caused by the Honey of the Lecheguana Wasp. 93 
of them, who was not able to vomit, died, emitting foam by the 
mouth, tinged with blood *. 
So many united authorities were not, doubtless, unknown to 
those who, even in our own times, have treated as fabulous the 
recitals of the historian of the Ten Thousand ; but if these recitals 
needed a fresh confirmation, it would be found in the fact which 
I am about to relate, and which occurred to myself. To make 
myself better understood, I shall first give an idea of the places 
in which the event took place, from the fatal effects of which I 
narrowly escaped. 
After having traversed the smiling plains of the Rio de la 
Plata, I had coasted the less inhabited banks of the Uruguay, 
and had come to the Camp of Belem, which occupied the site 
of the small town of the same name, destroyed by Artigas. 
Here I was informed that I should be obliged to cross a desert, 
where I should neither find inhabitants, nor traces of a path ; 
but it was added, that, in case of need, I might have recourse 
to two detachments of Portuguese soldiers, posted upon the banks 
of the river ; and I was willingly furnished with a guide to ac- 
company me as far as the first post, placed toward the mouth of 
the Guaray. On the side of this river I exchanged my guide 
for another, who was to conduct me to the brook of St Anne, 
where I was told the second detachment was. When we ar- 
rived at this brook, we searched two days for the post of which 
we had been informed ; but, finding that our efforts had proved 
unsuccessful, I sent back to the river of Guaray the guide who 
had conducted me to the brook of St Anne, and who had never 
been farther. I gave him one of the soldiers who had escorted 
me, to accompany him, and charged the soldier to bring me an- 
other guide. I remained waiting until they should arrive upon 
the banks of the brook, in a place which is now tenanted only 
by a multitude of Jaguars, and by immense herds of wild ani- 
mals, deer and ostriches, opposite the right bank of the Uruguay, 
which was constantly traversed by bands of insurgent Spaniards 
at war with the Portuguese. 
I had already been four days in this desert place, baffled by 
the rains which fell in torrents; discommoded by swarms of 
Monograph upon the genus Aconitum, in the Mus, Helv. vol. i. p. 128. 
