ROBBERS— NEW-BARCELONA . 



251 



heat, however, was not entirely owing to the tem- 

 perature of the air, but arose partly from the fine 

 sand mingled with it. On the night of the 16th they 

 rested at the Indian village of Santa Cruz de Ca- 

 chipo. The warmth had increased so much that 

 they would have preferred travelling by night ; but 

 the country was infested by robbers, who murdered 

 the whites that fell into their hands. These were 

 malefactors who had escaped from the prisons on 

 the coast and from the missions, and lived in the 

 llanos in a manner similar to that of the Bedouin 

 Arabs. Those vast plains, Humboldt thinks, can 

 hardly ever be subjected to cultivation, although he 

 is persuaded that in the lapse of ages, if placed under 

 a government favourable to industry, they will lose 

 much of the wild aspect which they have hitherto 

 retained. 



After travelling three days they began to perceive 

 the chain of the mountains of Cumana, which sepa- 

 rates the llanos from the coast of the Caribbean Sea. 

 It appeared at first like a fog-bank, which by de- 

 grees condensed, assumed a bluish tint, and became 

 bounded by sinuous outlines. Although the llanos 

 of Venezuela are bordered on the south by granitic 

 mountains, exhibiting in their broken summits traces 

 of violent convulsions, no blocks were found scat- 

 tered upon them. The same remark is to be made 

 in regard to the other great plains of South America. 

 These circumstances, as Humboldt remarks, seem 

 to prove that the granitic masses scattered over 

 the sandy plains of the Baltic are a local phenome- 

 non, and must have originated in some great con- 

 vulsion which took place in the northern regions of 

 Europe. 



On the 23d July they arrived at the town of New- 

 Barcelona, less fatigued by the heat, to which they 

 had been so long accustomed, than harassed by the 

 sand-wind, that causes painful chaps in the skin. 

 They were kindly received by a wealthy merchant 



