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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In Consequence Of This
Engagement, I Changed The Plan Of My Journey, On Reading In The
American Papers, In 1801, That The French Expedition Had Sailed
From Havre, To Circumnavigate The Globe From East To West.
I hired
a small vessel from Batabano, in the island of Cuba, to Portobello,
and thence crossed the isthmus to the coast of the Pacific; this
mistake of a journalist led M. Bonpland and myself to travel eight
hundred leagues through a country we had no intention to visit.
It
was only at Quito, that a letter from M. Delambre, perpetual
secretary of the first class of the Institute, informed us, that
captain Baudin went by the Cape of Good Hope, without touching on
the eastern or western coasts of America.
We spent two days at Corunna, after our instruments were embarked.
A thick fog, which covered the horizon, at length indicated the
change of weather we so anxiously desired. On the 4th of June, in
the evening, the wind turned to north-east, a point which, on the
coast of Galicia, is considered very constant during the summer.
The Pizarro prepared to sail on the 5th, though we had intelligence
that only a few hours previously an English squadron had been seen
from the watch-tower of Sisarga, appearing to stand towards the
mouth of the Tagus. Those who saw our ship weigh anchor asserted
that we should be captured in three days, and that, forced to
follow the fate of the vessel, we should be carried to Lisbon. This
prognostic gave us the more uneasiness, as we had known some
Mexicans at Madrid, who, in order to return to Vera Cruz, had
embarked three times at Cadiz, and having been each time taken at
the entrance of the port, were at length obliged to return to Spain
through Portugal.
The Pizarro set sail at two in the afternoon. As the long and
narrow passage by which a ship sails from the port of Corunna opens
towards the north, and the wind was contrary, we made eight short
tacks, three of which were useless. A fresh tack was made, but very
slowly, and we were for some moments in danger at the foot of fort
St. Amarro, the current having driven us very near the rock, on
which the sea breaks with considerable violence. We remained with
our eyes fixed on the castle of St. Antonio, where the unfortunate
Malaspina was then a captive in a state prison. On the point of
leaving Europe to visit the countries which this illustrious
traveller had visited with so much advantage, I could have wished
to have fixed my thoughts on some object less affecting.
At half-past six we passed the Tower of Hercules, which is the
lighthouse of Corunna, as already mentioned, and where, from a very
remote time, a coal-fire has been kept up for the direction of
vessels. The light of this fire is in no way proportionate to the
noble construction of so vast an edifice, being so feeble that
ships cannot perceive it till they are in danger of striking on the
shore.
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