36B STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



may be ascribed principally to its receiving the trade-wind 

 fresh from the surface of a vast track of ocean. Thus a per- 

 petual stream of cool air from the east overflows Guyana; 

 while, on the opposite coast of Africa, the same equatorial 

 wind, blowing over land, comes laden with the pestilential 

 sultriness of sandy deserts. Beside the perpetual general flow 

 of the whole atmosphere westward, it has a lateral fluctuation 

 daily, termed the sea-breeze and the land-breeze. The sea- 

 breeze, which is the cooler of the two, blows from the north- 

 east during the day, and temperates its ardor ; so that we 

 have less heat at noon than at nine in the morning. The land- 

 breeze, which is the warmer of the two, blows from the 

 south-east during the night, and prevents too rapid a chillness. 

 The weather is even, as well as temperate. The heavy dews, 

 the sunshine, the clouds, the rains, which prevail especially 

 from May to November, and water the lands for about three 

 hours every afternoon, always happen according to expecta- 

 tion. The almanack maker, without being a wizard, is here 

 a prophet. No hurricanes intervene to snatch from the planter 

 his crops ; nor do I recollect a drought. The great superio- 

 rity of the Guyana coast to the Caribbee islands, which are 

 exposed to the tempestuous edge and border of the trade-wind, 

 in point of wholesomeness and of security from casualties, is 

 now so well known, that it operates as an increasing motive 

 with the West Indians, to transfer their vassals and machinery 

 to the continent. If the cheapness of sugar should continue. 



