1KC0ERECT CHARTS. 
143 
the most highly-esteemed marine charts. Oil the morning 
of the 15th, when the time-keeper placed us in 66° 1' 15" longi- 
tude, we were not yet in the meridian of Margareta island ; 
though according to the reduced chart of the Atlantic ocean, 
we ought to have passed the very lofty western cape of this 
island, which is laid down in longitude GG" O'. The inaccu- 
racy with which the coasts were delineated previously to the 
labours of Hidalgo, Noguera, and Tiscar, aud I may venture 
to add, before the astronomical observations I made at 
Cumana, might have become dangerous to navigators, were 
not the sea uniformly calm in those regions. The errors in 
latitude were still greater than those in longitude, for the 
coasts of New Andalusia stretch to the westward of Cape 
Three Points (or tres Puntas) fifteen or twenty miles more 
to the north, than appears in the charts published before the 
year 1800. 
About eleven in the morning we perceived a very low islet, 
covered with a few sandy downs, and on which we discovered 
with our glasses no trace of habitation or culture. Cylin- 
drical cactuses rose here and there in the form of candelabra. 
The soil, almost destitute of vegetation, seemed to have a 
waving motion, in consequence of the extraordinary refrac- 
tion which the rays of the sun undergo hi traversing the 
strata of air in contact with plains strongly heated. Under 
every zone, deserts and sandy shores appear like an agitated 
sea, from the effect of mirage. 
The coasts, seen at a distance, are like clouds, in which 
each observer meets the form of the objects that occupy his 
imagination. Our bearings aud our chronometer being at 
variance with the charts which we had to consult, we were 
lost in vain conjectures. Some took mounds of sand for 
Indian huts, and pointed out the place where they alleged 
the fort of Pampatar was situated ; others saw herds of goats, 
which are so common in the dry valley of St. John; or 
descried the lofty mountains of Macanao, which seemed to 
them partly hidden by the clouds. The captain resolved to 
send a pilot on shore, and the men were preparing to get 
out the long-boat when we perceived two canoes sailing 
along the coast. We fired a gun as a signal for them, and 
though we had hoisted Spanish colours, they drew near with 
distrust. These canoes, like all those in use among the 
natives, were constructed of the single trunk of a tree. In 
