

106 FEEOCITY OF TILE CAYMANS. 



closely together, and we made our horses swim, holding 

 their bridles. The horse I had ridden suddenly disappeared, 

 after struggling for some time under water : all our endea- 

 vours to discover the cause of this accident were fruitless. 

 Our guides conjectured, that the animal's legs had been 

 seized by the caymans, which are very numerous in those 

 parts. My perplexity was extreme : delicacy, and the affluent 

 circumstances of my host, forbade me to think of repairing 

 his loss ; and M. Lavie, more considerate of our situation, 

 than sensible of his own misfortune, endeavoured to tran- 

 quillize us by exaggerating the facility with which fine 

 horses were procurable from the neighbouring savannahs. 



The crocodiles of the Rio N everi are large and numerous, 

 especially near the mouth of the river ; but in general they 

 are less fierce than the crocodiles of the Orinoco. These 

 animals manifest in America the same contrasts of ferocity 

 as in Egypt and Nubia : this fact is obvious when we compare 

 with attention the narratives of Burckhardt and Belzoni. 

 The state of cultivation in different countries, and the amount 

 of population in the proximity of rivers, modify the habits of 

 these large saurians : they are timid when on dry ground, and 

 they flee from man, even in the water, when they are not in 

 want of food and when they perceive any danger in attacking. 

 The Indians of Nueva Barcelona convey wood to market in 

 a singular manner. Large logs of zygophyllum and ca3sal- 

 pinia* are thrown into the river, and carried down by the 

 stream, while the owners of the wood swim here and there, 

 to float the pieces that are stopped by the windings of the 

 banks. This could not be done in the greater part of those 

 American rivers in which crocodiles are found. The town of 

 Barcelona has not, like Cumana, an Indian suburb ; and the 

 only natives who are seen there are inhabitants of the neigh- 

 bouring missions, or of huts scattered in the plain. Neither 

 the one nor the other are of Carib race, but a mixture of the 

 Cumanagotos, Palenkas, and Piritus; short, stunted, indo- 

 lent, and addicted to drinking. Fermented cassava is here 



* The Lecythis ollaria, in the vicinity of Nueva Barcelona, furnishes 

 excellent timber. We saw trunks of this tree seventy feet high. Around 

 the town, beyond that arid zone of cactus which separates Nueva Barce- 

 lona from the steppe, grow the Clerodendrum tenuifolium, the louidium 

 itubu, which resembles the Viola, and the Allionia violacea. 



