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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- See Above.) Encountered A Few Natives Who Were Harpooning
Fish By Throwing A Pole Tied To A Cord, And Terminating In An
Extremely Sharp Point.
They asked them in the Haiti language their
name; and the Indians, thinking that the question of the strangers
related to their harpoons, which were formed of the hard and heavy
wood of the Macana palm, answered guaike, guaike, which signifies
pointed pole.
A striking difference at present exists between the
Guayquerias, a civilized tribe of skilled fishermen, and those
savage Guaraounos of the Orinoco, who suspend their habitations on
the trunks of the Moriche palm. The population of Cumana has been
singularly exaggerated, but according to the most authentic
registers it does not exceed 16,000 souls.
Probably the Indian suburb will by degrees extend as far as the
Embarcadero; the plain, which is not yet covered with houses or
huts, being more than 340 toises in length. The heat is somewhat
less oppressive on the side near the seashore, than in the old
town, where the reverberation of the calcareous soil, and the
proximity of the mountain of San Antonio, raise the temperature to
an excessive degree. In the suburb of the Guayquerias, the sea
breezes have free access; the soil is clayey, and, for that reason,
it is thought to be less exposed to violent shocks of earthquake,
than the houses at the foot of the rocks and hills on the right
bank of the Manzanares.
The shore near the mouth of the small river Santa Catalina is
bordered with mangrove trees,* but these mangroves are not
sufficiently spread to diminish the salubrity of the air of Cumana.
(* Rhizophora mangle.
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