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countries, and the population more or less ac- 

 cumulated in the proximity of rivers, modify 

 the habits of these large sauriens, timid when 

 on dry ground, and fleeing from man even in 

 the water, when they find abundant nourish- 

 ment, and when they perceive any danger in 

 attacking him. The Indians of Nueva Barce- 

 lona convey wood to market in a singular man- 

 ner. Large logs of zygophyllum and caesalpinia* 

 are thrown into the river, and carried down by 

 the stream, while the proprietor of the wood 

 and his eldest son swim here and there, to set 

 afloat the pieces, that are stopped by the wind- 

 ings of the banks. This could not be done in 

 the greater part of those American rivers, in 

 which crocodiles are found. The town of Bar- 

 celona has not, like Cumana, an Indian suburb ; 

 and if some natives be seen, they are inhabit- 

 ants of the neighbouring missions, or of huts 

 scattered in the plain. Neither the one nor the 

 other are of the Caribbee race, but a mixture of 

 the Cumanagotoes, Palenkas, and Piritoos, short, 

 stunted, indolent, and addicted to drinking. 

 Fermented cassava is here the favorite beverage; 

 the wine of the palm tree, which is used in 



* The lecytbis ollaria in the vicinity of Nueva Barcelona 

 furnishes excellent timber. We saw trunks of this tree 

 seventy feet high. Around the town, beyond that arid zone 

 of cactus which separates Nueva Barcelona from the steppe, 

 grow the clerodendrum tenuifoliunij -the ionidium itubu ? 

 which, resembles the viola, and the allionia violacea. 



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