696 



After having attained in a few days an extra- 

 ordinary degree of exacerbation, the fever as- 

 sumed a less alarming character. The inflam- 

 mation of the intestines yielded to the use of 

 emollients drawn from malvaceous plants. The 

 sidas and the melochias have singularly active 

 properties in the torrid zone ; the recovery of the 

 patient however was extremely slow, as it always 

 happens with Europeans, who are not thoroughly 

 seasoned to the climate. The period of the 

 rains drew near ; and in order to return to the 

 coast of Cumana, it was necessary again to cross 

 the Llanos, where, amid half-inundated lands, a 

 shelter is rarely found, or any other nourishment 

 than meat dried in the sun. To avoid exposing 

 Mr. Bonpland to a dangerous relapse, we re- 

 solved to stay at Angostura till the 10th of July. 

 We spent part of this time at a neighbouring 

 plantation % where mango trees and breadfruit 

 trees ^ were cultivated. The latter had attained 

 in the tenth year a height of more than forty 

 feet. We measured several leaves of the arto- 



* Trapicke of Don Felix Fareras. 

 t Artocarpus incisa. Father Andujar, Capuchin mission- 

 ary of the province of Caraccas, zealous in the pursuit of 

 natural history, has introduced the breadfruit tree from 

 Spanish Guyana to Varinas, and thence to the kingdom of 

 New Grenada. Thus the western coasts of America, bathed 

 by the Pacific ocean, receive from the English settlements 

 n the West Indies a production of the Friendly Islands. 



