89 



ward Cape Codera. Between the little harbour 

 of Higuerote* and the mouth of the Rio Unare, 

 the wretched inhabitants are accustomed, to 

 stretch themselves on the ground, and pass the 

 night buried in the sand three or four inches 

 deep, leaving out the head only, which they 

 cover with a handkerchief. You suffer from the 

 sting of insects, but in a manner easy to bear, 

 in descending the Oroonoko from Cabruta to- 

 ward Angostura, and in going up from Cabruta 

 toward Uruana, between the latitudes of 7° and 

 8°. But beyond the mouth of the Rio Arauca, 

 when you have passed the strait of Baraguan, 

 the scene suddenly changes. From this spot 

 there is no more repose for the traveller. If he 

 have any poetical remembrance of Dante, he 

 will think he has entered the citta dolente, he 

 will seem to read on the granitic rocks of Bara- 

 guan these memorable lines of the third canto ; 



Noi sem venuti al Iuogo, ov' i' t'ho delto 

 Che tu veclrai le* genii doloroset. 



The lower strata of air, from the surface of 

 the ground to the height of fifteen or twenty 

 feet, are filled with venomous insects like a con- 

 densed vapour. If in an obscure spot, for in- 

 stance in the grottoes of the cataracts formed 



* See vol. iii, p. 370. 

 + Inferno, canto iii, 16. 



