4 



by high chains of primitive mountains. Unfor- 

 tunately, we could not avail ourselves of this 

 refreshing breeze, of which the Llaneros (the in- 

 habitants of the steppes) speak with rapture, 

 it being the rainy season north of the equator ; 

 and though it did not rain in the steppes, the 

 change in the declination of the Sun had long 

 caused the action of the polar currents to cease. 

 In those equatorial regions, where you can find 

 your course by observing the direction of the 

 clouds, and where the oscillations of the mer- 

 cury in the barometer indicate the hour almost 

 as well as a clock, every thing is subject to 

 a regular and uniform type. The cessation of 

 the breezes, the beginning of the rainy season, 

 and the frequency of electric explosions, are 

 phenomena, which are found to be connected by 

 immutable laws. 



At the confluence of the Apure and the 

 Oroonoko, near the mountain of Sacuima, we 

 had met with a French farmer, who lived amid 

 his flocks in the most absolute seclusion*. This 

 was the man, who in his simplicity believed, 

 that the political revolutions of the old world, 

 and the wars which have been the consequence, 

 were owing solely " to the long resistance of the 

 monks of the Observance." We had scarcely 

 entered the Llanos of Nueva Barcelona, when 



* Vol. v, p. 677. 



