164 



out a little bag filled with fruttas de burro. 

 I have already observed elsewhere, that between 

 the tropics the use of aromatics, for instance 

 very strong coffee, the croton cascarilla, or the 

 pericarps of our unona xylopioides, is generally 

 preferred to that of the astringent bark of cin- 

 chona, or of bonplandia trifoliata, which is the 

 Angostura bark. The people of America have 

 the most inveterate prejudices against the em- 

 ployment of the different kinds of cinchona; 

 and in the very countries where this valuable 

 remedy grows, they try to cut off the fever by 

 infusions of scoparia dulcis, and hot lemonades 

 prepared with sugar and the small wild lime, 

 the rind of which is equally oily and aromatic. 



The weather was very little favourable for 

 astronomical observations. I obtained however, 

 on the 20th of April, a good series of correspond- 

 ing altitudes of the sun, according to which the 

 chronometer gave 70° 37' 33" for the longitude 

 of the mission of Maypures ; the latitude was 

 found by a star observed toward the north to be 

 5° 13' 57" ; and by a star observed toward the 

 south, 5° 13' 7". The error of the most recent maps 

 is half a degree of longitude, and half a degree 

 of latitude*. It would be difficult to relate the 

 trouble and torments, which these nocturnal 

 observations cost us. No where is a denser 



* See my Astronomical Observations, vol, 1, p. 227 and 

 253. 



