themselves on the ground, and pass the night 

 buried in the sand three or four inches deep, leaving out 

 the head only, which they cover with a handkerchief. You 

 suffer from the sting of insects, but in a manner easy to 

 bear, in descending the Orinoco from Cabruta towards 

 Angostura, and in going up from Cabruta towards Uruana, 

 between the latitudes of 7 and 8. But beyond the mouth 

 of the Bio Arauca, after having passed the strait of Bara- 

 guan, the scene suddenly changes. From this spot the 

 traveller may bid farewell to repose. If he have any 

 poetical remembrance of Dante, he may easily imagine he 

 has entered the citta dolente, and he will seem to read on 

 the granite rocks of Baraguan these lines of the Inferno : 



Noi sem venuti al luogo, ov' i* t'ho detto 



Che tu vedrai le genti dolorose. 



The lower strata of air, from the surface of the ground to 

 the height of fifteen or twenty feet, are absolutely filled with 

 venomous insects. If in an obscure spot, for instance in the 

 grottos of the cataracts formed by superincumbent blocks of 

 granite, you direct your eyes toward the opening enlightened 

 by the sun, you see clouds of mosquitos more or less thick. 

 At the mission of San Borja, the suffering from mosquitos is 

 greater than at Carichana ; but in the Raudales, at Atures, 

 and above all at Maypures, this suffering may be said to 

 attain its maximum. I doubt whether there be a country 

 upon earth where man is exposed to more cruel torments in 

 the rainy season. Having passed the fifth degree of latitude, 

 you are somewhat less stung; but on the Upper Orinoco 

 the stings are more painful, because the heat and the *bso 



