234 



those who have made but little progress in the 

 unfolding of their intellectual faculties. Each 

 of them exhibits in the highest classes of society 

 frequent examples of persons unacquainted with 

 science ; but in the colonies, and among new 

 people,, curiosity, far from being idle or transient, 

 arises from an ardent desire of instruction, and 

 discovers itself with an ingenuousness and sim- 

 plicity, which in Europe are the characteristics 

 only of youth. 



I could not begin a regular course of astro- 

 nomical observations before the 28th of July, 

 though it was highly important for me to know 

 the longitude given by Berthoud's time-keeper ; 

 but it happened, that in a country, where the sky 

 is constantly clear and serene, no stars appeared 

 for several nights. Every day, two hours after 

 the Sun had passed the meridian, a storm ga- 

 thered ; and I had great difficulty in obtaining 

 correspondent altitudes of the Sun, though I 

 took three or four sets at different intervals. 

 The chronometrical longitude of Cumana dif- 

 fered only four seconds in time from that which 

 I deduced from the celestial phenomena ; yet 

 our voyage had lasted more than forty days, and 

 during the excursion to the top of the Peak of 

 TenerifFe, the watch had been exposed to great 

 variations of temperature *. 



* Astron. Observ. vol. i, p. xxiv. 



