478 SPANISH AMERICA. 



the army commenced the passage of these 

 stupendous mountains by a road little fre- 

 quented, on account of its being circuitous, 

 and excessively bad. This force did not 

 exceed fifteen hundred men, included in 

 which, one hundred and fifty British were 

 all that could be mustered capable of un- 

 dertaking this march, out of the three hun- 

 dred and fifty, of which the battalion was 

 composed on its first arrival, — some few 

 having dropped down dead on the line of 

 march from mere exhaustion, and others 

 having been rendered unserviceable by the 

 bite of a fish called the carib, or raya, 

 which tears off one or two pounds of the 

 fleshy part of the thighs or calves of the 

 legs of the soldiers, as they wade through 

 the rivers in the plains ; the army had up- 

 wards of a hundred men thus disabled in 

 passing one very inconsiderable stream in 

 which these fish abounded. Some were 

 unable to proceed from enormous ulcers, 



