rs,
travellers easily support evils that become habitual.

[The torment of insects--mosquitoes and venomous flies by day,
and the _zancudos_ (large gnats) by night--became almost
insupportable as they advanced. On the upper Orinoco the
mosquitoes form the principal topic of conversation, the usual
salutation being, "How did you find the gnats during the
night?" or, "How are you off for mosquitoes to-day?" Humboldt
thus describes the situation:]

The lower strata of air, from the surface of the ground to the height of
fifteen or twenty feet, are absolutely filled with venomous insects. If
in an obscure spot, for instance, in the grottos of the cataracts formed
by superincumbent blocks of granite, you direct your eyes towards the
opening enlightened by the sun, you see clouds of mosquitoes more or
less thick. I doubt whether there be a country upon earth where man is
exposed to more cruel torments in the rainy season. Having passed the
fifth degree of latitude you are somewhat less stung; but on the upper
Orinoco the stings are more painful, because the heat and the absolute
want of wind render the air more burning and more irritating in its
contact with the skin. "How comfortable people must be in the moon!"
said a Salivo Indian to Father Gumilla. "She looks so beautiful and so
clear, that she must be free from mosquitoes." These words, which denote
the infancy of a people, are very remarkable. The satellite of the earth
appears to all savage nations the abode of the blessed, the country
of abundance. The Esquimaux, who counts among his riches a plank or
the trunk of a tree, thrown by the currents on a coast destitute of
vegetation, sees in the moon plains covered with forests; the Indian of
the forest of Orinoco there beholds open savannas, where the inhabitants
are never stung by mosquitoes.

[The story of the voyage closes as follows:]

It would be difficult for me to express the satisfaction we felt on
landing at Angostura [the capital of Spanish Guiana.] The inconveniences
endured at sea in small vessels are trivial in comparison with those
that are suffered under a burning sky, surrounded by swarms of
mosquitoes, and lying stretched in a canoe, without the possibility of
taking the least bodily exercise. In seventy-five days we had performed
a passage of five hundred leagues--twenty to a degree--on the five great
rivers, Apure, Orinoco, Atabapo, Rio Negro, and Cassiquiare