158 



RIO PARANA. 



Oct. 1833. 



General Beatson in his account of the island of St. Helena^ 

 has remarked that variations in chmate sometimes appear to 

 be the effect of the operation of some very general cause. 

 He says (page 43)^ "The severe drought felt here in 1791 

 and 1792, was far more calamitous in India. Doctor 

 Anderson states^ in a letter to Colonel Kyd^ dated the 9th 

 of August^ 1792^ that^ owing to a failure of rain^ during the 

 above two years^ one half of the inhabitants in the northern 

 provinces had perished by famine ; and the remainder were 

 so feeble and weak^ that on the report of rice coming from 

 the Malabar coast^ 5000 poor people left Rajamundy, and 

 very few of them reached the sea-side^ although the distance 

 is only 50 miles. It appears by Mr. Bryan Edwards's 

 History of the West Indies^ that the seasons 1791-2 

 were unusually dry at the island of Montserrat.'' Barrow* 

 in the latter part of 1792^, when at the Cape de Verd islands 

 says^ ^'^ In fact a drought of three years' continuance^ and con- 

 sequent famine for almost the same period^ had nearly deso- 

 lated the island." 



October 12th. — I had intended to have pushed my 

 excursion further^ but not being quite well^ I was compelled 

 to return by a balandra^ or one-masted vessel of about a 

 hundred tons burden^ which was bound to Buenos Ayres. 

 As the weather was not fair^ we moored early in the day to 

 a branch of a tree on one of the islands. The Parana is full 

 of islands^ which undergo a constant round of decay and re- 

 novation. In the memory of the master several large ones had 

 disappeared^ and others again had been formed and protected 

 by vegetation. They are composed of muddy sand^ with- 

 out even the smallest pebble^ and were then about four 

 feet above the level of the river ; but during the periodical 

 floods they are inundated. They all present one character ; 

 numerous willows and a few other trees are bound together by 

 a great variety of creeping plants^ thus forming a thick jungle. 

 These thickets afford a retreat for carpinchos and jaguars. 



* Voyage to Cochin China, p. C7. 



