47 



Nueva Barcelona. As we advanced, the sky 

 became more serene, the soil more dusty, and 

 the atmosphere more fiery. The heat, from 

 which we suffered, is not entirely owing' to the 

 temperature of the air, but is produced by the 

 fine sand mingled with it, that darts in every 

 direction, and strikes against the face of the 

 traveller, as it does against the ball of the ther- 

 mometer. I never observed however the mer- 

 cury rise in America, amid a wind of sand, above 

 45*8° cent. Captain Lyon, with whom I had 

 the pleasure of an interview on his return from 

 Mourzouk, appeared to me also inclined to 

 think, that the temperature of fifty-two degrees, 

 which is so often felt in Fezzan, is produced in 

 great part by the grains of quartz suspended in 

 the atmosphere. Between Pao, and the village 

 of Santa Cruz de Cachipo, founded in 1749, and 

 inhabited by five hundred Caribbees *, we pass- 

 ed the western elongation of the little table-land, 

 known by the name of Mesa de Amana. This 

 table-land forms a point of partition between the 

 Oroonoko, the Guarapiche, and the coast of 

 New Andalusia. It's height is so inconsidera- 

 ble, that it would scarcely be an obstacle to the 

 establishment of an inland navigation in this 

 part of the Llanos. The Rio Mano however, 



* The population, in 1754, was only one hundred and 

 twenty souls. Cauiin, p. 362. 



