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 The Low And Humid Parts Of The
Equinoctial Zone, Even When The Gramineous Plants And Reeds Present
The Aspect
Of a meadow, a rich accessory of the picture is usually
wanting; I allude to that variety of wild flowers,
Which, scarcely
rising above the grass, seem as it were, to lie upon a smooth bed
of verdure. Within the tropics, the strength and luxury of
vegetation give such a development to plants, that the smallest of
the dicotyledonous family become shrubs. It would seem as if the
liliaceous plants, mingling with the gramina, assumed the place of
the flowers of our meadows. Their form is indeed striking; they
dazzle by the variety and splendour of their colours; but being too
high above the soil, they disturb that harmonious proportion which
characterizes the plants of our European meadows. Nature has in
every zone stamped on the landscape the peculiar type of beauty
proper to the locality.
We must not be surprised that fertile islands, so near Terra Firma,
are not now inhabited. It was only at the early period of the
discovery, and whilst the Caribbees, Chaymas, and Cumanagotos were
still masters of the coast, that the Spaniards formed settlements
at Cubagua and Margareta. When the natives were subdued, or driven
southward in the direction of the savannahs, the preference was
given to settlements on the continent, where there was a choice of
land, and where there were Indians, who might be treated like
beasts of burden. Had the little islands of Tortuga, Blanquilla,
and Orchilla been situated in the group of the Antilles, they would
not have remained without traces of cultivation.
Vessels of heavy burthen pass between the main land and the most
southern of the Piritu Islands. Being very low, their northern
point is dreaded by pilots who near the coast in those latitudes.
When we found ourselves to westward of the Morro of Barcelona, and
the mouth of the river Unare, the sea, till then calm, became
agitated and rough in proportion as we approached Cape Codera. The
influence of that vast promontory is felt from afar, in that part
of the Caribbean Sea. The length of the passage from Cumana to La
Guayra depends on the degree of ease or difficulty with which Cape
Codera can be doubled. Beyond this cape the sea constantly runs so
high, that we can scarcely believe we are near a coast where (from
the point of Paria as far as Cape San Roman) a gale of wind is
never known. On the 20th of November at sunrise we were so far
advanced, that we might expect to double the cape in a few hours.
We hoped to reach La Guayra the same day; but our Indian pilot
being afraid of the privateers who were near that port, thought it
would be prudent to make for land, and anchor in the little harbour
of Higuerote, which we had already passed, and await the shelter of
night to proceed on our voyage.
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