BLOCKADE OF TUK I’OBT. 
107 
^ beverage ; the wiuo ol' the jalm-tree, which is 
ed on the Orinocoj being almost unhnowu on the coast. It 
to observe, that men in difterent zones, to satisfy 
e passion of inebriety, employ not only all the families of 
onoeotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, but even the 
g Agaric (Amanita muscaria) of which, with dis- 
ini economy, the Coriacs have learnt to drink the same 
J ce several times during five successive days.* 
jj he packet boats (correos) from Corunna bound for the 
\vt and Mexico had been due three months ; and it 
5i{ (.“‘^^eved they had been taken by the English cruisers 
lo coast. Anxious to reach Cumana, in order 
for cnrselves of the fii'st opportunity that might ofier 
*Jhr passage to Vera Cruz, we hired an open bout called a 
east craft employed habitually in the latitudes 
On 7^ Chpc Codera, where the sea is scarcely ever rough. 
iraK wliich was laden with cacam earned on a con- 
tho with the island of Triuidaef. For this loasoii 
x „ °" her imagined we had nothing to fear from IhcenemY's 
('iiji f '''hich then blockaded all the f^paiiish ports. NVw 
hion'l , cur collection ol plants, our iii.slniments, and our 
hial-^^'*’ '*cd, the wcalluT being dclightl'ul, we lioped to 
1^0 w a very sliort passage from the mouth of the Rio Xcveri 
'■liau "c had scarcely reaelied the nari-ow 
^aohv**^ cetweeu the cuntiiieiit and the rocky isles of Bor- 
’n sinfT*’^ Chimanas, wlien to our great surprise we came 
8 i'eat r armed boat, nhich, whilst hailiug u.s from a 
beioj,„ ^a^ce, some musket-shot at us. The boat 
tlig *c a J)rivateer of Halifax; and I recognized among 
uo qJ'* a Bi'ussiau, a native of Memel. I had found 
niygs 5 '^^ '’ nnity, since my arrival in America, of expressing 
have t( ^y.^iative language, and I could have wished to 
^ '-poken it on a less unpleasant occasion. Our pi’otc.sta- 
tiiown 'tj (Wctteiauisclies Journal, pt. i. p. 251) first made 
c.vtraordinarv physiological phenomenon, which I prefer 
Potu° “ Coriajcoriim gens, in ora .Asise septentrioni ojipo- 
*hcciis r» excogitavit ex succo inebriantc agarici muscarii. Qui 
''■atiam n '**’.a®P“Fagyruin), vel per humauum corpus transfu.siis, temu. 
*'* SMse ajainus facit. Quare gens misera et inops, quo rarius mentis 
''aiirien’s p urinam bibit identidem : continuoque niingens rursusque 
P^ttculij j, ® ®aacum (dicas, ne ulla in parte mundi desit ebrietas), 
saricis prodiicere in diem quintum temulentiam potest.” 
