In Cariaco we found most of the inhabitants in their hammocks, ill with intermittent fevers that in autumn become malignant and lead to dysentery. If you think how extraordinarily fertile and humid the plain is, and of the amount of vegetation that rots there, it is easy to understand why the atmosphere here is not as healthy as it is at Cumanà. In the torrid zone the amazing fertility of the soil, the frequent and prolonged rainy season, and the extraordinary opulence of the vegetation are advantages outweighed by a climate dangerous for whites.