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forests contribute to augment the quantity of 

 vapours contained in the air. We were horribly 

 tormented in the day by the moschettoes, and the 

 jejen, small venomous flies, or simuliums, and at 

 night, by the zancudoes, a large species of gnat, 

 that are dreaded even by the natives. We be- 

 gan to have our hands much swelled, and this 

 swelling increased daily till our arrival on the 

 banks of the Temi. The means that are em- 

 ployed to escape from these little animals are 

 very extraordinary. The good missionary Ber- 

 nardo Zea, who passes his life tormented by 

 moschettoes, had constructed near the church, 

 on a scaffolding of trunks of palm-trees, a 

 small apartment, in which we breathed more 

 freely. To this we went up in the evening, by 

 means of a ladder, to dry our plants, and write 

 our journal. The missionary had justly observ- 

 ed, that the insects abounded more particularly 

 in the lowest strata of the atmosphere, that which 

 reaches from the ground to the height of twelve 

 or fifteen feet. At Maypures the Indians quit 

 the village at night, to go and sleep on the little 

 islets in the midst of the cataracts. There they 

 enjoy some rest ; the moschettoes appearing to 

 shun air loaded with vapours. We found every 

 where fewer in the middle of the river, than 

 near it's banks, and thus less is suffered in des- 

 cending the Oroonoko, than in going up in a 

 boat. 



