165 



are some of them twenty inches thick, and of- 

 ten issue from the trunks of the trees much 

 above the level of the soil. The Creoles have 

 sufficient confidence in the address and happy 

 instinct of the mules, to remain on their saddles 

 during this long and dangerous descent. Fear- 

 ing fatigue less than they did, and accustomed 

 to travel slowly, in order to gather plants, and 

 examine the nature of the rocks, we preferred 

 going down on foot ; and indeed the care, which 

 our timekeepers demanded, left us no liberty 

 of choice. 



The forest, that covers the steep flank of the 

 mountain of Santa Maria, is one of the thickest 

 I ever saw. The trees are of a stupendous 

 height and size. Under their bushy, deep green 

 foliage, there reigns constantly a kind of half 

 daylight, a sort of obscurity, of which our fo- 

 rests of pines, oaks, and beach-trees, afford no 

 example. It might be said, that notwithstand- 

 ing it's elevated temperature, the air cannot dis- 

 solve the quantity of water exhaled from the 

 surface of the soil, the foliage of the trees, and 

 their trunks covered with an old drapery of 

 orchideae, peperomia, and other succulent plants. 

 With the aromatic odour yielded by the flow- 

 ers, the fruits, and even by the wood, is min- 

 gled that which we perceive in autumn in fog- 

 gy seasons. Here, as in the forests of the 

 Oroonoko, fixing our eyes on the top of the 



