times a day during five months. He drew on himself the attention of his neighbours, but he never thought, as he probably would have done in Europe, of deriving any advantage from the curiosity he excited. We saw the certificate, which had been drawn up on the spot, to attest this remark able fact, eye-witnesses of which are still living. They assured us, that, during this suckling, the child had no other nourishment than the milk of his father. Lozano, who was not at Arenas during our journey in the Missions, came to us at Cumana. He was accompanied by his son, who was then thirteen or fourteen years of age. Mr. Bonpland examined with attention the father's breast, and found it wrinkled like those of women who have given suck. He observed, that the left breast in particular was much enlarged; which Lozano explained to us from the circumstance, that the two breasts did not furnish milk in the same abundance. Don Vicente Emparan, governor of the province, sent a circumstantial account of this phenomenon to Cadiz. It is not a very uncommon circumstance, to find, both among humankind and animals,* males whose breasts contain milk; and the climate does not appear to exert any marked influence on the more or less abundance of this secretion. The ancients cite the milk of the he goats of Lemnos and Corsica. In our own time, we have seen in the country * Athanas. Joannides de Mammarum Struct. 1801, p. 6. Haller, Elem. Physiol, T. 7, P. II, page 18. of Hanover, a he goat, which for a great number of years was milked every other day, and yielded more milk than a female goat.* Among the signs of the pretended weakness of the Americans, travellers have mentioned the milk contained in the breasts of men. It is however improbable, that it has ever been observed in a whole tribe, in some part of America unknown to modern travellers; and I can affirm, that at present it is not more common in the new continent, than in the old. The labourer of Arenas, whose history we have just related, is not of the copper-coloured race of Chayma Indians: he is a white man, descended from Europeans. Moreover, the anatomists of Petersburg + have observed, that among the lower orders of the people in Russia, milk in the breasts of men is much more frequent, than among the more southern nations; and the Russians have never been deemed weak and effeminate. There exists among the varieties of our kind a race of men, whose breasts at the age of puberty acquire a considerable bulk. Lozano did not belong to this class; and he often repeated to us, that it was only the irritation of the nip ple in consequence of the suction, which caused the flow of the milk. This confirms the observation of the ancients, "that men, who have a small quantity of milk, yield it in abundance, when their breasts are sucked."* These singular effects of a nervous stimulant were known to the shepherds of Greece; those of Mount Oeta rubbed the dugs of the young goats, that had not yet conceived, with nettles, to make them produce milk. When we reflect on the whole of the vital phenomena, we find, that no one of them is entirely isolated. In every age examples are cited of young girls not marriageable, or women withered by age, who have suckled children. Among men these examples are infinitely more rare; and after numerous researches, have not found above two or three. One is cited by the anatomist of Verona, Alexander Benedictus, who lived toward the end of the fifteenth century. He relates the history of an inhabitant of Syria,† who, to calm the uneasiness of his child, after the death of the mother, pressed it to his bosom. The milk immediately came with such abundance, that the father Arist. Hist. Anim. lib. S, cap. 20, ed. Duval, 1639, Tom. 2, p. 259. Maripetrus sacri ordinis equestris tradidit, Syrum quemdam, cui filius infans, mortua conjuge, supererat, ubera sæpius admovisse, ut famem filii ragientis frustraret, continuatoque suctu lacte manasse papillam; quo exinde nutritus est, magno totius urbis miraculo. Alex. Benedicti hum. Corp. Anatome, Bas. 1549, lib. 3, cap. 4, p. 595. Barthol. Vindic. Anatom. 1648, p. 32. could take on himself the nourishment of his child, without assistance. Other examples are related by Santorellus, Paria, and Robert, bishop of Cork.* The greater part of these phenomena having been noticed in times very remote, it is not uninteresting to physiology, that we can confirm them in our own days. Besides, they bear very strongly on the long disputed question respecting final causes, The existence of the nipple in men has long puzzled philosophers; and it has even been recently affirmed, "that nature has refused to one of the sexes the faculty of suckling, because this faculty would not accord with the dignity of man." + Our host had visited the new world with an expedition, which was to form establishments for cutting wood for the Spanish navy on the shores of the gulf of Paria. In these vast forests of mahogany, cedar, and brasil-wood, which border the sea of the West Indies, they reckoned on choosing the trunks of the largest trees, giving them in a rough way the shape adapted to the building of ships, and sending them every year to the dock-yard of the Caraccas, near Cadiz. White men, unaccustomed to the climate, could not support the fatigue of labour, the heat, and the effect of the noxious air exhaled by the forests. The same winds that are loaded with the perfume of flowers, * Gabr. Rzaczynski, Hist. natur. Cur. Sandomir. 1721, p. 332, Misc. Acad. Nat. Cur. 1688, p. 219. Phil. Trans. 1741, p. 810. + Comment. Petrop. Tom. S, p. leaves, 277. leaves, and woods, infuse also, as we may say, the germes of dissolution into the vital organs. Destructive fevers carried off not only the ship-carpenters, but the persons who had the management of the establishment: and this hay, which the first Spaniards named Golfo Tristo, Melancholy Bay, on account of the mournful and savage aspect of its coasts, became the grave of European seamen. Our host had the rare good fortune to escape these dangers. After having witnessed the death of a great number of his friends, he withdrew far from the coasts to the mountains of Cocollar. Without neighbours, the quiet possessor of five leagues of savannahs, he enjoyed at once that independence, which belongs to solitude, and that serenity of mind, which a pure and bracing air produces in men who live agreeably to the simplicity of nature. Nothing can be compared to the impression of majestic tranquillity, which the aspect of the firmament inspires in this solitary region. Following with the eye, at the entrance of the night, those meadows that bound the horizon, that plain covered with verdure, and gently undulated, we thought we saw from afar, as in the deserts of the Oronoko, the surface of the ocean supporting the starry vault of heaven. The tree under which we were seated, the luminous insects flying in the air, the constellations that shone toward the south; every object seemed to tell us, that we were far from our native soil. If amid this exotic nature the bell of a cow, or the roaring of a bull, were heard from the depth of a valley, the remembrance of our country was awakened suddenly in the sound. They were like distant voices resounding from beyond the ocean, and with magical power transporting us from one hemisphere to the other. Strange mobility of the imagination of man, eternal source of our enjoyments, and our pains! We began in the cool of the morning to climb the Tumiriquiri. Thus is called the summit of the Cocollar, which, with the Brigantine, forms one single mass of mountain, formerly called by the natives the Sierra de los Tigeres. We travelled along a part of the road on horses, which roam about these savannahs; but some of them are used to the saddle. Though their appearance is very heavy, they pass lightly over the most slippery turf. We first stopped at a spring, that issues not from the calcareous rock, but from a layer of quartzose sandstone. The temperature was 21°, consequently 1-5 less than the spring of Quetepe; hence the difference of the level is nearly 220 toises. Wherever the sandstone appears above ground the soil is level, and constitutes as it were small platforms, which follow like steps. To the height of 700 toises, and even beyond, this mountain, like those in its vicinity, is covered only with gramineous plants. This failure of trees is attributed at Cumana to the great * Direction: hor. 4.3. Dip. 45° south-east. + The most abundant species are the paspalus; the andropogon fastigiatum, which forms the genus diectomis of Mr. Palissot de Beauvois; and the panicum olyroides. elevation elevation of the ground; but a slight reflection on the distribution of plants in the Cordilleras of the torrid zone will lead us to conceive, that the summits of New Andalusia are very far from reaching the superior limit of the trees, which in this latitude is at least 1800 toises of absolute height. The smooth turf of the Cocollar begins to appear at 350 toises above the level of the sea, and the traveller may contrive to walk upon this turf, till he reaches a thousand toises of height. Farther on, beyond this band covered with gramineous plants, we found, amidst peaks almost inaccessible to man, a small forest of cedrela, javillo, and mahogany. These local circumstances induce me to think, that the mountainous savannahs of the Cocollar and Turimiquiri owe their existence only to the destructive custom the natives have of setting fire to the woods, which they want to convert into pasturage. Thus, where during three centuries grasses and alpine plants have covered the soil with a thick carpet, the seeds of trees can no longer germinate and fix themselves in the earth, though the birds and winds waft * Hura crepitans, of the family of the euphorbiums. The growth of its trunk is so enormous, that Mr. Bonpland measured vats of javillo wood, 14 feet long, and 8 wide. These vats, made out of one log of wood, are employed to keep the guarapo, or juice of the sugar-cane, and the melasses. The seeds of javillo are a very active poison, and the milk that issues from the petioles when broken frequently produced inflammation in our eyes, if by chance the least quantity penetrated between the eyelids. them continually from the distant forests into the savannahs. The climate of these mountains is so mild, that at the farm of Cocollar the cotton and coffee-tree, and even the sugar-cane, are cultivated with success. Whatever the inhabitants of the coasts may allege, hoar frost has never been found in the latitude of 10°, on heights scarcely exceeding those of the mount D'Or, or the Puy de Dome. The pastures of Tumiriquiri become less rich in proportion to the elevation. Wherever scattered rocks afford shade, lichens and some European mosses are found. The melastomah guacito, and a shrub, the large and tough leaves of which rustle like parchment when shaken by the winds, rise here and there in the savannah. But the principal ornament of the turf of these mountains is a liliaceous plant with golden flowers, the marica martinicensis. It is generally observed in the province of Cumana, and Caraccas, only at four or five hundred toises of elevation. The whole rocky mass of the Turimiquiri is composed of an alpine limestone, like that of Cumanacoa, and a pretty thin strata of marl and quartzose sandstone. The limestone contains masses of brown oxidated iron, and carbonat of • Melastoma xanthostachyum, called guacito at Caraccas. + Paliscourea rigida, chaparro boco. In the savannahs, or llanos, the same Castilian name is given to a tree of the family of the proteacea. For example, in the Montanna de Avila, in the road from Caraccas to La Guayra, and in the Silla de Caraccas. The seeds of the marica are ripe at the end of December. iron. I have observed in several places, and very distinctly, that the sandstone not only reposes on the limestone, but that this last rock frequently includes and alternates with the sandstone. We distinguished clearly the round summit of the Turimiquiri, and the lofty peaks or Cucuruchos, covered with a thick vegetation, and inhabited by tigers, which are hunted on account of their size, and the beauty of their skin. This round summit, which is covered with turf, is 707 toises above the level of the ocean. A ridge of steep rocks stretches out toward the west, and is interrupted at the distance of a mile by an enormous crevice, that descends toward the gulf of Cariaco. At the point where we might suppose the continuation of the ridge, two calcareous paps or peaks arise, the northernmost of which is the most elevated. It is this last which is more particularly called the Cucurucho de Turimiquiri, and which is considered as higher than the mountain of the Brigantine,* so This popular opinion on the height of the Brigantine favors the supposition, that the distance from the port of Cumana to the mountain is much less than twenty-four nautical miles. For we have seen already (vol. ii, p. 206), that the angles of elevation measured at Cumana give 1255 toises for the height of the Brigantine, if we admit the exactness of the distance indicated in the map of the Deposito hydrografico at Madrid. I find, that to make the observed angle agree with a supposed elevation of a thousand toises, the summit of the Brigantine cannot be more than nineteen miles distant from Cumana. The chain of the mountains of New Andalusia is in the well known by the sailors who frequent the coasts of Cumana. We measured by angles of elevation, and a basis, rather short, traced on the round summit bare of trees, the peak, or Cucurucho, which was about 350 toises higher than our station, so that its absolute height exceeded 1050 toises. The view we enjoyed on the Turimiquiri is of vast extent, and highly picturesque. From the summit to the ocean we perceived chains of mountains extended in parallel lines from east to west, and bounding longitudinal valleys. These valleys are intersected at right angles by an infinite number of small ravines, scooped out by same direction as the neighbouring coast, nearly from east to west; and, admitting a distance more considerable than nineteen miles, the Brigantine would be more south than the parallel of Cocollar. But the inhabitants of Cumana wanted to lay out a road to Nueva Barcelona over the Brigantine, and I did not find the latitude of this town less than 10° 6' 52". This circumstance confirms the result of a trigonometrical calculation made at the Salado de Cumana; while on the other side the magnetic bearing of the Brigantine, taken at the summit of the Impos sible, gives a greater distance. This bearing would be highly important, if we were perfectly certain of the longitude of the Impossible, and of the variation of the needle in a place, where the sandstone is strongly impregnated with iron. It is the duty of the traveller, to declare with candour the doubts he may still entertain respecting points, the position of which is not yet sufficiently ascertained. On making land on the coast of Cumana, the pilot reckoned the distance of the Tataraqual fifteen or sixteen miles. the |