91 



at Guadaloupe, but fortunately the skin of the 

 simia chiropotes, which exists no where else in 

 Europe, was sent a few years ago to the Garden 

 of Plants ; where the couxio (simia satanas), 

 and the stentor or alouate of the steppes of Ca- 

 raccas (simia ursina), of which I have given the 

 figures in my Recueil de Zoologie et d' Anatomie 

 eomparte, had been already received. The arrival 

 of so great a number of military Frenchmen, 

 and the manifestation of political and religious 

 opinions, that were not altogether conformable 

 to those by which mother-countries think id 

 confirm their authority, excited a singular agita- 

 tion in the population of Cumana. The governor 

 treated the French authorities with those forms 

 of civility, which the intimate connexion, that 

 subsisted at that period between France and 

 Spain, prescribed. In the streets the mulattoes 

 crowded round the agent of the Directory, whose 

 dress was rich and theatrical ; but as men with 

 a white skin inquired also with indiscreet curi- 

 osity, whenever they could make themselves 

 understood, concerning the degree of influence 

 granted by the republic to the planters in the 

 government of Guadaloupe, the king's officers 

 redoubled their zeal in furnishing provision for 

 the little squadron. Strangers, who boasted 

 that they were free, appeared to these as trou- 

 blesome guests ; and I saw that in a country, 

 of which the growing prosperity depended on 



