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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The Situation Of The Lagoon Of Campoma Renders The North-West Wind,
Which Blows Frequently After Sunset, Very Pernicious To The
Inhabitants Of The Little Town Of Cariaco.
Its influence can be the
less doubted, as intermitting fevers are observed to degenerate
into typhoid fevers, in proportion as we approach the lagoon, which
is the principal focus of putrid miasms.
Whole families of free
negroes, who have small plantations on the northern coast of the
gulf of Cariaco, languish in their hammocks from the beginning of
the rainy season. These intermittent fevers assume a dangerous
character, when persons, debilitated by long labour and copious
perspiration, expose themselves to the fine rains, which frequently
fall as evening advances. Nevertheless, the men of colour, and
particularly the Creole negroes, resist much better than any other
race, the influence of the climate. Lemonade and infusions of
Scoparia dulcis are given to the sick; but the cuspare, which is
the cinchona of Angostura, is seldom used.
It is generally observed, that in these epidemics of the town of
Cariaco the mortality is less considerable than might be supposed.
Intermitting fevers, when they attack the same individual during
several successive years, enfeeble the constitution; but this state
of debility, so common on the unhealthy coasts, does not cause
death. What is remarkable enough, is the belief which prevails here
as in the Campagna of Rome, that the air has become progressively
more vitiated in proportion as a greater number of acres have been
cultivated. The miasms exhaled from these plains have, however,
nothing in common with those which arise from a forest when the
trees are cut down, and the sun heats a thick layer of dead leaves.
Near Cariaco the country is but thinly wooded. Can it be supposed
that the mould, fresh stirred and moistened by rains, alters and
vitiates the atmosphere more than the thick wood of plants which
covers an uncultivated soil? To local causes are joined other
causes less problematic. The neighbouring shores of the sea are
covered with mangroves, avicennias, and other shrubs with
astringent bark. All the inhabitants of the tropics are aware of
the noxious exhalations of these plants; and they dread them the
more, as their roots and stocks are not always under water, but
alternately wetted and exposed to the heat of the sun.* The
mangroves produce miasms, because they contain vegeto-animal matter
combined with tannin. (* The following is a list of the social
plants that cover those sandy plains on the sea-side, and
characterize the vegetation of Cumana and the gulf of Cariaco.
Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia nitida, Gomphrena flava, G. brachiata,
Sesuvium portulacastrum (vidrio), Talinum cuspidatum (vicho), T.
cumanense, Portulacca pilosa (zargasso), P. lanuginosa, Illecebrum
maritimum, Atriplex cristata, Heliotropium viride, H. latifolium,
Verbena cuneata, Mollugo verticillata, Euphorbia maritima,
Convolvulus cumanensis.)
The town of Cariaco has been repeatedly sacked in former times by
the Caribs. Its population has augmented rapidly since the
provincial authorities, in spite of prohibitory orders from the
court of Madrid have often favoured the trade with foreign
colonies.
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