je 



STATE OF CULTIVATION. 



Moderate 

 wants. 



CIL\P VII. cultivated lands are not separated from each other by 

 Fertility of the uitervention of large wastes ; but in the torrid zone, 

 the sou. where the fertility of the soil is proportionate to the 

 heat and humidity of the air, and where man has appro- 

 priated plants that yield earlier and more abundant 

 crops, an immense population finds ample subsistence on 

 a narrow space. The scattered disposition of the huts in 

 the midst of the forest indicates to the traveller the 

 fecundity of nature. 



In so mild and uniform a climate, the only urgent 

 want of man is that of food ; and in the midst of abun- 

 dance, his intellectual faculties receive less improvement 

 than in colder regions, where his necessities are nume- 

 rous and diversified. While in Europe, w^e judge of tho 

 inhabitants of a country by the extent of laboured 

 ground ; in the warmest parts of South America, popu- 

 lous provinces seem to the traveller almost deserted, 

 because a very small extent of soil is sufficient for the 

 maintenance of a family. The insulated state in which 

 the natives thus live prevents any rapid progress of 

 civilisation, although it develops the sentiments of inde- 

 pendence and liberty. 



As the travellers penetrated into the forest the baro- 

 meter indicated the ])rogressive elevation of the land. 

 About three in the afternoon they halted on a small 

 flat, where a few houses had been erected near a spring, 

 the water of which they found delicious. Its ten)pera- 

 ture was 72-5°, while that of the air was 83-7°. From 

 the top of a sandstone-hill in the vicinity, they bad a 

 splendid view of the sea and part of the coast, while in 

 the intervening space, the tops of the trees, intermixed 

 with flowery lianas, formed a vast carpet of deep 

 verdure. As they advanced toward the south-west the 

 soil became dry and loose. They ascended a group of 

 rather high mountains, destitute of vegetation, and having 

 steep declivitiis. This ridge is named the Impossible, it 

 being imagined tbat, in case of invasion, it might afford a 

 safe retreat to the inhabitants of Cumana. The prospect 

 was finer and more extensive than from the fountain 

 above mentioned. 



Barometric 

 iiidi cations. 



