THE INDIAN GIRL IN THE LLANOS.

115

prolonged struggle between the other horses and the eels.

The travellers had little doubt that the fishing would terminate by killing successively all the animals engaged; but by degrees the impetuosity of this unequal combat diminished, and the wearied gymnoti dispersed. They required a long rest, and abundant nourishment, to repair the galvanic force which they lost. The mules and horses appeared less frightened; their manes were no longer bristled, and their eyes expressed less dread. The gymnoti approached timidly the edge of the marsh, where they were taken by means of small harpoons fastened to long cords. When the cords were dry the Indians felt no shock in raising the fish into the air. In a few minutes Humboldt had five large eels, most of which were but slightly wounded. Some others were taken, by the same means, towards evening.

The travellers left the town of Calabozo on the 24th, highly satisfied with their stay, and the experiments they had made on an object so worthy of the attention of physiologists. As they advanced into the southern part of the Llanos, they found the ground more dusty more destitute of herbage, and more cracked by the effect of long drought. The palm-trees disappeared by degrees. The calmer the air appeared at eight or ten feet high, the more they were enveloped in those whirlwinds of dust, caused by the currents of air that swept the ground. In the afternoon they found a young Indian girl stretched upon the savannah. She was almost in a state of nudity, and appeared to be about twelve or thirteen years of age. Exhausted with fatigue and thirst, her eyes, nostrils, and mouth filled with dust, she breathed with a rattling in

116

FORDING THE URITUCU.

her throat, and was unable to answer their questions A pitcher, overturned, and half-filled with sand, was lying at her side. Happily one of their mules was laden with water; and they roused the girl from her lethargic state by bathing her face, and forcing her to drink a few drops of wine. She was at first alarmed on seeing herself surrounded by so many persons; but by degrees she took courage, and conversed with their guides. She judged, from the position of the sun, that she must have remained during several hours in that state of lethargy. They could not prevail on her to mount one of their beasts of burden, and she would not return to Uritucu. She had been in service at a neighbouring farm; and she had been discharged, because at the end of a long sickness she was less able to work than before. Their menaces and prayers were alike fruitless; insensible to suffering, she persisted in her resolution of going to one of the Indian Missions near the city of Calabozo. They removed the sand from her pitcher, and filled it with water. She resumed her way along the steppe before they had remounted their horses, and was soon separated from them by a cloud of dust. During the night they forded the river Uritucu, which abounded with a breed of crocodiles remarkable for their ferocity. They were advised to prevent their dogs from going to drink in the rivers, for it often happened that the crocodiles of Uritucu came out of the water, and pursued dogs upon the shore. They were shown a hut, in which their host of Calabozo had witnessed a very extraordinary scene. Sleeping with one of his friends on a bench or couch covered with leather, he was awakened early in the morning by a violent shaking and a horrible noise.

SLEEPING OVER A CROCODILE.

117

Clods of earth were thrown into the middle of the hut. Presently a young crocodile two or three feet long issued from under the bed, darted at a dog which lay on the threshold of the door, and, missing him in the impetuosity of his spring, ran towards the beach to gain the river. On examining the spot where the couch was placed, the cause of this strange adventure was easily discovered. The ground was disturbed to a considerable depth. It was dried mud, which had covered the crocodile in that state of lethargy, or summer-sleep, in which many of the species lie during the absence of the rains. in the Llanos. The noise of men and horses, perhaps the smell of the dog, had aroused the crocodile. The hut being built at the edge of the pool, and inundated during part of the year, the crocodile had no doubt entered, at the time of the inundation of the savannahs, by the same opening at which it was seen to go

out.

On the 25th they traversed the smoothest part of the steppes of Caracas, the Mesa de Pavones. As far as the eye could reach, not a single object fifteen inches high could be discovered. The air was clear, and the sky of a very deep blue; but the horizon reflected a livid and yellowish light, caused by the quantity of sand suspended in the atmosphere. They met some large herds of cattle, and with them flocks of birds of a black colour with an olive shade. They had often seen them perched on the back of cows, seeking for gadflies and other insects. Like many birds of these desert places, they feared so little the approach of man, that children often caught them in their hands. In the valleys of Aragua, where they were very common, the travellers

often saw them perched upon the hammocks on which they were reposing, in open day.

On the 27th of March they arrived at the Villa de San Fernando, the capital of the Mission of the Capuchins, in the province of Varinas.

CHAPTER IV.

UP THE ORINOCO.

THE next journey that the travellers made was to the Orinoco. In the afternoon of the 30th of March, they set sail from San Fernando in a large canoe, managed by a pilot and four Indians. They constructed, near the stern, a cabin covered with palm-leaves, sufficiently spacious to contain a table and benches. These were made of ox-hides, strained tight, and nailed to frames of brazil-wood. The canoe was loaded with provisions for a month; fowls, eggs, plantains, cassava, and cocoa, not forgetting sherry wine, oranges, and tamarinds, which were given them by the Capuchins.

They soon entered a land inhabited only by tigers, crocodiles, and tapirs. They saw flocks of birds, crowded so closely together as to appear against the sky like a dark cloud which every instant changed its form. The river widened by degrees. One of its banks was barren and sandy from the effect of inundations; the other was higher, and covered with lofty trees. In some parts the river was bordered by forests on each side, and formed a straight canal nine hundred feet broad. The manner in which the trees were disposed was remarkable. First were bushes of sauso, forming a kind of hedge four feet