353 



drawn through these stars. It is surprising, 

 that at the first sight of land, they can find the 

 Island of Guadaloupe, Santa Cruz, or Porto 

 Rico; but the compensation of the errors of 

 their course is not always equally fortunate. 

 The boats, if they fall to leeward in making 

 land, beat up with great difficulty to the east- 

 ward, against the wind and the current. The 

 pilots, in time of war, often pay dearly for their 

 ignorance and their neglect of the quadrant ; 

 since the privateers cruize near those very capes, 

 which the boats of Terra Firma, when they 

 miss their course, are obliged to make in order 

 to find out where they are. 



We descended rapidly the little river Man- 

 zanares, the windings of which are marked by 

 cocoa-trees, as the rivers of our climates are 

 bordered by poplars and did willows. On the 

 adjacent arid land, the thorny bushes, on which 

 by day are seen nothing but bushes covered 

 with dust, glitter during the night with thou- 

 sands of luminous sparks. The number of 

 phosphorescent insects augments in the stormy 

 season. We are never weary of admiring in the 

 equinoctial regions the effect of those reddish 

 and movable fires, which, reflected by a limpid 

 water, blend their images with those of the star- 

 ry vault of Heaven. 



We quitted the borders of Cumana, as if we 

 had long been their inhabitants. This was the 

 vol. in. 2 A 



