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 Would Have Been Painful To Have
Touched At Cumana, Or At Guayra, Without Visiting The Interior Of A
Country So Little Frequented By Naturalists.
The resolution we formed during the night of the 14th of July, had
a happy influence on the direction
Of our travels; for instead of a
few weeks, we remained a whole year in this part of the continent.
Had not the fever broken out on board the Pizarro, we should never
have reached the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, or even the limits of
the Portuguese possessions on the Rio Negro. To this direction
given to our travels we were perhaps also indebted for the good
health we enjoyed during so long an abode in the equinoctial
regions.
It is well known, that Europeans, during the first months after
their arrival under the scorching sky of the tropics, are exposed
to the greatest dangers. They consider themselves to be safe, when
they have passed the rainy season in the West India islands, at
Vera Cruz, or at Carthagena. This opinion is very general, although
there are examples of persons, who, having escaped a first attack
of the yellow fever, have fallen victims to the same disease in one
of the following years. The facility of becoming acclimated, seems
to be in the inverse ratio of the difference that exists between
the mean temperature of the torrid zone, and that of the native
country of the traveller, or colonist, who changes his climate;
because the irritability of the organs, and their vital action, are
powerfully modified by the influence of the atmospheric heat.
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