MALIGNANT FEVEU. 55 



the priest prevailed upon them not to throw it into the ciIAP. rv. 



sea until after sunrise, in order that he might render to 



it the last rites, in conformity to the practice of the rites. ' 

 Romish church. There was not an individual on board 

 who did not feel for the fate of this young man, whom 

 we had seen a few days before full of cheerfulness and 

 health." 



The passengers who had not been affected by the Quittine 

 disease resolved to leave the ship at the first place the ship, 

 where she should touch, and there wait the arrival of 

 another packet to convey them to Cuba and Mexico. 

 Our travellers also thought it prudent to land at Cumana, 

 more especially as they wished not to visit New Spain , 

 until they had remained for some time on the coasts of 

 Venezuela and Paria, and examined the beautiful plants 

 of which Bosc and Bredemeyer collected specimens on 

 their voyage to Terra Firma, and which Humboldt had 

 seen in the gardens of Schonbrunn and Vienna. Tliis re- porhmate 

 solution had a liappy influence upon the direction of their results. 

 joumej'-, as will subsequently be seen, and perhaps was 

 the occasion of securing for them the health wliich they 

 enjoyed during a long residence in the equinoctial 

 regions. They were by this means fortunate enough to 

 pass the time when a European recently landed runs 

 the greatest danger of being affected by the yellow 

 fever, in the hot but dry and salubrious climate o 

 Cumana. 



As the coast of Paria stretches to the west, in the q^^^^. q^ 

 form of perpendicular cliffs of no great height, they Paria. 

 were long without perceiving the bold shores of the 

 island of Margarita, where they intended to stop for the 

 purpose of obtaining information respecting the English 

 cruisers. Toward eleven in the morning of the 15th, 

 they observed a very low islet covered with sand, and 

 destitute of any trace of culture or habitation. Cactuses vegetation, 

 rose here and there, from a scanty soil which seemed to 

 have an undulating motion, in consequence of the extra- 

 ordinary refraction the solar rays undergo in passing 

 through the strata of air in contact with a strongly- 



