CONVENT OF CARIPE. — 99 
CHAPTER VIII. 
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 Capu- 
chins, which was backed by an enormous wal] of rocks 
of resplendent whiteness, covered with a luxuriant 
vegetation, our travellers were hospitably received by 
the monks. The superior was absent ; but having 
heard of their intention to visit the plaee, he had pro- 
vided for them whatever could serve to render their 
abode agreeable. The inner court, surrounded by 
a portico, they found highly convenient for setting 
up their instruments and making observations. In 
the convent they found a numerous society, consist- 
ing of old and infirm missionaries, who sought for 
health in the salubrious air of the mountains of Ca- 
ripe, and younger ones newly arrived from Spain. 
Although the inmates of this establishment knew 
that Humboldt was a Protestant, they manifest- 
ed no mark of distrust, nor proposed any indiscreet 
question, to diminish the value of the benevo- 
lence which they exercised with so much liberality. 
Even the light of science had in some degree ex- 
_ tended to this obscure place ; for, in the library of 
