EXCURSIOJV TO SAN FERNANDO. JiJ 



, CHAPTER VII. 



Missions of the Chaymas. 



Excursion to the Missions of the Ciiayma Indians — Remarks on 

 Cultivation — The Impossible — Aspect of the Vej^etation — San 

 Fernando— Account of a Man wlio suckled a Child — Cumanacoa 

 — Cultivation of Tobacco — Igneous Exhalations — Jaguars — 

 Mountain of Cocollar — Turimiquiri — Missions of San Antonio 

 and Guanaguana. 



On the 4th of September, at an early hour, our tra- CJIAP. vii. 

 vellers commenced an excursion to the missionary stations Excursion to 

 of the Chayma Indians, and to the lofty mountains ">e Chayma 

 which traverse New Andalusia. Tlie morning was 

 deliciously cool ; and from the summit of the hill of 

 San Francisco they enjoyed in the short twilight an ex- 

 tensive view of the sea, the adjacent plain, and the 

 distant peaks. After walking two hours they arrived 

 at the foot of the chain, where they found different 

 rocks, together with a new and more luxuriant vegeta- Luxnriant 

 tion. They observed that the latter was more brilliant 

 wherever the limestone was covered by a quartzy sand- 

 stone, — a circumstance which probably depends not so 

 much on the nature of the soil as on its greater humi- 

 dity ; the thin layers of slate-clay which the latter 

 contains preventing the water from filtering into the 

 crevices of the former. In those moist places they 

 always discovered appearances of cultivation, huts in- 

 habited by mestizoes, and placed in the centre of small 

 enclosures, containing papaws, plantains, sugar-canes, 

 and maize. In Europe, the wheat, barley, and other 

 kinds' of grain, cover vast spaces of ground, and, in 

 general, wherever the inhabitants live upon corn, the 



