EXCURSION TO SAN FERNANDO. 85 
CHAPTER VII. 
Missions of the Chaymas. 
Excursion to the Missions of the Chayma Indians—Remarks on 
Cultivation—The Impossible—Aspect of the Vegetation—San 
Fernando—Account of a Man who 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- 
vellers commenced an excursion to the missionary 
stations of the Chayma Indians, and to the lofty 
mountains which traverse New Andalusia. The 
morning was deliciously cool ; and from the summit 
of the hill of San Francisco they enjoyed in the short 
twilight an extensive 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 vegetation. They observed that 
the latter was more brilliant wherever the limestone 
was covered by a quartzy sandstone,—a circum- 
stance which probably depends not so much on the 
nature of the soil as on its greater humidity; the 
thin layers of slate-clay which the latter contains pre- 
venting the water from filtering into the crevices of 
the former. In those moist places they always dis- 
covered appearances of cultivation, huts inhabited by 
