CHANGE or PEAKS. 
141 
young Asturian was brought upon deck during the night, 
but the priest entreated that it might not be committed 
to the waves till after sunrise, that the last rites might 
be performed, according to the usage of the Romish 
church. There was not an individual on board, who 
did not deplore the death of this young man, whom we 
had beheld, but a few days before, full of cheerfulness 
and health. 
Those among the passengers who had not yet felt symp- 
toms of the disease, resolved to leave the vessel at the 
first place where she might touch, and await the arrival 
of another packet, to pursue their course to the island 
of Cuba and to Mexico. They considered the between- 
decks of the ship as infected; and though it was by 
no means clear to me that the fever was contagious, I 
thought it most prudent to land at Gumana. I wisliec 
not to visit New Spain, till I had made some sojourn on 
the coasts of Venezuela and Paris, ; a lew of the pro- 
ductions of which had been examined by the unfortunate 
Loefting. We were anxious to behold iu their native site, 
the beautiful plants which Bose and Bredemeyer had col- 
lected during their journey to the continent, and which 
adorn the conservatories of Sclioenbrunn and Vienna. It 
would have been painful to have touched at Cumana, or 
at Guayra, without visiting the interior of a country so 
little frequented by naturalists. 
The resolution we formed during the night ot the 14th 
of July, had a happy influence on the direction of our 
travels ; for instead of a few weeks, we remained a whole 
year in this part of the continent. Had not the fever broken 
out on board the Pizarro, we should never have reached the 
Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, or even the limits of the Portu- 
guese possessions on the Bio Negro. To this direction given 
to our travels we were perhaps also indebted for the good 
health we enjoyed during so long an abode in the equinoctial 
regions. 
It is well known, that Europeans, during the first months 
after their arrival under the scorching sky of the tropics, are 
exposed to the greatest dangers. They consider themselves 
to be safe, when they have passed the rainy season in the 
West India islands, at Vera Cruz, or at Carthagena. This 
