his companions, who were concealed among the trees, excited their suspicions, and induced them to return on board. These blacks were probably Maroon negroes, who had escaped from prison. The appearance of a naked man, wandering on an uninhabited shore, and unable to rid himself of the chains fastened round his neck and arm, left a painful impression on the travellers; but the sailors felt so little sympathy with these miserable creatures, that they wished to return and seize the fugitives, in order to sell them at Carthagena.

Next morning they doubled the Punta Gigantes, and made sail towards the Boca Chica, the entrance to the port of Carthagena, which is eight or ten miles farther up. On landing, Humboldt learned that the expedition appointed to make a survey of the coast under the command of M. Fidalgo had not yet put to sea, and this circumstance enabled him to ascertain the astronomical position of several places which it was of importance to determine.

During the six days of their stay at Carthagena, they made excursions in the neighbourhood, more especially in the direction of the Boca Grande, and the hill of Popa, which commands the town. The port or bay is nearly eleven miles and a half long. The small island of Tierra Bomba, at its two extremities, which approach, the one to a neck of land from the continent, the other to a cape of the isle of Bani, forms the only entrance to the harbour. One of these, named Boca Grande, has been artificially closed, for the defence of the town, in consequence of an attack attended with partial success made by Admiral Vernon in 1741. The extent of the work was 2640 varas, or 2446 yards, and as the water was from 16 to 20 feet deep, a wall or dike of stone, from 16 to 21 feet high, was raised on piles. The other opening, the Boca Chica, is from 36 to 38 yards broad, but is daily becoming narrower, while the currents acting upon the Boca Grande have

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opened a breach in it, which they are continually extending.

The insalubrity of Carthagena, which has been exaggerated, varies with the state of the great marshes that surround it. The Cienega de Tesca, which is upwards of eighteen miles in length, communicates with the ocean; and, when in dry years the salt-water does not cover the whole plain, the exhalations that rise from it during the heat of the day become extremely pernicious. The hilly ground in the neighbourhood of the town is of limestone, containing petrifactions, and is covered by a gloomy vegetation of cactus, Jatropha gossypifolia, croton, and mimosa. While the travellers were searching for plants, their guides showed them a thick bush of acacia cornigera, which had acquired celebrity from the following occurrence: A woman, wearied of the well-founded jealousy of her husband, bound him at night with the assistance of her paramour, and threw him into it. The thorns of this species of acacia are exceedingly sharp, and of great length, and the shrub is infested by ants. The more the unfortunate man struggled, the more severely was he lacerated by the prickles, and when his cries at length attracted some persons who were passing, he was found covered with blood, and cruelly tormented by the ants.

At Carthagena the travellers met with several persons whose society was not less agreeable than instructive; and in the house of an officer of artillery, Don Domingo Esquiaqui, found a very curious collection of paintings, models of machinery, and minerals. They had also an opportunity of witnessing the pageant of the Pascua. Nothing, says Humboldt, could rival the oddness of the dresses of the principal personages in these processions. Beggars, carrying a crown of thorns on their heads, asked alms, with crucifixes in their hands, and habited in black robes. Pilate was arrayed in a garb of striped

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VILLAGE OF TURBACO.`

silk, and the apostles, seated round a large table covered with sweetmeats, were carried on the shoulders of Zambos. At sunset, effigies of Jews in French vestments, and formed of straw and other combustibles, were burnt in the principal streets.

Dreading the insalubrity of the town, the travellers retired on the 6th April to the Indian village of Turbaco, situated in a beautiful district, at the entrance of a large forest, about 174 miles to the south-west of the Popa, one of the most remarkable summits in the neighbourhood of Carthagena. Here they remained until they made the necessary preparations for their voyage on the Rio Magdalena, and for the long journey which they intended to make to Bogota, Popayan, and Quito. The village is about 1151 feet above the level of the sea. Snakes were so numerous that they chased the rats even in the houses, and pursued the bats on the roofs. From the terrace surrounding their habitation, they had a view of the colossal mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, part of which was covered with perennial snow. The intervening space, consisting of hills and plains, was adorned with a luxuriant vegetation, resembling that of the Orinoco. There they found gigantic trees, not previously known, such as the Rhinocarpus excelsa, with spirallycurved fruit, the Ocotea turbacensis, and the Cavanillesia platanifolia; the large five-winged fruit_of which is suspended from the tips of the branches like paper lanterns. They botanized every day in the woods from five in the morning till night, though they were excessively annoyed by mosquitoes, zancudoes, xegens, and other tipulary insects. In the midst of these magnificent forests they frequently saw plantations of bananas and maize, to which the Indians are fond of retiring at the end of the rainy

season.

The persons who accompanied the travellers on these expeditions often spoke of a marshy ground