POET OP BARCELONA. 
367 
times see these nutritive gramma disseminate themselves; 
but when left to nature the birds prevent them reproduction 
by destroying the seeds. 
We anchored for some hours in the road of New Barce- 
lona, at the mouth of the river Neveri, of which the Indian 
(Cumanagoto) name is Enipiricuar. This river is full of 
crocodiles, which sometimes extend their excursions into the 
open sea, especially in calm weather. They are of the 
species common in the Orinoco, and bear so much resem- 
blance to the crocodile of Egypt, that they have long been 
confounded together. It may easily be conceived that an 
animal, the body of which is surrounded with a kind of ar- 
mour, must be nearly indifferent to the saltness of the water. 
Pigafetta relates in his journal recently published at Milan 
that he saw, on the shores of the island of Borneo, crocodiles 
which inhabit alike land and sea. These facts must be inte- 
resting to geologists, since attention has been fixed on the 
fresh- water formations, and the curious mixture of marine 
and fluviatile petrifactions sometimes observed in certain 
very recent rocks. 
The port of Barcelona has maintained a very active com- 
merce since 1795. Brom Barcelona is exported most of the 
produce of those vast steppes which extend from the south 
side of the chain of the coast as far as the Orinoco, and in 
which cattle of every kind are almost as abundant as in the 
Pampas of Buenos Ayres. The commercial industry of 
these countries depends on the demand in the West India 
Islands for salted provision, oxen, mules, and horses. The 
coasts of Terra Eirma being opposite to the island of Cuba, 
at a distance of fifteen or eighteen days’ sail, the merchants 
of the Havannah prefer, especially in tune of peace, obtain- 
ing then provision from the port of Barcelona, to the risk of 
a long voyage in another hemisphere to the mouth of the 
Eio de la Plata. The situation of Barcelona is singularly 
advantageous for the trade in cattle. The animals have only 
three days’ journey from the llanos to the port, while it re- 
quires eight or nine days to reach Cumana, on account of the 
chain of mountains of the Brigantine and the Imposible. 
Haring landed on the right bank of the Neveri, we as- 
cended to a little fort called El Morro de Barcelona, situated 
at the elevation of sixty or seventy toises above the level of 
