Under such favorable circumstances, and crossing regions long unknown to most European nations, including Spain itself, Bonpland and I collected a considerable number of materials, which when published may throw light on the history of nations, and on our knowledge about nature. Our research developed in so many unpredictable directions that we could not include everything in the form of a travel journal, and have therefore placed our observations in a series of separate works.

At midday we stopped at a deserted spot called Algodonal. I left my companions while they beached the boat and prepared the meal. I walked along the beach to observe a group of crocodiles asleep in the sun, their tails, covered with broad scaly plates, resting on each other. Small herons, as white as snow, walked on their hacks, even on their heads, as if they were tree trunks. The crocodiles were grey- green, their bodies were half covered in dried mud. From their color and immobility they looked like bronze statues. However, my stroll almost cost me my life. I had been constantly looking towards the river, and then, on seeing a flash of mica in the sand, I also spotted fresh jaguar tracks, easily recognizable by their shape. The animal had gone off into the jungle, and as I looked in that direction I saw it lying down under the thick foliage of a ceiba, eighty steps away from me. Never has a tiger seemed so enormous.

The vegetation in the plain surrounding the city is monotonous, although remarkably fresh due to the humidity. Its principal feature is an arborescent solanum, the Urtica baccifera, which reaches 40 feet tall, and a new species of the Guettarda genus. The ground is very fertile and could be easily watered if irrigation ditches were dug from the numerous rivers that do not dry up all year round. The most precious product in the zone is tobacco; it is solely to this plant that the small, badly built city owes its meager fame. Since the introduction of the royal monopoly (Estanco Real de Tabaco) in 1799 the cultivation of this plant in the Cumanà province is limited almost exclusively to the Cumanacoa valley. This monopolistic farming system is deeply hated by the people. The entire tobacco harvest has to be sold to the government, and to prevent or limit smuggling tobacco was concentrated in only one place. Inspectors travel the country burning plantations found outside the authorized zone, and inform against those wretches who dare to smoke their own home-made cigars. These inspectors are mostly Spaniards, as insolent as those doing the same job in Europe. This insolence has greatly contributed to the maintenance of the hatred between the colonies and the metropolis. (50)

The plain, or rather tableland, on which Cumanacoa stands is only 104 toises above sea-level, three or four times lower than the inhabitants of Cumanà, who have an exaggerated view of how cold it is up there, think it is. The climatic difference between the two neighboring towns is due less to the height of one of them than to local weather conditions. Among these causes are the proximity of the jungle, the frequency of rivers falling down narrow valleys, the amount of rain and those thick fogs that block out sunlight. The cool climate surprises us all the more because, as in the town of Cartago, at Tomependa on the Amazon, as in the Agarua valleys west of Caracas, very great heat is felt though the height varies between 200 and 480 toises above sea-level. In plains, as well as on mountains, isothermal lines are not constantly parallel to the equator or the surface of the earth. Meteorology's great problem will be to determine the direction of these lines and variations due to local causes, and to discover the constant laws in the distribution of heat.