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equally acquainted with the localities of the 

 province, discussed in the manner of the Creoles 

 the dangers, to which the town of Cumanacoa 

 would be exposed, if the Cuchivano became an 

 active volcano ; se veniesse a r event ar. It ap- 

 peared to them evident, that since the great 

 earthquakes of Quito and Cumana, in 1797, 

 New Andalusia was every day more and more 

 undermined by subterranean fires. They cited 

 the flames, which had been seen to issue from 

 the earth at Cumana ; and the shocks felt in 

 places, where heretofore the ground had never 

 been shaken. They recollected, that at Maca- 

 rapan sulphurous emanations had been fre- 

 quently perceived for some months past. We 

 were struck with these facts, upon which were 

 founded predictions, that have since been al- 

 most all realised. Enormous convulsions of 

 the earth took place at Caraccas in 1812 ; and 

 proved how tumultuously nature is agitated in 

 the north-east part of Terra-Firma. 



But what is the cause of the luminous phe- 

 nomena, which are observed in the Cuchivano ; 

 I know, that the column of air, that rises from 

 the mouth of a burning volcano*, is sometimes 



* We must not confound this very rare phenomenon with 

 the glimmering commonly observed a few toises above the 

 brink of a crater; and which (as I remarked at Mount Ve- 

 suvius, in 1805) is only the reflexion of great masses of in- 

 flamed scoria, thrown up without sufficient force to pass the 

 mouth of he volcano. 



