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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While We
Were Observing Their Movements, We Saw A Troop Of Indians Going
Towards The Mountains Of Caripe.
They were without clothing, as the
natives of this country generally are.
The women, laden with rather
heavy burdens, closed the march. The men were all armed; and even
the youngest boys had bows and arrows. They moved on in silence,
with their eyes fixed on the ground. We endeavoured to learn from
them whether we were yet far from the Mission of Santa Cruz, where
we intended passing the night. We were overcome with fatigue, and
suffered from thirst. The heat increased as the storm drew near,
and we had not met with a single spring on the way. The words si,
patre; no, patre; which the Indians continually repeated, led us to
think they understood a little Spanish. In the eyes of a native
every white man is a monk, a padre; for in the Missions the colour
of the skin characterizes the monk, more than the colour of the
garment. In vain we questioned them respecting the length of the
way: they answered, as if by chance, si and no, without our being
able to attach any precise sense to their replies. This made us the
more impatient, as their smiles and gestures indicated their wish
to direct us; and the forest seemed at every step to become thicker
and thicker. At length we separated from the Indians; our guides
were able to follow us only at a distance, because the beasts of
burden fell at every step in the ravines.
After journeying for several hours, continually descending on
blocks of scattered rock, we found ourselves unexpectedly at the
outlet of the forest of Santa Maria. A savannah, the verdure of
which had been renewed by the winter rains, stretched before us
farther than the eye could reach. On the left we discovered a
narrow valley, extending as far as the mountains of the Guacharo,
and covered with a thick forest. Looking downward, the eye rested
on the tops of the trees, which, at eight hundred feet below the
road, formed a carpet of verdure of a dark and uniform tint. The
openings in the forest appeared like vast funnels, in which we
could distinguish by their elegant forms and pinnated leaves, the
Praga and Irasse palms. But what renders this spot eminently
picturesque, is the aspect of the Sierra del Guacharo. Its northern
slope, in the direction of the gulf of Cariaco, is abrupt. It
presents a wall of rock, an almost vertical profile, exceeding 3000
feet in height. The vegetation which covers this wall is so scanty,
that the eye can follow the lines of the calcareous strata. The
summit of the Sierra is flat, and it is only at its eastern
extremity, that the majestic peak of the Guacharo rises like an
inclined pyramid, its form resembles that of the needles and horns*
of the Alps. (* The Shreckhorner, the Finsteraarhorn, etc.)
The savannah we crossed to the Indian village of Santa Cruz is
composed of several smooth plateaux, lying above each other like
terraces.
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