376 
ARRIVAL AT LA GUAYRA. 
said that the air has acquired salubrity since trees have been 
S lanted round a small lake, the emanations of which were 
readed, and which is now less exposed to the ardour of the 
sun. To the west of Caravalleda, a wall of bare rock again 
projects forward in the direction of the sea, but it has little 
extent. After having passed it, we immediately discovered 
the pleasantly situated village of Mucuto ; the black rocks of 
La Guayra, studded with batteries rising in tiers one over 
another; and in the misty distance, Cabo Blanco, a long 
promontory with conical summits, and of dazzling whiteness. 
Cocoa-trees border the shore, and give it, under that burning 
sky, an appearance of fertility. 
I landed in the port of La Guayra, and the same evening 
made preparations for transporting my instruments to Ca- 
racas. Having been recommended not to sleep in the town, 
where the yellow fever had been raging only a few weeks 
previously, I fixed my lodging in a house ou a little hill, 
above the village of Maiquetia, a place more exposed to 
fresh winds than La Guayra. I reached Caracas on the 
21st of November, four days sooner than M. Bonpland, who, 
with the other travellers on the land journey, had suffered 
greatly from the rain and the inundations of the torrents, 
between Capaya and Curiepe. 
Before proceeding further, I will here subjoin a descrip- 
tion of La Guayra, and the extraordinary road which leads 
from thence to the town of Caracas, adding thereto all the 
observations made by M. Bonplaud and myself, in an excur- 
sion to Cabo Blanco about the end of January 1800. 
La Guayra is rather a roadstead than a port. The sea is 
constantly agitated, and ships suffer at once by the violence 
of the wind, the tideways, and the bad anchorage. The 
lading is taken in with difficulty, and the swell prevents the 
embarkation of mules here, as at New Barcelona and Porto 
Oabello. The free mulattoes and negroes, who carry the 
cacao on board the ships, are a class of men remarkable for 
muscular strength. They wade up to their waists through 
the water; and it is remarkable that they are never attacked 
by the sharks, so common in this harbour. This fact seems 
connected with what T have often observed within the 
tropics, with respect to other classes of animals which live in 
society, for instance monkeys and crocodiles. In the Mis- 
