333 



Almost all the inhabitants of Cumana were 

 witnesses of this phenomenon, because they 

 leave their houses before four o'clock, to attend 

 the first morning" mass. They did not behold 

 these bolides with indifference ; the oldest 

 among- them remembered, that the great earth- 

 quakes of 1766 were preceded* by similar phe- 

 nomena. The Guaiqueries in the Indian sub- 

 urb came out and asserted, f that the firework 

 had begun at one o'clock ; and that as they 

 returned from fishing in the Gulf, they had 

 already perceived very small falling stars toward 

 the east." They affirmed at the same time, that 

 igneous meteors were extremely rare on those 

 coasts after two in the morning. 



The phenomenon ceased by degrees after 

 four o'clock, and the bolides and falling stars 

 became less frequent ; but we still distinguish- 

 ed some toward the north-east by their whitish 

 light, and the rapidity of their movement, a quar- 

 ter of an hour after sunrise. This circumstance 

 will appear less extraordinary, when I bring to 

 the readers recollection, that in full daylight, in 

 1788, the interior of the houses in the town 

 of Popayan were brightly illuminated by an 

 aerolite of immense magnitude. It passed over 

 the town, when the sun was shining- clearly, 

 about one o'clock. Mr. Bonpland and myself, 



* See vol. ii, p. 216. 



