95 



so well known by the sailors who frequent the 

 coasts of Cumana. We measured by angles of 

 elevation, and a basis, rather short, traced on 

 the round summit bare of trees, the peak, or 

 Cucurucho, which was about 350 toises higher 

 than our station, so that its absolute height 

 exceeded 1050 toises. 

 The view we enjoyed on the Turimiquiri is of 



toises for the height of the Brigantine, if we admit the ex- 

 actness of the distance indicated in the map of the Deposito 

 hydrogrqfico at Madrid. I find, that to make the observed 

 angle agree with the supposed elevation of a thousand toises, 

 the summit of the Brigantine cannot be more than nineteen 

 miles distant from Cumana. The chain of the mountains of 

 New Andalusia is in the same direction as the neighbouring 

 coast, nearly from east to west; and, admitting a distance 

 more considerable than nineteen miles, the Brigantine would 

 be more south than the parallel of Cocollar. But the inha- 

 bitants of Cumana wanted to lay out a road to Nueva Bar- 

 celona over the Brigantine, and I did not find the latitude 

 of this town less than 10° 6' 52*. This circumstance con- 

 firms the result of a trigonometrical calculation made at the 

 Salado de Cumana j while on the other side the magnetic 

 bearing of the Brigantine, taken at the summit of the Im- 

 possible, gives a greater distance. This bearing would be 

 highly important, if we were perfectly certain of the longi- 

 tude of the Impossible, and of the variation of the needle in a 

 place, where the sandstone is strongly impregnated with 

 iron. It is the duty of the traveller, to declare with candour 

 the doubts he may still entertain respecting points, the posi- 

 tion of which is not yet sufficiently ascertained. On making 

 land on the coast of Cumana, the pilot reckoned the distance 

 of the Tataraqual fifteen or sixteen miles. 



