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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It Might Be Said That The
Western Declivity Of The Andes Is Their True Country; And, What Is
Remarkable Enough, We Found Them Not Only In The Low Regions At The
Level Of The Ocean, But Also In The Lofty Valleys Of The
Cordilleras, At The Height Of 860 Toises.
The road skirted with the bamboos above mentioned led us to the
small village of San Fernando, situated in a narrow plain,
surrounded by very steep calcareous rocks.
This was the first
Mission* we saw in America. (* A certain number of habitations
collected round a church, with a missionary monk performing the
ministerial duties, is called in the Spanish colonies Mision, or
Pueblo de mision. Indian villages, governed by a priest, are called
Pueblos de doctrina. A distinction is made between the Cura
doctrinero, who is the priest of an Indian parish, and the Cura
rector, priest of a village inhabited by whites and men of mixed
race.) The houses, or rather the huts of the Chayma Indians, though
separate from each other, are not surrounded by gardens. The
streets, which are wide and very straight, cross each other at
right angles. The walls of the huts are made of clay, strengthened
by lianas. The uniformity of these huts, the grave and taciturn air
of their inhabitants, and the extreme neatness of the dwellings,
reminded us of the establishments of the Moravian Brethren. Besides
their own gardens, every Indian family helps to cultivate the
garden of the community, or, as it is called, the conuco de la
comunidad, which is situated at some distance from the village. In
this conuco the adults of each sex work one hour in the morning and
one in the evening. In the missions nearest the coast the garden of
the community is generally a sugar or indigo plantation, under the
direction of the missionary; and its produce, if the law were
strictly observed, could be employed only for the support of the
church and the purchase of sacerdotal ornaments. The great square
of San Fernando, in the centre of the village, contains the church,
the dwelling of the missionary, and a very humble-looking edifice
pompously called the king's house (Casa del Rey). This is a
caravanserai, destined for lodging travellers; and, as we often
experienced, infinitely valuable in a country where the name of an
inn is still unknown. The Casas del Rey are to be found in all the
Spanish colonies, and may be deemed an imitation of the tambos of
Peru, which were established in conformity with the laws of Manco
Capac.
We had been recommended to the friars who govern the Missions of
the Chayma Indians, by their syndic, who resides at Cumana. This
recommendation was the more useful to us, as the missionaries,
either from zeal for the purity of the morals of their
parishioners, or to conceal the monastic system from the indiscreet
curiosity of strangers, often adhere with rigour to an old
regulation, by which a white man of the secular state is not
permitted to sojourn more than one night in an Indian village.
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