348 



the Capaya, and cross the torrents, which in- 

 crease rapidly on account of the proximity of 

 the mountains. To these obstacles must be 

 added the dangers, that arise from the extreme 

 insalubrity of the country, through which he 

 journies. The very low lands, between the sea- 

 shore and the chain of hills nearest the coast, 

 are extremely unhealthy, from the Bay of Mo- 

 chima as far as Coro. But the latter town, 

 surrounded by an immense wood of thorny cac- 

 tuses, owes it's great salubrity, like Cumana, to 

 the barrenness of it's soil and the absence of 

 rain. 



The road by land is sometimes preferred to 

 the passage by sea, in returning from Caraccas 

 to Cumana, to avoid going against the current. 

 The postman from Caraccas is nine days in per- 

 forming this journey. We often saw persons, 

 who had followed him, arrive at Cumana ill of 

 nervous and miasmatic fevers. The tree, of 

 which the bark * furnishes a salutary remedy 

 for those fevers, grows in the same vallies, and 

 upon the edge of the same forests, which send 

 forth such dangerous exhalations. Mr. Bon- 

 pland recognized the cuspare among the veget- 

 ables of the Gulf of Santa-Fe, situate between 

 the ports of Cumana and Barcelona. The sick- 



* Cortex Angusturse of our Dispensatories, the bark of 

 the bonplandia trifoliata. 



