TRINIDAD DE CUBA. 203 



they were opposite the month of the Rio San Juan, which 

 was dreaded bj navigators on account of the innumera- 

 ble quantity of mosquitos and zancudos which filled the 

 atmosphere. Humboldt passed a great part of the night 

 on deck. The coast was dreary and desolate. Not a 

 light announced a fisherman's hut. There was no village 

 between Batabano and Trinidad, a distance of fifty 

 leagues ; scarcely were there more than two or three 

 farm-yards, containing hogs or cows. Yet, in the time 

 of Columbus, this territory was inhabited along the shore. 

 When the ground is dug to make wells, or when torrents 

 furrow the surface of the earth in floods, stone hatchets 

 and copper utensils are often discovered. 



On the 14th the travellers entered the Rio Gruaurabo, 

 one of the two ports of Trinidad de Cuba, to put on shore 

 the pilot of Batabano, who had steered them across the 

 flats of the Bowers, though not without causing them to 

 run aground several times. They also hoped to find a 

 packet-boat in this port, which would take them to Car- 

 thagena. Humboldt landed towards evening, and placed 

 Borda's azimuth compass and the artificial horizon, on 

 the shore, for the purpose of observing the passage of 

 some stars by the meridian ; but they had scarcely begun 

 their preparations, when a party of traders, who had dined 

 on board a foreign ship recently arrived, invited them to 

 accompany them to the town. They requested the tra- 

 vellers to mount two by two on the same horse ; and, as 

 the heat was excessive, their offer was accepted. 



The road leading to the port was brilliantly illuminated 

 by phosphorescent insects. The grass that overspread 

 the ground, the branches and foliage of the trees, all 

 shone with a reddish and moveable light, which varied 



