OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 93 



Caracas ; visit subsequently the extensive plains 

 Llanos,* near the Orinoco ; pass the mighty 

 river south of the cataracts, and follow its course 

 upward to the Rio Negro ; approach the frontier 

 of Brazil, and return by way of Guiana 

 whose capital is called Angostura to Cumana. 

 This was a journey of more than five hundred 

 * miles, two-thirds of which must be executed 

 in boats. Furthermore, the districts to be 

 explored were as yet unknown, and with the 

 existing missions in these regions no commer- 

 cial intercourse ha'd been established. Courage 

 and resolution, animated by a zeal for the 

 advancement of science, were here, as always, 

 the guides of Alexander von Humboldt. The 

 unfavourable descriptions of the colonists, who 

 represented to him in vivid colours the multi- 

 farious dangers incident to his intended journey, 

 with reference to the ground, the wild beasts 

 and savages he must encounter, did not daunt 

 Baron Humboldt : he pursued with unfailing- 

 steps his great purpose. He reached safely 

 the harbour of New Barcelona, near the mouth 

 of the Rio Eeveri, noted as a favorite abode of 

 crocodiles. Here he observed from a hill the 



* A vast plain of more than 16,000 square miles, witlioiit 

 an elevation, and called by the inhabitants "Mar de 

 Yerbas," sea of herbs. 



