158 
THE CAPUCHIN HOSPITAL. 
metrical arrangement of a few cones which surround the 
Brigantine, made me at first think that this group, which is 
wholly calcareous, contained rocks of basaltic or trappean 
formation. 
The governor of Cumana sent, in 1797, a band of de- 
termined men to explore this entirely desert country, and 
to open a direct road to New Barcelona, by the summit of 
the Mesa. It was reasonably expected that this way would 
he shorter, and less dangerous to the health of travellers, than 
the route taken by the couriers along the coasts ; but every 
attempt to cross the chain of the mountains of the Brigan- 
tine was fruitless. In this part of America, as in Australia* 
to the west of Sydney, it is not so much the height of the 
mountain chains, as the form of the rocks, that presents 
obstacles difficult to surmount. 
The longitudinal valley formed by the lofty mountains of 
the interior and the southern declivity of the Cerro de San 
Antonio, is intersected by the Bio Manzanares. This plain, 
the only thoroughly wooded part in the environs of Cumana, 
is called the Plain of the Charas,t on account of the numerous 
plantations which the inhabitants have begun, for some years 
past, along the river. A narrow path leads from the hill of 
San Francisco across the forest to the hospital of the Capu- 
chins, a very agreeable country-house, which the Aragonese 
monks have built as a retreat for old infirm missionaries, 
who can no longer fulfil the duties of their ministry. As 
we advance to the west, the trees of the forest become more 
vigorous, and we meet with a few monkeys, J which, however, 
are veiy rare in the environs of Cumana. At the foot of the 
capparis, the bauhinia, and the zygophyllum with flowers of a 
golden yellow, there extends a carpet of Bromelia,§ akin to the 
B. karatas, which from the odour and coolness of its foliage 
attracts the rattlesnake. 
* The Blue Mountains of Australia, and those of Carmarthen and 
Lansdowne, are not "isible, in dear weather, beyond fifty miles. — Peron, 
Voyage aux Terres Australes, page 389. Supposing the angle of alti- 
tude half a degree, the absolute height of these mountains would be about 
620 toises. 
t Chacra, by corruption chara , signifies a hut or cottage surrounded bj 
i garden. The word ijmre lias the same signification. 
+ The common machi, or weeping monkey. 
5 Cliihudiihue, of the family of the ananas. 
