110 STAY AT CUMAtfA. 



"We hastened to visit the governor, Don Vicente Emparan, 

 whose recommendations and constant solicitude had been so 

 useful to us during the long journey we had just terminated. 

 He procured for us, in the centre of the town, a house which, 

 though perhaps too lofty in a country exposed to violent 

 earthquakes, was extremely useful for our instruments. We 

 enjoyed from its terraces a majestic view of the sea, of the 

 isthmus of Araya, and the archipelago of the islands of 

 Caracas, Picuita, and Borracha. The port of Cumana was 

 every day more and more closely blockaded, and the vain 

 expectation of the arrival of Spanish packets detained us 

 two months and a half longer. We were often nearly 

 tempted to go to the Danish islands, which enjoyed a happy 

 neutrality ; but we feared that, if we left the Spanish colo- 

 nies, we might find some obstacles to our return. With 

 the ample freedom which in a moment of favour had been 

 granted to us, we did not consider it prudent to hazard 

 anything that might give umbrage to the local authorities. 

 We employed our time in completing the Flora of Cumana, 

 geologically examining the eastern part of the peninsula 

 of Araya, and observing many eclipses of satellites, which 

 confirmed the longitude of the place already obtained by 

 other means. We also made experiments on the extra- 

 ordinary refractions, on evaporation, and on atmospheric 

 electricity. 



The living animals which we had brought from the Ori- 

 noco were objects of great curiosity to the inhabitants of 

 Cumana. The capuchin of the Esmeralda (Simia chiropotes), 

 which so much resembles man in the expression of its 

 physiognomy ; and the sleeping monkey (Simia trivirgata), 

 which is the type of a new group ; had never yet been seen 

 on that coast. We destined them for the menagerie of the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The arrival of a French squad- 

 ron, which had failed in an attack upon Cura9ao, furnished 

 us, unexpectedly, with an excellent opportunity for sending 

 them to Guadaloupe ; and G-eneral Jeannet, together with 

 the commissary Bresseau, agent of the executive power at 

 the Antilles, promised to convey them. The monkeys and 

 birds died at Guadaloupe, but fortunately the skin of the 

 Simia chiropotes, the only one in Europe, was sent a few 

 years ago to the Jardin des Plantes, where the couxio (Simia 





