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I know not whether it be an error, that in the 

 missions of the Oroonoko the neighbourhood of 

 bare rocks, and especially of the masses that 

 have crusts of carbon, oxyd of iron, and manga- 

 nese, are considered as injurious to health. In 

 the torrid zone still more than in others, the 

 people multiply pathogenic causes at will. They 

 are afraid to sleep in the open air, if forced to 

 expose the face to the rays of the full moon. 

 They also think it is dangerous, to sleep on gra- 

 ' nite near the river; and many examples are 

 cited of persons, who, after having passed the 

 night on these black and naked rocks, have 

 awakened in the morning with a strong paroxysm 

 of fever. Without entirely lending faith to this 

 assertion of the missionaries and natives, we 

 generally avoided the laxas negras/and stretched 

 ourselves on the beach covered with white sand, 

 when we found no tree from which to suspend 

 our hammocks. At Carichana, the village is 

 intended to be destroyed, and it's place changed, 

 merely to remove it from the black rocks, from 

 ground where for a space of more than 10,000 

 square toises, banks of bare granite form the 

 surface. From similar motives, which must 

 appear very chimerical to the naturalists of 

 Europe, the Jesuits Olmo, Forneri, and Mellis, 

 removed a village of Jaruroes to three different 

 spots, between the Randal of Tabaje and the 

 Rio Anaveni. I have thought it proper to re- 



