371 



take. Remonstrances were useless j and, com- 

 pelled to yield, we were on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber at nine in the morning at anchor in the 

 Bay of Higuerota, west of the mouth of the Ria 

 Capaya. 



We found neither village nor farm, but two 

 or three huts, inhabited by mestizo fishermen. 

 Their livid tint, and the extreme thinness of 

 their children, informed us, that this spot is 

 one of the most unhealthy and feverish of the 

 whole coast. The sea had so little depth in 

 these parts, that even with the smallest barks 

 you cannot land without wading in the water. 

 The forests come down nearly to the beach, 

 which is covered with a thicket of mangroves, 

 avicennias, manchineel trees, and that new spe- 

 cies of suriana, which the natives call romero 

 de la mar *. It is to this thicket, and parti- 

 cularly to the exhalations of the mangroves* 

 that the extreme insalubrity of the air is attri- 

 buted here, as every where else in both Indies. 

 On disembarking, and when we were yet fifteen 

 or twenty toises distant, we perceived a faint 

 and sickly smell, which reminded me of that 

 diffused through the galleries of deserted mines, 

 where the lights begin to go out, and the timber 

 is all covered with flocculent byssus. The tem- 

 perature of the air rose to 34°, heated by the 



* Suriana maritima. 



2 u 2 



