248 
THINNESS Of THE POPULATION. 
black crusts than in those which abound in lain! rue of silvery 
mica. When walking between the hours of one and three 
in the afternoon, at Carichana, Atures, or M aypures, among 
those blocks of stone destitute of vegetable mould, and piled 
up to great heights, one feels a sensation of suffocation, as 
if standing before the opening of a furnace. The winds, if 
ever felt >n those woody regions, far from bringing coolness, 
appear more heated when they have passed over beds of 
stone, and heaps of rounded blocks of granite. This aug- 
mentation of heat adds to the insalubrity of the climate. 
Among the causes of the depopulation of the Ran Hales, 
I have not reckoned the small-pox, that malady which in 
other parts of America makes such cruel ravages that the 
natives, seized with dismay, burn their huts, kill their 
children, and renounce every kind of society. This scourge 
is almost unknown on the banks of the Orinoco, and should 
it penetrate thither, it is to be hoped that its effects may 
be immediately counteracted by vaccination, the blessings 
if which are daily felt along the coasts of Terra Firma. 
The causes which depopulate the Christian settlements 
are, the repugnance of the Indians for the regulations 
of the missions, insalubrity of climate, bad nourishment, 
want of care in the diseases of children, and the guilty 
practice of preventing pregnancy by the use of deleterious 
herbs. Among the barbarous people of Gluiana, as well as 
those of the half-civilized islands of the South Sea, young 
wives arc fearful of becoming mothers. If they have chil- 
dren, their offspring are exposed not only to the dangers 
of savage life, but also to other dangers arising from the 
strangest popular prejudices. When twins are born, false 
notions of propriety and family honour require that one of 
them should be destroyed. “ To bring twins into the 
world,” say the Indians, “ is to he exposed to public scorn; 
it is to resemble rats, opossums, and the vilest animals, 
which bring forth a great number of young at a time.’’ 
Hay, more, they affirm that “two children born at the same 
time cannot belong to the same father.” This is an axiom 
of physiology among the Salives ; and in every zone, and i ’ 1 
different states of society, when the vulgar seize upon a ' 1 
axiom, they adhere to it with more stedfastness than tbe> 
better-informed men by whom it was first hazarded. To 
