LXTNAR HALOES AFRICAN SLAVES. 67 



On the 17th of August a halo of the moon attracted 

 the attention of the inhabitants, who viewed it as 

 the presage of a violent earthquake. Coloured cir- 

 cles of this kind, Humboldt remarks, are much rarer 

 in the northern than in the southern countries of Eu- 

 rope. They are seen more especially when the sky 

 is clear and the weather settled. In the torrid zone 

 they appear almost every night, and often in the 

 space of a few minutes disappear several times. 

 Between the latitude of 15° N. and the equator he 

 has seen small haloes around the planet Venus, but 

 never observed any in connexion with the fixed stars. 

 While the halo was seen at Cumana, the hygrome- 

 ter indicated great humidity, although the atmo- 

 sphere was perfectly transparent. It consisted of 

 two circles ; a larger, of a whitish colour, and 44° 

 in diameter, and a smaller, displaying all the tints 

 of the rainbow, and 1° 43' in diameter. The inter- 

 mediate space was of the deepest azure. 



Part of the great square is surrounded with ar- 

 cades, over which is a long wooden gallery, where 

 slaves imported from the coast of Africa are sold. 

 These were young men from fifteen to twenty years 

 of age. Every morning cocoanut oil was given 

 them, with which they rubbed their skin, to render it 

 glossy. The persons who came to purchase them 

 examined their teeth, as we do those of horses, to 

 judge of their age and health. Yet the vSpanish 

 laws, according to our author, have never favoured 

 the trade in African slaves, the number of whom in 

 1800 did not exceed 6000 in the two provinces of 

 Cumana and Barcelona, while the whole population 

 was estimated at 110,000. 



The first excursion which our travellers made was 

 to the peninsula of Araya. They embarked on the 

 Manzanares, near the Indian suburb, about two in 

 the morning of the 19th August. The night was 

 delightfully cool. Swarms of shining insects {Elater 

 noctilucus) sparkled in the air along the banks of the 



