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the west of Cariaco extends the wide gulf, 

 which a wall of rock separates from the ocean : 

 and toward the east are seen like bluish clouds 

 the high mountains of Paria and Areo * This 

 is one of the most extensive and magnificent 

 prospects, that can be enjoyed on the coast of 

 New Andalusia. 



In the town of Cariaco we found a great 

 part of the inhabitants confined to their ham- 

 mocks, and sick of intermittent fevers. These 

 fevers assume in autumn a formidable charac- 

 ter, and run into pernicious dysenteries. When 

 we consider the extreme fertility of the sur- 

 rounding plains, their moisture, and the mass 

 of vegetables that cover them, we may easily 

 conceive, why, amid so many decompositions 

 of organic matter, the inhabitants do not enjoy 

 that salubrity of air, which characterises the 

 dry country of Cumana. It is difficult to find 

 under the torrid zone a great fecundity of soil, 

 frequent and long continued rains, and an ex- 

 traordinary luxury of vegetation, without these 

 advantages being counterbalanced by a climate 

 more or less fatal to the health of white men. 

 The same causes, which preserve the fertility 

 of the earth, and accelerate the growth of 

 plants, produce gazeous emanations, that min- 

 gle with the atmosphere, and impart to it noxi- 



* Sierra de Areo, and Montana de Paria, 



