100 
FEKOCIl'V OF THE CATMASS. 
closely together, and we made our horses swim, holding 
their bridles. The horse I had ridden suddenly disappeared, 
after struggling for some time under water : all our endea* 
vom-s to discover the cause of this accident were fruitless. 
Our guides conjectured, that the animal’s legs had been 
seized by the caymans, which are very numerous in those 
parts. My pei-plesity was extreme : delicacy, and the affluent 
lurcumstances of my host, forbade me to think of repairing 
Jiis loss j and M. Lavie, moi’o considerate of our sitiuitioii, 
than sensible of his own misfortune, endeavoured to tran- 
quillize us by exaggerating the lacility with which tine 
horses were procurable from the neighbouring savannahs. 
Tlie crocodiles of tlie RiolN'everi ai-e large and numerous, 
especially near the mouth of the river ; but in general they 
are less fierce than the crocodiles of the Orinoco. These 
animals manifest in America the same contrasts of ferocity 
as in Eg}’pt and Nubia : this tact is obvious when we compare 
^vith attention the narratives of Burckhardt and Belzoni. 
'I'he state of cultivation in different countries, and the amount 
of population in the proximity of rivers, modify the habits of 
these large saurians : they are timid when on dry gx-ouud, and 
they lice from man, even in the water, when they are not in 
want of food and when they ])ercciveauy danger in attacking. 
The Indians of Niieva Baivclotia convey wood to market in 
a singular manner. Largo logs of zygophyllum and cicsal- 
pinia*' are thrown into the river, and carried down by the 
stream, while the owners of the wood swim here and there, 
to iloat the pieces that ai-e stopped by the windings of the 
banks. This could not be done in the greater part of those 
American rivers in which crocodiles are found. The towm of 
Barcelona has not, like Cumana, an Indian suburb ; and the 
only natives who are seen there are inhabitants of tbe neigh- 
bouring missions, or of huts scattered in the plain. Neither 
the one nor the other are of Carib race, but a mixture of the 
Cumanagoto.s, Palenkas, and Piritus; short, stimted, indo- 
lent, and addicted to drinking. Permented cassava is here 
* The LccythU ollarin, in the vicinity of Nueva Barcelona, furnishei 
excellent timber. We saw trunks of this tree seventy feet high. Around 
the town, beyond that arid zone of cactus which separates Nueva Barce- 
lona from the steppe, grow the Clerodendrura tenuifolium, the lonidiuui 
ituhu, wliich resembles the Viola, and the Allionia violacea. 
