Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 208 of 407 - First - Home
The Spacious Abode Of
The Padre Had Just Been Finished, And We Had Remarked With
Surprise, That The House, The
Roof of which formed a terrace, was
furnished with a great number of chimneys that looked like turrets.
This, our
Host told us, was done to remind him of a country dear to
his recollection, and to picture to his mind the winters of Aragon
amid the heat of the torrid zone. The Indians of Guanaguana
cultivate cotton for their own benefit as well as for that of the
church and the missionary. The natives have machines of a very
simple construction to separate the cotton from the seeds. These
are wooden cylinders of extremely small diameter, within which the
cotton passes, and which are made to turn by a treadle. These
machines, however imperfect, are very useful, and they begin to be
imitated in other Missions. The soil of Guanaguana is not less
fertile than that of Aricagua, a small neighbouring village, which
has also preserved its ancient Indian name. An almuda of land, 1850
square toises, produces in abundant years from 25 to 30 fanegas of
maize, each fanega weighing 100 pounds. But here, as in other
places, where the bounty of nature retards industry, a very small
number of acres are cleared, and the culture of alimentary plants
is neglected. Scarcity of subsistence is felt, whenever the harvest
is lost by a protracted drought. The Indians of Guanaguana related
to us as a fact not uncommon, that in the preceding year they,
their wives, and their children, had been for three months al
monte; by which they meant, wandering in the neighbouring forests,
to live on succulent plants, palm-cabbages, fern roots, and fruits
of wild trees. They did not speak of this nomad life as of a state
of privation.
The beautiful valley of Guanaguana stretches towards the east,
opening into the plains of Punzera and Terecen. We wished to visit
those plains, and examine the springs of petroleum, lying between
the river Guarapiche and the Rio Areo; but the rainy season had
already arrived, and we were in daily perplexity how to dry and
preserve the plants we had collected. The road from Guanaguana to
the village of Punzera runs either by San Felix or by Caycara and
Guayuta, which is a farm for cattle (hato) of the missionaries. In
this last place, according to the report of the Indians, great
masses of sulphur are found, not in a gypseous or calcareous rock,
but at a small depth below the soil, in a bed of clay. This
singular phenomenon appears to me peculiar to America; we found it
also in the kingdom of Quito, and in New Spain. On approaching
Punzera, we saw in the savannahs small bags, formed of a silky
tissue suspended from the branches of the lowest trees. It is the
seda silvestre, or wild silk of the country, which has a beautiful
lustre, but is very rough to the touch. The phalaena which produces
it is probably analogous with that of the provinces of Gua[?]uato
and Antioquia, which also furnish wild silk.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 208 of 407
Words from 107607 to 108128
of 211363