272 



VILLAGE OF TURBACO. 



silk, and the apostles, seated round a large table 

 covered with sweetmeats, were carried on the shoul- 

 ders of Zarabos. At sunset, effigies of Jews in 

 French vestments, and formed of straw and other 

 combustibles, were burnt in the principal streets. 



Dreading the insalubrity of the town, the travel- 

 lers retired on the 6th April to the Indian village 

 of Turbaco. situated in a beautiful district, at the 

 entrance of a large forest, about 17i miles to the 

 south-west of the Popa, one of the most remarkable 

 summits in the neighbourhood of Carthagena. Here 

 they remained until they made the necessary pre- 

 parations for their voyage on the Rio Magdalena, 

 and for the long journey which they intended to 

 make to Bogota, Popayan, and Quito. The village 

 is about 1151 feet above the level of the sea. Snakes 

 were so numerous that they chased the rats even in 

 the houses, and pursued the bats on the roofs. 

 From the terrace surrounding their habitation, they 

 had a view of the colossal mountains of the Sierra 

 Nevada de Santa Marta, part of which was covered 

 with perennial snow. The intervening space, con- 

 sisting of hills and plains, was adorned with a luxu- 

 riant vegetation, resembling that of the Orinoco. 

 There they found gigantic trees, not previously 

 known, such as the Rhinocarpus excelsa, with spirally- 

 curved fruit, the Ocotea turbacensis. and the Cava- 

 nillesia platanifolia ; the large five-winged fruit of 

 which is suspended from the tips of the branches 

 like paper lanterns. They botanized ever} 7 day in 

 the woods from five in the mjDrning till night, though 

 they were excessively annoyed by mosquitoes, zan- 

 cudoes, xegens, and other tipulary insects. In the 

 midst of these magnificent forests they frequently 

 saw plantations of bananas and maize, to which the 

 Indians are fond of retiring at the end of the rainy* 

 season. 



The persons who accompanied the travellers on 

 these expeditions often spoke of a marshy ground 



