An Immense Layer Of Mould Manifests The Uninterrupted Action Of Organic Powers. Crocodiles And Boas Are Masters Of The River; The Jaguar, The Peccary, The Dante, And The Monkeys Traverse The Forest Without Fear And Without Danger; There They Dwell As In An Ancient Inheritance.

This aspect of animated nature, in which man is nothing, has something in it strange and sad.

To this we reconcile ourselves with difficulty on the ocean, and amid the sands of Africa; though in scenes where nothing recalls to mind our fields, our woods, and our streams, we are less astonished at the vast solitude through which we pass. Here, in a fertile country, adorned with eternal verdure, we seek in vain the traces of the power of man; we seem to be transported into a world different from that which gave us birth. These impressions are the more powerful in proportion as they are of long duration. A soldier, who had spent his whole life in the missions of the Upper Orinoco, slept with us on the bank of the river. He was an intelligent man, who, during a calm and serene night, pressed me with questions on the magnitude of the stars, on the inhabitants of the moon, on a thousand subjects of which I was as ignorant as himself. Being unable by my answers to satisfy his curiosity, he said to me in a firm tone of the most positive conviction: "with respect to men, I believe there are no more up there than you would have found if you had gone by land from Javita to Cassiquiare.

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