390 



the Sierra of Santa Martha and the Sea of 

 Darien) have a powerful influence on the cool- 

 ing and the motion of the neighbouring co- 

 lumns of air. The north winds sometimes 

 cause influxes and counter currents in the 

 south-west part of the Caribbean Sea, which 

 seem, during particular months, to diminish 

 the heat as far as Terra Firma. 



At the time of my abode at La Guayra, the 

 scourge of yellow fever, or calentura amarilla, 

 had been known only two years ; and the mor- 

 tality had not been considerable, because the 

 confluence of strangers on the coast of Carac- 

 cas was less than at the Havannah and Vera 

 Cruz. A few individuals, even Creoles and 

 Mulattoes, were sometimes taken off* suddenly 

 by certain irregular remittent fevers ; which, 

 from being complicated with bilious appear- 

 ances, hemorrhages, and other symptoms equal- 

 ly alarming, appeared to have some analogy 

 with the yellow fever. They were generally 

 men employed in the hard labour of cutting 

 wood ; in the forests, for instance, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the little port of Carupano, or the 

 Gulf of Santa-Fe, west of Cumana. Their 

 death often alarmed the unseasoned Europeans, 

 in towns that were regarded as eminently 

 healthy ; but the seeds of the sporadical ma- 

 lady by which they had been attacked were 

 propagated no farther. On the coast of Terra 



