35 



where she touched, and wait the arrival of ano- 

 ther packet, to pursue their course to the island 

 of Cuba and to Mexico. They considered the 

 between decks of the ship as pestiferous ; and 

 though it was by no means clear to me, that the 

 fever was contagious from contact % I thought 

 it most prudent to land at Cumana. I wished 

 not to visit New Spain till I had made some 

 abode on the coasts of Venezuela and Paria ; a 

 small number of the productions of which had 

 been examined by the unfortunate Loefting. We 

 were anxious to behold in their native site the 

 beautiful plants, which Bose and Bredemeyer 

 had collected during their journey to the conti- 

 nent, and which adorn the green-houses of Scho- 

 enbrunn and Vienna. It would have been pain- 

 ful to have torched at Cumana, or at Guayra, 

 without yisiting the interior of a country so 

 little frequented by naturalists. 



The resolution we took during the night of the 

 I4th and 15th of July had a happy influence on 

 the direction of our travels. Instead of a few 

 weeks, we remained a whole year in this part of 

 the continent ; had not the fever raged on board 

 the Pizarro, we should never have reached the 



* The sailor of whom I have just spoken, and who escaped 

 death by the change of air, was but slightly indisposed when 

 he came on board at Corunna j it was no doubt from some 

 peculiar disposition of his organs, that he was first attacked 

 with the malignant fever, when we entered the torrid zone. 



