56 
OTJXTITATION or COTTOW. 
th.e trunks of bamboos, supply ladders, and facilitate in a 
thousand ways the construction of a but, and the fabrication 
of chairs, beds, and other articles of furniture that compose 
the wealth of a savage household. In the midst of this 
lavish vegetation, so varied in its productions, it requires 
very powerful motives to excite man to labour, to rouse him 
from his lethargy, and to unfold his intellectual faculties. 
Cacao and cotton are cultivated at Barbula. ¥e there 
found, what is very rare in that country, two large cylin- 
drical machines for separating the cotton from its seed; 
one put in motion by an hydraulic wheel, and the other bv 
K wheel turned by mules. The overseer of the farm, who 
had constructed these machines, was a native of Merida, 
lie was acquainted with the road that leads from Nuevu 
I aleneia, by the way of Guanare and Misagual, to Varinas ; 
and thence by the ravine of Collejones, to the Paramo de 
Mucuebies and the mountains of Merida covered with eternal 
snows. The notions be gave us of the time requisite for 
going from Valencia by Varinas to the Sierra Nevada, and 
thence by the port of Torunos, and the Bio Santo Domingo, 
to San Fernando de Apure, were of infinite value to us. °It 
can scarcely be imagined in Europe, how difficult it is to 
obtain accurate information in a country where the commu- 
nications are so rare ; and where distances are diminished or 
exaggerated according to the desire that may be felt to encou- 
rage the traveller, or to deter him from his purpose. I had 
resolved to visit the eastern extremity of the Cordilleras of 
New_ Grenada, where they lose themselves in the paramos 
ot Timotes and Niquitao. I learned at Barbula, that this 
excursion would retard our arrival at the Orinoco thirty-five 
days. This delay appeared to us so much the longer, as the 
rains were expected to begin sooner than usual. We bad 
the hope of examining afterwards a great number of moun- 
tains covered with perpetual snow, at Quito, Peru, and 
Mexico ; and it appeared to me still more prudent to relin- 
quish our project of visiting the mountains of Merida, since 
by so doing we might miss the real object of our journey, 
that of ascertaining by astronomical observations the point 
of communication between the Orinoco, the Bio N’e°ro, 
ind the river Amazon. We returned in consequence from 
Barbula to Guaeara, to take Veave of the family of the 
