228 



communications are so rare; and where the 

 length of distances is diminished, or exaggerated, 

 according to the desire that is felt of encourag- 

 ing the traveller, or averting him from his 

 purpose. On leaving Caraccas, I had placed 

 money in the hands of the intendant of the 

 province, to be paid by the officers of the Royal 

 Treasury at Varinas. I had resolved to visit 

 the eastern extremity of the Cordilleras of New 

 Grenada, where they lose themselves in the 

 paramos of Timotes and Niquitao. I learned 

 at Barbula, that this excursion would retard our 

 arrival at the Oroonoko thirty-five days. This 

 delay appeared to us so much the longer, as the 

 rains were expected to begin sooner than usual. 

 We had the hope of examining afterward a great 

 number of mountains covered with perpetual 

 snow, at Quito, Peru, and Mexico ; and it ap- 

 peared to me still more prudent, to relinquish 

 our project of visiting the mountains of Merida^ 

 on account of the apprehension, that by so doing 

 we might miss the real object of our journey, that 

 of ascertaining by astronomical observations the 

 point of communication between the Oroonoko 

 and the Rio Negro and the river of Amazons. 

 We returned in consequence from Barbula to 

 Guacara, to take leave of the respectable family 

 of the Marquis del Toro, and pass three days 

 more on the borders of the lake. 



It was the time of carnival, and all was gaiety. 



