8 



branches of the palm-tree. A soft murmuring 

 is beard around ; and overwhelmed by the heat, 

 and accustomed to the melancholy silence of 

 the steppes, we fancy we enjoy some coolness 

 at the slightest sound of the foliage. If we 

 examine the soil on the side opposite to the 

 wind, we find it remains humid long after the 

 rainy season. Insects and worms *, every where 

 else so rare in the Llanos, here assemble and 

 multiply. This one solitary and often stunted 

 tree, which would not claim the notice of the 

 traveller amid the forests of the Oroonoko, 

 spreads life around it in the desert. 



On the 13th of July we arrived at the village 

 of Cari^, the first of the Caribbee missions, 

 that are under the monks of the Observance of 

 the college of Piritu;};. We lodged as usual at 

 the convent, that is with the clergyman. We 

 had, beside our passports from the captain- 



* What are those worms (loul in Arabic), which captain 

 Lyon, the fellow-traveller of my brave and unfortunate 

 friend Mr. Ritchie, found in the pools of the desert of Fez- 

 zan, which served the Arabs for food, and which have the 

 taste of caviare? Are they not insects' eggs, resembling the 

 aguautle, which I saw sold in the market at Mexico, and 

 which are collected on the surface of the lakes of Texcuco ? 

 (Gazeta de Litteratura de Mexico, 1794, vol. iii, No. 26, p. 

 201.) 



t N ras S ra del Socorro del Cari, founded in 1761. 



J These missionaries are called padres missioneros Observan- 

 tes del Colegio de la Purissima Conception de Propaganda Fide 

 en la Nueva Barcelona, 



