Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This Theory, Adopted By
The Greeks,* (* Strabo, Liv.
15.) though it did not pass without
contradiction,* (* Onesicritus, apud Strabonem, lib.
15.
Alexander's expedition appears to have contributed greatly to fix
the attention of the Greeks on the great question of the influence
of climates. They had learned from the accounts of travellers, that
in Hindostan the nations of the south were of darker colour than
those of the north, near the mountains: and they supposed that they
were both of the same race.) has been propagated even to our own
times. Buffon has repeated in prose what Theodectes had expressed
in verse two thousand years before: "that nations wear the livery
of the climate in which they live." If history had been written by
black nations, they would have maintained what even Europeans have
recently advanced,* that man was originally black, or of a very
tawny colour (* See the work of Mr. Prichard, abounding with
curious research. "Researches into the Physical History of Man,
1813," page 239.); and that mankind have become white in some
races, from the effect of civilization and progressive
debilitation, as animals, in a state of domestication, pass from
dark to lighter colours. In plants and in animals, accidental
varieties, formed under our own eyes, have become fixed, and have
been propagated;* (* For example, the sheep with very short legs,
called ancon sheep in Connecticut, and examined by Sir Everard
Home. This variety dates only from the year 1791.) but nothing
proves, that in the present state of human organization, the
different races of black, yellow, copper-coloured, and white men,
when they remain unmixed, deviate considerably from their primitive
type, by the influence of climate, of food, and other external
agents.
These opinions are founded on the authority of Ulloa.* (* "The
Indians [Americans] are of a copper-colour, which by the action of
the sun and the air grows darker. I must remark, that neither heat
nor cold produces any sensible change in the colour, so that the
Indians of the Cordilleras of Peru are easily confounded with those
of the hottest plains; and those who live under the Line cannot be
distinguished, by their colour, from those who inhabit the fortieth
degree of north and south latitude." - Noticias Americanas. No
ancient author has so clearly stated the two forms of reasoning, by
which we still explain in our days the differences of colour and
features among neighbouring nations, as Tacitus. He makes a just
distinction between the influence of climate, and hereditary
dispositions; and, like a philosopher persuaded of our profound
ignorance of the origin of things, he leaves the question
undecided. "Habitus corporum varii; atque ex eo argumenta, seu
durante originis vi, seu procurrentibus in diversa terris, positio
coeli corporibus habitum dedit." - Agricola, cap 2.) That learned
writer saw the Indians of Chile, of the Andes of Peru, of the
burning coasts of Panama, and those of Louisiana, situated in the
northern temperate zone. He had the good fortune to live at a
period when theories were less numerous; and, like me, he was
struck by seeing the natives equally bronzed under the Line, in the
cold climate of the Cordilleras, and in the plains. Where
differences of colour are observed, they depend on the race. We
shall soon find on the burning banks of the Orinoco Indians with a
whitish skin. Durans originis vis est.
CHAPTER 1.10.
SECOND ABODE AT CUMANA.
EARTHQUAKES.
EXTRAORDINARY METEORS.
We remained a month longer at Cumana, employing ourselves in the
necessary preparations for our proposed visit to the Orinoco and
the Rio Negro. We had to choose such instruments as could be most
easily transported in narrow boats; and to engage guides for an
inland journey of ten months, across a country without
communication with the coasts. The astronomical determination of
places being the most important object of this undertaking, I felt
desirous not to miss the observation of an eclipse of the sun,
which was to be visible at the end of October: and in consequence I
preferred remaining till that period at Cumana, where the sky is
generally clear and serene. It was now too late to reach the banks
of the Orinoco before October; and the high valleys of Caracas
promised less favourable opportunities, on account of the vapours
which accumulate round the neighbouring mountains.
I was, however, near being compelled by a deplorable occurrence, to
renounce, or at least to delay for a long time, my journey to the
Orinoco. On the 27th of October, the day before the eclipse, we
went as usual, to take the air on the shore of the gulf, and to
observe the instant of high water, which in those parts is only
twelve or thirteen inches. It was eight in the evening, and the
breeze was not yet stirring. The sky was cloudy; and during a dead
calm it was excessively hot. We crossed the beach which separates
the suburb of the Guayqueria Indians from the embarcadero. I heard
some one walking behind us, and on turning, I saw a tall man of the
colour of the Zambos, naked to the waist. He held almost over my
head a macana, which is a great stick of palm-tree wood, enlarged
to the end like a club. I avoided the stroke by leaping towards the
left; but M. Bonpland, who walked on my right, was less fortunate.
He did not see the Zambo so soon as I did, and received a stroke
above the temple, which levelled him with the ground. We were
alone, without arms, half a league from any habitation, on a vast
plain bounded by the sea. The Zambo, instead of attacking me, moved
off slowly to pick up M. Bonpland's hat, which, having somewhat
deadened the violence of the blow, had fallen off and lay at some
distance. Alarmed at seeing my companion on the ground, and for
some moments senseless, I thought of him only. I helped him to
raise himself, and pain and anger doubled his strength.
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