242 



Domingo, after having often changed mastery 

 not by way of sale, but because the soldiers 

 played for them at dice. 



The first excursion we made was directed to- 

 ward the peninsula of Araya, and those coun- 

 tries formerly too much celebrated for the slave- 

 trade and pearl-fishery. We embarked on the 

 Rio Manzanares, near the Indian suburb, on the 

 19th of August, about two in the morning. The 

 principal object of this excursion was to see the 

 ruins of the castle of Araya, to examine the salt- 

 works, and make a few geological observations 

 on the mountains, that form the narrow penin- 

 sula of Maniquarez. The night was delight- 

 fully cool ; swarms of phosphorescent insects * 

 glittered in the air, and over a soil covered with 

 sesuvium, and groves of mimosa, that bordered 

 the river. We know how common the glow- 

 worm -jf is in Italy, and in all the south of Eu- 

 rope ; but the picturesque effect it produces 

 cannot be compared to those innumerable, scat- 

 tered, and moving lights, that embellish the 

 nights of the torrid zone, and seem to repeat on 

 the earth, along the vast extent of the savan- 

 nahs, the spectacle of the starry vault of the 



sky. i * - V /. : •.' -<t^^ : < 



When, on descending the river, we drew near 



* Elater noctilucus. 

 t Lampyris italica, 1. noctiluca. 



