CONVENT OF CAUIPE. 8? 



CHAPTER Vlir. 

 Excursion continued, and Return to Cumana. 



Convent of Caripe — Cave of Guacharo, inhabited by Nocturnal 

 Birds— Purgatory — Forest Scenery — Howling Monkeys — Vera 

 Cruz — Cariaco — Intermittent Fevers — Cocoa-trees — Passage 

 across the Gulf of Cariaco to Cumana. 



Arriving at the hospital of the Arragonese Capuchins, chap. vm. 

 which was backed by an enormous wall of rocks of cg^v^of 

 resplendent whiteness, covered with a luxuriant vegeta- Caripe. 

 tion, our travellers were hospitably received by the 

 monks. The superior was absent ; but having heard of 

 their intention to visit the place, he had provided 

 for them whatever could serve to render their abode 

 agreeable. The inner court, surrounded l^y a portico, 

 they found highly convenient for setting up their in- 

 struments and making observations. In the convent Convent 

 tliey found a numerous society, consisting of old and '*°'^"-^" 

 infirm missionaries, who souglit for iicalth in the salu- 

 brious air of the mountains of Caripe, and younger ones 

 newly arrived from Spain. Although the inmates of 

 this establishment knew that Humboldt was a Pro- 

 testant, they manifested no mark of distrust, nor pro- 

 posed any indiscreet question, to diminish the value of Liberality. 

 the benevolence which they exercised witli so much 

 liberality. Even the light of science had in some 

 degree extended to this obscure place ; for, in the 

 library of the superior, tliey found among other books 

 the Traite d'Electricite, by the Abbe Nollet, and one 

 of the monks had brought with him a Spanish translation 

 of Chaptal's Treatise on Chemistry. 



