248 



only to nations, that hold in horror the flesh oi 

 a prisoner. The Indian of Haiti (Saint Domin- 

 go) would think he was wanting to the memory 

 of a relation, if he had not thrown into his drink 

 a small portion of the body of the deceased, after 

 having dried it like one of the mummies of the 

 Guanches, and reduced it to powder*. This 

 gives us just occasion, to repeat with an eastern 

 poet, " of all animals man is the most fantastic 

 in his manners, and the most disorderly in his 

 propensities." 



The climate of the mission of San Antonio de 

 Javita is extremely rainy. When you have 

 passed the latitude of three degrees north, and 

 approach the equator, you have seldom an op- 

 portunity of observing the sun or the stars. It 

 rains almost the whole year, and the sky is con- 

 stantly cloudy. As the breeze is not felt in this 

 immense forest of Guyana, and the refluent 

 polar currents do not reach it, the column of air 

 that reposes on this wooded zone is not renewed 

 by dryer strata. Saturated with vapours-^, it 

 condenses them into equatorial rains. The 

 missionary assured us, that it often rained here 

 four or five months without cessation. I mea- 

 sured the water that fell on the first of May 

 in the space of five hours ; it was twenty one 



* Bembo, Hist. VcneL, book G, vol. i, p. 211). 

 i See chap. 18, vol. iv, p, 409. 



