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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I Landed In The Port Of La Guayra, And The Same Evening Made
Preparations For Transporting My Instruments To Caracas.
Having
been recommended not to sleep in the town, where the yellow fever
had been raging only a few weeks previously, I fixed my lodging in
a house on a little hill, above the village of Maiquetia, a place
more exposed to fresh winds than La Guayra.
I reached Caracas on
the 21st of November, four days sooner than M. Bonpland, who, with
the other travellers on the land journey, had suffered greatly from
the rain and the inundations of the torrents, between Capaya and
Curiepe.
Before proceeding further, I will here subjoin a description of La
Guayra, and the extraordinary road which leads from thence to the
town of Caracas, adding thereto all the observations made by M.
Bonpland and myself, in an excursion to Cabo Blanco about the end
of January 1800.
La Guayra is rather a roadstead than a port. The sea is constantly
agitated, and ships suffer at once by the violence of the wind, the
tideways, and the bad anchorage. The lading is taken in with
difficulty, and the swell prevents the embarkation of mules here,
as at New Barcelona and Porto Cabello. The free mulattoes and
negroes, who carry the cacao on board the ships, are a class of men
remarkable for muscular strength. They wade up to their waists
through the water; and it is remarkable that they are never
attacked by the sharks, so common in this harbour. This fact seems
connected with what I have often observed within the tropics, with
respect to other classes of animals which live in society, for
instance monkeys and crocodiles. In the Missions of the Orinoco,
and on the banks of the river Amazon, the Indians, who catch
monkeys to sell them, know very well that they can easily succeed
in taming those which inhabit certain islands; while monkeys of the
same species, caught on the neighbouring continent, die of terror
or rage when they find themselves in the power of man. The
crocodiles of one lake in the llanos are cowardly, and flee even
when in the water; whilst those of another lake will attack with
extreme intrepidity. It would be difficult to explain this
difference of disposition and habits, by the mere aspect of the
respective localities. The sharks of the port of La Guayra seem to
furnish an analogous example. They are dangerous and blood-thirsty
at the island opposite the coast of Caracas, at the Roques, at
Bonayre, and at Curassao; while they forbear to attack persons
swimming in the ports of La Guayra and Santa Martha. The natives,
who like the ignorant mass of people in every country, in seeking
the explanation of natural phenomena, always have recourse to the
marvellous, affirm that in the ports just mentioned, a bishop gave
his benediction to the sharks.
The situation of La Guayra is very singular, and can only be
compared to that of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe.
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