/4 EVE-STONES. 



CHAT. M. that may liave accidentally insinuated itself. The people 

 offered these stones to the travellers by hundreds, and 

 wished to put sand into their eyes, that they might try 

 the power of this wondrous remedy ; which, however, 

 was nothing else than the operculum of a small shellfish, 

 srrcam of Near Cape de la Brea, at the distance of eighty feet 



"••P ''^ from the shore, is a small stream of naphtha, the produce 

 of which covers the sea to a great extent. It is a singular 

 circumstance that this spring issues from mica-slate, all 

 others that are known belonging to secondary deposites. 

 After examining the neighbourhood of Maniquarez, 

 the adventurers embarked at night in a small fishing- 

 boat, so leaky that a person was constantly employed in 

 baling out the water with a calabash, and arrived in 

 safety a*' Cumana. 



