- ee — errr 
————— = 
CARIACO—INTERMITTENT FEVER. 107 
‘nefit which they derived from being reduced to 
bondage by Christians. : 
The road which they followed through the forest 
of Catuaro resembled that of the preceding day. The - 
clay, which filled the path and rendered it excessive- 
ly slippery, was produced by layers of sandstone 
and slate-clay which cross the calcareous strata. At 
length, after a fatiguing march, they reached the 
town of Cariaco, on the coast, where they found a 
great part of the inhabitants confined to their beds 
with intermittent fever. The low situation of the 
place as well as of the surrounding district, the 
great heat and moisture, and the stagnant marshes 
generated during the rainy season, are supposed to 
be the causes of this disease, which often assumes a 
malignant character, and is accompanied with dy- 
sentery. Men of colour, and especially creole ne- 
groes, resist the influence of the climate much better 
than any other race. Itis generally observed, how- 
ever, that the mortality is less than might be sup- 
posed ; for although intermittent fevers, when they 
attack the same individual several years in succes- 
sion, alter and weaken the constitution, they do not 
usually cause death. It is remarkable, that the na- 
tives believe the air to have become more vitiated in 
proportion as a larger extent of land has been cul- 
tivated ; but the miasmata from the marshes, and 
the exhalations from the mangroves, avicenniz, and 
other astringent plants growing on the borders of the 
sea, are probably the real causes of the unhealthiness 
of the coasts. 
In 1800 the town of Cariaco contained more than 
6000 inhabitants, who were actively employed in 
the cultivation of cotton, the produce of which ex- 
