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Upon the banks of some of the South-American rivers, life is almost unendurable on account of this pest the "plaga de mosquitos," as the Spaniards term it while upon other streams in the very same latitude musquitoes are unknown. These streams are what are termed "rios negros," or black-water rivers a peculiar class of rivers, to which many tributaries of the Amazon and Orinoco belong.
Having now only one cask of water remaining for the whole crew, and the other ships in company being in the same condition, and no water being found in this place, he continued his course still westwards, and cast anchor on the Wednesday following at another point which he named Punta de la Plaga, or Sand Point, because of a fine strand or beach where the people landed and procured water at a fine brook . In this place they found no habitations and saw no people, though along the coast, which they had left behind them, they had seen many houses and towns.
In the missions of the Orinoco, in the villages on the banks of the river, surrounded by immense forests, the plaga de las moscas, or the plague of the mosquitos, affords an inexhaustible subject of conversation. When two persons meet in the morning, the first questions they address to each other are: How did you find the zancudos during the night?
They are three in number: Serritos, on the road to the Plaga Chicha, where we meet with some fine tamarind trees; St. Francis, towards the south-east; and the great suburb of the Guayquerias, or Guayguerias. The name of this tribe of Indians was quite unknown before the conquest.
It would appear that Columbus altered his course from W. to the northwards on Tuesday 31st July, 1498, and discovered Trinidada the same day; and that the ships anchored at Funta de la Plaga on Wednesday the 1st of August, or the immediately following day.
They found here, however, the tokens of fishermen who had fled, leaving behind them some of their fishing tackle; and they noticed the prints of the feet of beasts, which they judged might have been goats, and they saw the bones of one, the head of which had no horns, and which, therefore, they thought might have been a monkey, or cat-o-mountain, as they afterwards found it to have been, having found many of these cats in Paria . This same day, being the 1st of August, while sailing between Cape Galera and la Plaga, they discovered the continent about twenty-five leagues distant, but thinking it another island, it was named Isla Santo, or the Holy Island . The coast of Trinidada between those two points was thirty leagues in length from E. to W. without any harbour, but all the country appeared pleasantly covered with trees down to the water side, and had abundance of towns.
That part of the plain which is north of the city, is called Plaga Chica, or the Little Plain, and extends eastwards as far as Punta Delgada, where a narrow valley, covered with yellow gomphrena, still marks the point of the ancient outlet of the waters.
Many Indian tribes settled upon the banks of the latter solely to get clear of the "plaga de mosquitos." The Indians who reside in the mosquito districts habitually paint their bodies, and smear themselves with oil, as a protection against their bites; and it is a common thing among the natives, when speaking of any place, to inquire into the "character" of its mosquitoes!
He remembers the saying of the wise man, "Mulier nequam plaga mortis;" and at last by ordering her off in the name of the Blessed Trinity and the Holy Virgin, "withal gently blowing towards her," she all of a sudden giving three leaps, and howling thrice, flies away in a trice. The Bolungo or Chilumbo oath or ordeal is, of course, a "hellish ceremony."
In such extreme accidents, 'tis cruelty to require so exact a composedness. Let us not command this voice to sally, but stop it not. Epicurus, not only forgives his sage for crying out in torments, but advises him to it: "Pugiles etiam, quum feriunt, in jactandis caestibus ingemiscunt, quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur, venitque plaga vehementior." Cicero, Tusc.
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