i EUE1 i:i:a< ii CI ItANA. 



reing with the Indian pilot respecting the animalB and 



plants <>f his country. 



At daybreak on the 1 * » 1 1 1 of July. 1799, forty-one 

 days after their departure from Corunna, they beheld a 

 verdant f picturesque •;. The mountains of 



.Ww Andalusia, half-veiled by mists, bounded the hori- 



:i to the south. The city of Cumana and its castle. 

 ap ii group They anchored 



in the port about nine in the morning: the sick dragged 

 themselves on deck to enjoy the sin! it of a land which 

 was to put an cm! to their Bufferings, The eyes of the 

 naturalists were fixed on the groups of cocoa-trees which 

 bordered the river: their trunks, more than sixtv feet 

 high, towered over every object in landscape. The 

 plain was covered with tufts of Cassia, Caper, and ar- 

 borescent mimosas, which spread their branches in the 

 form of an umbrella. The pinnated leaves of the palms 

 were conspicuous on the azure sky, the clearness of 



which was unsullied by any trace of vapour. The sun 



wa ndiirj- rapidly towards the zenith. A dazzling 



light was spread through the air, along the whitish hills, 

 which were strewed with cactuses, and over a sea ever 

 calm, the Bhores of which were peopled with brown 

 pelicans, egrets, and ilaiiiin. The splendour of the 



day, the vivid colouring of the \ able world, the 

 forms of the plants, the varied plumage of the birds, 



everything was stamped with the grand character of 

 nature in the equinoctial regions. 



