2 



the air, dispersed at intervals the clouds that en- 

 veloped the Piton. We felt for the first time 

 how strong are the impressions left on the mind 

 from the aspect of those countries placed on the 

 limits of the torrid zone, and in which nature 

 appears at once so rich, so various, and so ma- 

 jestic. Our stay at TenerifFe had been very 

 short, and yet we withdrew from the island as 

 if it had been for a long time our home. 



Our passage from Santa Cruz to Cumana, the 

 most eastern part of the New Continent, was 

 very fine. We cut the tropic of Cancer the 27th, 

 and though the Pizarro was not a very good 

 sailer, we ran in twenty days the space of nine 

 hundred leagues, which separates the coasts of 

 Africa from those of the New Continent. We 

 passed fifty leagues west of Cape Bajador, Cape 

 Blanco, and the islands of Cape Verd. A few 

 land birds, which had been driven to sea by the 

 impetuosity of the wind, followed us for several 

 days. If we had not exactly known, by our 

 time keepers, our longitude, we should have 

 been tempted to think, that we were very near 

 the coast of Africa. 



Our course was such as is taken by all vessels 

 destined for the Antilles since the first voyage of 

 Columbus. The latitude diminished rapidly, al- 

 most without gaining in longitude, from the pa- 

 rallel of Madeira to the tropic. When we reach 

 the zone, where the trade winds are constant, we 



