PREPARATIONS EOH A JOURNEY. 
343 
the good fortune to live at a period when theories were less 
numerous ; and, like me, he was struck by seeing the natives 
equally bronzed under the Line, in the cold climate of the 
Cordilleras, and in the plains. Where differences of colour 
are observed, they depend on the race. We shall soon find 
on the burning banks of the Orinoco Indians with a whitish 
skin. Durar y or it/inis vis est. 
Chapter X. 
Second abode at Cumana. — Earthquakes. — Extraordinary Meteors. 
"We remained a month longer at Cumana, employing our- 
selves in the necessary preparations for our proposed visit 
to the Orinoco and the 11 io Negro. We had to choose 
such instruments as could be most easily transported in 
narrow boats; and to engage guides for an inland journey 
of ten months, across a country without communication 
with the coasts. The astronomical determination of places 
being the most important object of this undertaking, I felt 
desirous not to miss the observation of an eclipse of the sun, 
which was to be visible at the end of October: and in con- 
sequence T preferred remaining till that period at Cumana, 
"here the sky is generally clear and serene. It was now 
too late to reach the banks of the Orinoco before October ; 
and the high valleys of Caracas promised less favourable 
opportunities, on account of the vapours which accumulate 
round the neighbouring mountains. 
I was, however, near being compelled by a deplorable 
occurrence, fo renounce, or at least to delay for a long time, 
my journey to the Orinoco. Ou the 27tli of October, the 
day before the eclipse, we went as usual, to take the air on 
the shore ot the gulf, and to observe the instant of high 
water, which in those parts is only twelve or thirteen inches. 
It was eight in the evening, and the breeze was not yet 
stirring. The sky was cloudy; and during a dead calm it was 
excessively hot. We crossed the beach which separates the 
suburb of the Guayqueria Indians from the embarcadero. 
1 heard some one walking behind us, and on turning, I saw 
a tall man of the colour of the Zambos, naked to the waist, 
