282 



arrived at a small farm, in the puerto or landing 

 place of Pimichin. We were shown a cross 

 erected near the road, which marked the spot 

 cc where a poor capuchin missionary had been 

 killed by wasps." I repeat what we were told 

 by the monks of Javita and the Indians. They 

 talk much in these countries of wasps and veno- 

 mous ants, but we saw neither one nor the other 

 of these insects. It is well known, that in the 

 torrid zone slight stings often cause fits of fever 

 almost as violent as those, that with us accom- 

 pany severe organic injuries. The death of this 

 poor monk must have been the effect of fatigue 

 and damp, rather than of the venom contained 

 in the stings of wasps, which the Indians dread 

 extremely. We must not confound the wasps 

 of Javita with the melipones bees, called by 

 the Spaniards little angels* which covered our 

 faces and hands on the summit of the Silla de 

 Caraccas. 



The landing place of Pimichin is surrounded 

 by a small plantation of cocoa trees ; they are 

 very vigorous, and here, as on the banks of the 

 Atabapo and the Guainia, loaded with flowers 

 and fruits at all seasons. They begin to bear 

 from the fourth year ; on the coast of Caraccas 



Chagre in the isthmus of Panama, in the midst of the torrid 

 zone. The populus balsamifera attains also an immense 

 height, on the mountains that border Norfolk Sound. 

 * Angelitos. See vol. iii, p. 513. 



