130 



European cultivation, public might is modified 

 according to the relations, which are established 

 between the strong and the weak, the victors and 

 the vanquished. 



The race of the guacharoes would have been 

 long ago extinct, had not several circumstances 

 contributed to its preservation. The natives, 

 restrained by their superstitious ideas, have 

 seldom the courage to penetrate far into the 

 grotto. It appears also, that birds of the same 

 species dwell in neighbouring caverns, which 

 are too narrow to be accessible to man. Per- 

 haps the great cavern is repeopled by colonies, 

 that abandon the small grottoes ; for the mis- 

 sionaries assured us, that hitherto no sensible 

 diminution of the birds had been observed. 

 Young guacharoes have been sent to the port 

 of Cumana, and have lived there several days 

 without taking any nourishment ; the seeds 

 offered to them not suiting their taste. When 

 the crops and gizzards of the young birds are 

 opened in the cavern, they are found to contain 

 all sorts of hard and dry fruits, which furnish, 

 under the singular name of guacharo seed, 

 semilla del guacharo, a very celebrated remedy 

 against intermittent fevers. The old birds carry 

 these seeds to their young. They are carefully 

 collected, and sent to the sick at Cariaco, and 

 other places of the low regions, where fevers are 

 prevalent. 



