CITY or CUMANA. 
147 
1 Chapter IV. 
First abode at Cumana. — Banks of the Manzanares. 
On the 16th of July, 1799, at break of day, we beheld 
a verdant coast, of picturesque aspect. The mountains of 
-Sew Andalusia, half- veiled by mists, bounded the horizon 
to the south. The city of Cumana and its castle appeared 
between groups of cocoa-trces. We anchored in the port 
about nine in the morning, forty-one days after our departure 
from Corunna; the sick dragged themselves on deck to 
enjoy the sight of a land which was to put an end to their 
sufferings. Our eyes were fixed on the groups of cocoa-trees 
which border the river: their trunks, more than sixty feet high, 
towered oyer every object in the landscape. The plain was 
covered witty the tufts of Cassia, Caper, and those arborescent; 
mimosas, which, like the pine of Italy, spread their branches 
m the form of an umbrella. The pinnated leaves of the 
palms were conspicuous on the azure sky, the clearness of 
which was unsullied by any trace of vapour. The sun was 
ascending rapidly toward the zenith. A dazzling light was 
spread through the air, along the whitish hills strewed with 
cylindric cactuses, and over a sea ever calm, the shores of 
which were peopled with al cairns,* egrets, and flamingoes. 
The splendour of the day, the vivid colouring of the vege- 
table world, the forms of the plants, the varied plumage of 
the birds, everything was stamped with the grand character 
of nature in the equinoctial regions. 
The city of Cumana, the capital of New Andalusia, is a 
mile distant from the embareadero, or the battery of the 
Boca, where we landed, after having passed the bar of the 
Manzanares. We had to cross a vast plain, called el Salado, 
which divides the suburb of the Guayquerias from the sea- 
coast. The excessive heat of the atmosphere was augmented 
by the reverberation of the soil, partly destitute of vege- 
tation. The centigrade thermometer, plunged into the 
yhite sand, rose to 37'7°. In the small pools of salt water 
it kept at 30'5°, while the heat of the ocean, at its surface, 
* A brown pelican, of the size of a swan. (Pelieanus fiiscus, Lin.) 
L 2 
