382 



Depons having visited these spots after me, and 

 his instructive work having preceded mine, I 

 shall abstain from describing objects minutely, 

 which he has treated with sufficient precision*. 



La Guayra is rather a roadstead than a port. 

 The sea is constantly agitated, and the ships 

 suffer at once by the action of the wind, the 

 tideways, the bad anchorage, and the worms rjf8 < 

 The lading is taken in with difficulty, and the 

 height of the swell prevents embarking mules 

 here, as at New Barcelona and Porto Cabello. 

 The free Mulattoes and Negroes, who carry the 

 cacao on board the ships, are a class of men 

 of very remarkable muscular strength. They 

 go up to their middles through the water ; and, 

 what is well worthy of attention, they have no- 

 thing to fear from the sharks, which are so fre- 

 quent in this harbour. This fact seems con* 



* I must here observe, that the measures of heights, and 

 the results of niagnetical observations published by Mr. 

 Depons, vol. iii, p. 66, 197, are founded on my approximate 

 calculations made upon the spot, and copies of which I bad 

 given to several persons, who were interested in these inves- 

 tigations. It is to mistakes in these copies, no doubt, 

 that must be attributed the indications of the hydrometer of 

 Deiuc ; the dip of the needle confounded with the height 

 of the Pole at Caraccas ; the oscillations of a pendulum, the 

 length of which is neither determined, nor the number of 

 oscillations compared to those performed at another place in 

 the same space of time. 



+ La Broma, teredo navalis, Lin, 



