PLAGUE OF TN SECTS. 



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of this inundation is to dislodge from the swamp 

 myriads of mosquitoes, sand-flies, and other in- 

 sects, which had been increasing and multiplying 

 on the surface of the mud during the low tides. 

 These animals, on being disturbed, fly to the first 

 resting-place they can find ; and the unhappy 

 town of San Bias, being the only conspicuous ob- 

 ject in the neighbourhood, is fairly enveloped, at 

 the full and change of the moon, in a cloud of 

 insects, producing a plague, the extent of which, 

 if properly described, would scarcely be credited 

 by the inhabitants of a cold climate. The most 

 seasoned native fared in this instance no better 

 than ourselves ; and we sometimes derived a per- 

 verse sort of satisfaction from this companionship 

 in misery ; and laughed at seeing them rolling 

 about from chair to chair, panting under the heat, 

 and irritated into a fever, by the severe and un- 

 intermitted attacks of their indefatigable tormen- 

 tors. I cannot say which was worst, the unceas- 

 ing buz, and fierce sting of the mosquito ; or the 

 silent, but multiplied assaults of the sand-flies, 

 which came against the face, as I heard a miser- 

 able man exclaim one evening, like handfuls of 

 isand. Mosquito curtains offered no defence a- 



