CHAPTER V. 



TO CUBA AND BACK. 



The travellers left Angostura on the 10th of July. 

 Night had set in when they crossed for the last time the 

 bed of the Orinoco. They purposed to rest near the little 

 fort San Rafael, and on the following morning at daybreak 

 to set out on their journey through the plains of Vene- 

 zuela. About a month had elapsed since their arrival at 

 Angostura ; and they earnestly wished to reach the coast, 

 with the view of finding, at Cumana, or at Nueva Barce- 

 lona, a vessel in which they might embark for the island 

 of Cuba, thence to proceed to Mexico. After the sufferings 

 to which they had been exposed during several months, 

 whilst sailing in small boats on rivers infested by mos- 

 quitos, the idea of a sea- voyage was not without its 

 charms. They had no idea of ever again returning to 

 South America. Sacrificing the Andes of Pern to the 

 Archipelago of the Philippines, they adhered to their old 

 plan of remaining a year in Mexico, then proceeding in 

 a galleon from Acapulco to Manilla, and returning to 

 Europe by way of Basso ra and Aleppo. 



Their mules were in waiting for them on the left bank 

 of the Orinoco. The collection of plants, and the differ- 

 ent geological series, which they had brought from the 



