A PLAGUS OF FLIES. 15]

having in his missions the largest and most valiant
mosquitoes, at length gradually acknowledged that
the sting of the insects of the Cassiquiare was the
most painful he had ever felt. In these regions
there is no more repose for the traveller. If he
have any poetical remembrance of Dante, he will
think he has entered the cztta dolente ; he will
seem to read on the rocks around these memorable
lines of the third Canto:

‘Noi sem venuti al luogo, ov’ i’ t’ho detto
Che tu vedrai le genti dolorose.’

‘In the missions of the Oroonoko, the plague of
the flies affords an inexhaustible subject of conver-
sation. When two persons meet in the morning,
the first questions they address to each other are,
‘How did you find the zancudoes during the night?
Tlow are we to-day for the mosquitoes ?’ I doubt
whether there is upon earth a country where man is
exposed to more cruel torments in the rainy season.

‘““ How comfortable must people be in the moon!’
sald a Galiva Indian to Father Gumilla ; ‘she looks
so beautiful and so clear, that she must be free
‘rom moschettoes.’

“These words, which denote the infancy of a
people, are very remarkable. The earth is, to the
American savage, the abode of the blessed, the
country of abundance. The Hsquimaux, whose
riches are a plank, or a trunk of a tree carried by