APritOAOa TO Cl’MAXA. 
lOD 
^onths to the narrow circle of missionary life, we felt a 
gratification at meeting for the first time with men 
'ho had sailed round the world, and whose ideas were en- 
^^ged by so extensive and varied a course. I quitted the 
ugJish vessel with impressions wdiich are not yet efiaeed 
rom my remembrance, and which rendered me more than 
^'^^atisfied with the career on which I had entered. 
We continued our passage on the followi 
— passage on the loUowmg day ; and 
^ ere surprised at the depth of the channels between the 
i^racas Islands, where the sloop worked lier way tlirough 
lein almost touching the rocks. How much do these eal- 
^aieous islets, of which the form aud direction call to mind 
]. ®,Sreat catastrophe that separated from them the main- 
differ in aspect from the volcanic archipelago on the 
<^rth of Lanzerote, where the hills of basalt seem to have 
oen heaved nj) from the bottom of the sea ! Xumbers ol 
HUoaiis and of flamingos, which fished in the nooks, or 
^'•irassed the pelicans in order to seize their prey, indicated 
Se I ''*PP™^ieh to the coast of Cumana. It is curious to ob- 
I sunrise how the sea-birds suddenly appear and ani- 
t]| ^ scene, reminding us, in the most solitary regions, of 
II, ‘'‘?*'^'dty of our cities at the dawn of day. At nine in the 
j, 'VC reached the gulf of Cariaeo, which serves as a 
ca to the town of (lum.ana. The hill, crowned by the 
u'es^ Antonio, stood out, prominent from its white- 
„ the dark curtain 
'7^th interest on the 
of the inland mountains. AV'e 
shore, w'hero we first gathered 
ijK ^ in America, and where, some months later, M. Jiou- 
ris in such danger. Among the cactuses, that 
the r' '^'^inmns twenty feet high, .appear the Indian huts of 
Us i'^ries. Every part of the landscape was familiar to 
•no' ^ of cactus, the scattered huts and that enor- 
heneath which w'e loved to bathe at the approach 
"leu^ f ’ friends at Cumana came out to meet us : 
hrou n castes, whom our frequent herborizations had 
at contact with us, expressed the gre.ater joy 
haiil-”^ r report that we had perished on the 
^ho'*^ i'he Orinoco had been current for several mouths. 
y| ^ •’cports had their origin either in the severe illness of 
iost hi the fact of our boat having been nearly 
'n a gale above the mission of TJruana. 
