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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Our Boat, Though The Best We Could Procure,
Was So Leaky, That The Pilot's Son Was Constantly Employed In
Baling Out The Water With A Tutuma, Or Shell Of The Crescentia
Cujete (Calabash).
It often happens in the gulf of Cariaco, and
especially to the north of the peninsula of Araya, that canoes
laden with cocoa-nuts are upset in sailing too near the wind, and
against the tide.
The inhabitants of Araya, whom we visited a second time on
returning from the Orinoco, have not forgotten that their peninsula
was one of the points first peopled by the Spaniards. They love to
talk of the pearl fishery; of the ruins of the castle of Santiago,
which they hope to see some day rebuilt; and of everything that
recalls to mind the ancient splendour of those countries. In China
and Japan those inventions are considered as recent, which have not
been known above two thousand years; in the European colonies an
event appears extremely old, if it dates back three centuries, or
about the period of the discovery of America.
CHAPTER 1.6.
MOUNTAINS OF NEW ANDALUCIA.
VALLEY OF THE CUMANACOA.
SUMMIT OF THE COCOLLAR.
MISSIONS OF THE CHAYMA INDIANS.
Our first visit to the peninsula of Araya was soon succeeded by an
excursion to the mountains of the missions of the Chayma Indians,
where a variety of interesting objects claimed our attention. We
entered on a country studded with forests, and visited a convent
surrounded by palm-trees and arborescent ferns.
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