394 



which there was a dreadful mortality at Phila- 

 delphia, Santa Lucia *, and St. Domingo, the 

 yellow fever has continued it's ravages at La 

 Guayra. It has proved fatal not only to the 

 troops newly arrived from Spain, but also to 

 those which had been raised far from the coasts, 

 in the Llanos between Calabozo and Uritucu, 

 in a region almost as hot as La Guayra, but 

 favourable to health. This latter phenomenon 

 would surprise us more, if we did not know, 

 that even the natives of Vera Cruz, who are 

 not attacked with the typhus in their own town, 

 sometimes sink under it in the epidemics of the 

 Havannah and the United States -f. As the 

 black vomit finds an insurmountable limit at 

 the Encero (four hundred and seventy-six 

 toises high) on the declivity of the mountains of 

 Mexico, on the road to Xalapa, where the 

 oaks and a cool and delicious climate begin ; 

 the yellow fever scarcely ever passes beyond 

 the ridge of mountains, that separates La Guay- 

 ra from the valley of Caraccas. This valley 

 has been exempted from it for a long time ; for 

 we must not confound the vomito and the yellow 

 fever with the irregular and bilious fevers. 

 The Cumbre and the Cerro de Avila form a 

 very useful rampart to the town of Caraccas, 



* Gillespie, on the Diseases of his Majesty's Squadron in 

 the Antilles, 1800, p. 17. 

 + Nouv, Esp. vol. ii, p. 772. 



