The bottom of the crater is reached with danger. In a volcano such as Vesuvius, whose main activity is directed towards the summit, the depth of the crater varies with each eruption, but at the Tenerife peak the depth appears to have remained unchanged for a long time. Judging from what I could see, the actual site of the crater is properly speaking a solfatara; an area for interesting but not striking observations. The majesty of the site is due more to its height above sea-level, to the profound silence of these elevated regions, and to the immense space over which the eye ranges from the mountain's summit.

It is thought that some of the plants that grow on the rocky islands of Lake Valencia are exclusive to them because they have not been discovered elsewhere. Among these are the papaw tree of the lake (papaya de la laguna), and a tomato (81) from Cura Island; this differs from our Solanum lycopersicum in that its fruit is round and small but very tasty. The papaw of the lake is common also on Cura Island and at Cabo Blanco. Its trunk is slenderer than the ordinary papaw, but its fruit is half the size and completely round, without projecting ribs. This fruit, which I have often eaten, is extremely sweet.

From the Manimi rock there is a marvelous view. Your eyes survey a foaming surface that stretches away for almost 2 leagues. In the middle of the waves rocks as black as iron, like ruined towers, rise up. Each island, each rock, is crowned by trees with many branches; a thick cloud floats above the mirror of the water and through it you see the tops of tall palms. What name shall we give these majestic plants? I guess that they are vadgiai, a new species, more than 80 feet high. Everywhere on the backs of the naked rocks during the rainy season the noisy waters have piled up islands of vegetation. Decorated with ferns and flowering plants these islands form flower-beds in the middle of exposed, desolate rocks. At the foot of the Manimi rock, where we had bathed the day before, the Indians killed a 7. snake, which we examined at leisure. The Macos called it a camudu. It was beautiful, and not poisonous. I thought at first that it was a boa, and then perhaps a python. I say 'perhaps' for a great naturalist like Cuvier appears to say that pythons belong to the Old World, and boas to the New. I shall not add to the confusions in zoological naming by proposing new changes, but shall observe that the missionaries and the latinized Indians of the mission clearly distinguish the tragavenado (boa) from the culebra de agua, which is like the camudu.

Despite the size of the Esmeralda mission three languages are spoken: Catarpen, Idapaminare and Maquiritare. This last is the dominant language of the Upper Orinoco, like Carin in the Lower[Orinoco], Otomac near the Apure, and Tamanac and Maypure at the Great Cataracts. It was strange to see many zambos, mulattos and other colored people who, through vanity, call themselves Spaniards, and think that they are white because they are not red like the Indians. These people lead a miserable life; most of them had been banished to here (desterrados). To found a territory in the interior as quickly as possible, in order to keep the Portuguese out, Solano had rounded up as many vagabonds and criminals as he could and sent them to the Upper Orinoco where they lived with the unhappy Indians lured from the jungle. A mineralogical error had made Esmeralda famous. The Duida and Maraguaca granite holds superficial seams of a pretty rock crystal, sometimes quite transparent and sometimes colored by chlorite or mixed with actonite and mistaken for diamonds and emeralds. In those mountains, so close to the sources of the Orinoco, everybody dreamed of El Dorado, which could not be far off, with Lake Parime and the ruins of the great city of Manoa.

With the Maypures Indians, it is the women who decorate the vessels, clean the clay by washing it several times; then they shape it into cylinders and mould even the largest jars with their hands. The American Indians never discovered the potter's wheel.

On leaving the Indian suburbs and climbing the river towards the south we reached a little wood of cacti, and then a marvelous place shaded by tamarind trees, brazilettos, bombax and other trees remarkable for their leaves and flowers. Here the soil is rich enough for pasturing, and among the trees there are dairies built of reeds. The milk is kept fresh not in the calabashes, which are made of thick ligneous fibers, but in porous earthenware pots from Maniquarez. A prejudice current in northern countries led me to believe that cows in the torrid zone did not give buttery milk. However, during my stay in Cumana, and especially while on a trip through the vast plains of Calabozo, covered in grasses and sensitive plants, I learned that European cows adapt perfectly to extreme heat provided they are given water and good fodder.