passage of the canoe. Captain Tuckey and his companions were under the necessity of travelling on foot along the banks of the river; and it was not long before fatal fevers began to manifest themselves. The captain, on September 9th, found himself obliged to turn his back on the river. Professor Smith had as yet pre served his health; but within four days he was himself attacked with a fatal disease. He was taken ill before they reached the vessels. Becoming dangerously indisposed, he was at length carried on board, but he now refused to take any thing either in the form of food or medicine. On Sept. 21st, he became delirious, and died on the following day.

John Cranch, born at Exeter in 1785, was the son of poor parents, of whom he lost his father at the age of ten. His mother, unable to take upon herself the care of his education, consigned him to the care of an uncle, with with whom he passed six years. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of his situation, his natural genius soon began to display it self; and in the little leisure which was allowed him, he drew up correct and classical descriptions of all the insects which he was able to procure. He also, by his unaided exertions, acquired a knowledge of the Latin and French languages, so that he was able to understand the descriptions of the zoological writers that were written in them. Being apprenticed by his uncle to a shoemaker, at its conclusion he went to London, probably with the idea of renouncing his trade, and devoting himself to a life of science; he

was, however, compelled to leave the capital, and resumed his me chanical occupation in his native county. Shortly after his return, he married, probably to a person of some property, since we are informed that his domestic circumstances were so much im. proved by this event, as to enable him to consign his business en tirely to his journeymen, while he devoted his own time and attention almost exclusively to the pursuit of natural history. He commenced his career as an author about this period, by some short essays in the "Weekly Examiner;" and he gradually acquired a collection of subjects in natural history, the reputation of which extended to the metropolis. Dr. Leach, of the British Museum, in company with other naturalists, visited Mr. Cranch, and expressed his admiration of his collection of shells, crustacea, insects, birds, &c. all assembled by himself, and disposed with the greatest accu racy; and he found him conversing on all subjects connected with natural history, with modesty, but with that confidence which is the result of knowledge.

When the expedition to the Zaire was planned, Mr. Cranch was immediately thought of as a person peculiarly fitted for the undertaking; and the offer being made to him he immediately accepted it, though not without "some painful struggles with his feelings," probably owing to a presentiment that he was not likely to return. His ardour, however, did not relax during the short period in which he was

enabled

énabled to devote himself to the objects of his voyage. His fever commenced on August 23rd, while the expedition was traversing the banks of the river where it is intercepted by the rapids. He was carried back to the navigable part of the stream in a hammock, on the shoulders of the natives, and conveyed thence in a canoe to the ships, being ten

days in the passage. The symptoms of his complaint were an extreme languor and general exhaustion, approaching at times to a delirium. At length his countenance became of a dirty yellow; he grew much worse; his pulse became imperceptible at the wrist; and he expired after uttering a devout prayer for the welfare of his family.

MANNERS

PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS, &C. BY ALEXANDer de HUMBOLT.

cross each other at right angles. The walls, which are very thin and slight, are made of clay,

liams).

THE road skirted with bamTHE boos led us to the small village of San Fernando, which is situate in a narrow plain, surrounded by very steep calcareous rocks. This was the first mission * we saw in America. The houses, or rather the huts of the Chayma Indians, separated from each other, are not surrounded by gardens. The streets, which are wide and very straight,

* A certain number of habitations collected round a church, a missionary monk performing the ministerial duties, is called in the Spanish

colonies Mision or Pueblo de mision.

Indian villages, governed by a priest, are called Pueblos de doctrina. They make a distinction between the Cura doctrinero, who is the priest of an Indiar parish, and the Cura rector, priest of a village inhabited by whites and men of mixed race.

formity of this construction, the grave and taciturn air of the inhabitants, and the extreme neatness that reigns throughout their habitations, reminded us of the establishments of the Moravian brethren. Every Indian family cultivates, at some distance from the village, besides its own garden, the conuco* of the community. In this the adults of each sect work one hour in the morning, and one in the evening. In the missions nearest the coast, the rally a sugar or indigo plantation, garden of the community is geneunder the direction of the missionary; and the produce of which, were the law strictly observed, can be employed only for the support of the church, and the purchase of the sacerdotal ornaments. The great square of San Fernando, in the centre of

*Conuco de la communidad.

the

the village, contains the church, the dwelling of the missionary, and that humble edifice, which is pompously called the king's house-Casa del Rey. This is a real caravanserai, destined to lodge travellers; and, as we often experienced, infinitely valuable in a country, where the name of an inn is still unknown. The Casas del Rey are to be found in all the Spanish colonies, and may be deemed an imitation of the tamboes of Peru, established ac cording to the laws of Manco Сарас.

We had been recommended to the friars, who govern the Missions of the Chayma Indians, by their syndic, who resides at Cumana. This recommendation was so much the more useful to us, as the missionaries, either from zeal for the purity of the morals of their parishioners, or to conceal the monastic system from the indiscreet_curiosity of strangers, often adhere with rigor to an old regulation, by which a white man of the secular state is not permitted to sojourn more than one night in an Indian village. In order to travel agreeably in the Spanish Missions, it would be in general imprudent, to trust solely to a passport issued by the secretary of state's office at Madrid, or that of the civil governors. A traveller must provide himself with recommendations from the ecclesiastical authorities, particularly from the guardians of the convents, or the generals of the orders, residing at Rome; who are infinitely more respected by the missionaries, than are the bishops. The Missions form, I will not say accord

ing to their primitive and canonical institutions, but in fact, a distinct and nearly independent hierarchy, the views of which seldom accord with those of the secular clergy.

The missionary of San Fernando was a capuchin, a native of Arragon, far advanced in years, but strong and healthy. His extreme corpulency, his hilarity, the interest he took in battles and sieges, ill accorded with the ideas we form in our northern countries of the melancholy reveries, and the contemplative life of missionaries. Though extremely busy about a cow, which was to be killed the next day, the old monk received us with kindness, and permitted us to hang up our hammocks in a gallery of his house. Seated, without doing any thing, the greater part of the day, in an arm chair of red wood, he bitterly complained of what he called the indolence and ignorance of his countrymen. He asked a thousand questions on the real object of our journey, which appeared to him hazardous, and at all events useless. Here, as at Oronoko, we were fatigued by that restless curiosity, which the Europeans preserve in the forests of America, respecting the wars and political convulsions of the Old World.

Our missionary, however, seemed well satisfied with his situation. He treated the Indians with mildness; he beheld his mission prosper, and he praised with enthusiasm the waters, the bananas, and the dairy produce of the canton. The sight of our instruments, our books, and our dried

plants,

plants, drew from him a sarcastic smile; and he acknowledged, with the naïveté peculiar to those climates, that of all the enjoyments of life, without excepting sleep, none was comparable to the pleasure of eating good beef (carne de vacca); so true it is, that sensuality obtains an ascendancy, where there is no occupation for the mind. Our host often engaged us to pay a visit with him to his cow, which he had just purchased; and on the morrow, at sunrise, he would not dispense with our seeing it killed after the fashion of the country, that is, by hamstringing the animal, and then plunging a large knife into the vertebræ of the neck. This disgusting operation served to show us the great address of the Chayma Indians, eight of whom, in less than twenty minutes, cut up the animal into small pieces. The price of the cow was only seven piastres; but this price seemed to be thought very considerable. The same day the missionary had paid eighteen piastres to a soldier of Cumana, for having succeeded, after many fruitless attempts, in bleeding him in the foot. This fact, though seemingly very unimportant, is a striking proof how greatly, in uncultivated countries, the price of things differs from that of labour.

The Mission of San Fernando was founded toward the end of the 17th century, near the junction of the small rivers of the Manzanares and Lucasperez. A fire, which consumed the church,

Caulin, Hist. corogr, de la Nueva Andalusia, p. 309.

and the huts of the Indians, induced the capuchins to place the village in its present fine situation. The number of families is increased to one hundred, and the missionary observed to us, that the custom of marrying at thirteen or fourteen years of age contributes greatly to this rapid increase of population. He denied that old age was so premature among the Chaymas, as is commonly believed in Europe. The government of these Indian parishes is very complicated; they have their governor, their major-alguazils, and their militia commanders, who are all coppercoloured natives. The company of archers have their colours, and perform their exercise with the bow and arrow, in shooting at a mark; this is the national guard [militia] of the country. This military establishment, under a purely monastic system, seemed to us very singular.

In this village lives a labourer, Francisco Lozano, who presented a physiological phenomenon, highly calculated to strike the imagination, though it is very conformable to the known laws of organized nature. This man has suckled a child with his own milk. The mother having fallen sick, the father, to quiet the infant, took it into his bed, and pressed it to his bosom. Lozano, then thirty-two years of age, had never remarked till that day that he had milk: but the irritation of the nipple, sucked by the child, caused the accumulation of that liquid. The milk was thick and very sweet. The father, astonished at the increased size of his breast, suckled his child two or three