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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A Family Of
Canarians Received Us With The Most Amiable Cordiality; An
Excellent Repast Was Prepared, And Everything Was Carefully Avoided
That Might Act As Any Restraint On Us.
The master of the house, Don
Alexandro Gonzales, was travelling on commercial business, and his
young wife had lately had the happiness of becoming a mother.
She
was transported with joy when she heard that on our return from the
Rio Negro we should proceed by the banks of the Orinoco to
Angostura, where her husband was. We were to bear to him the
tidings of the birth of his first child. In those countries, as
among the ancients, travellers are regarded as the safest means of
communication. There are indeed posts established, but they make
such great circuits that private persons seldom entrust them with
letters for the llanos or savannahs of the interior. The child was
brought to us at the moment of our departure: we had seen him
asleep at night, but it was deemed indispensable that we should see
him awake in the morning. We promised to describe his features
exactly to his father, but the sight of our books and instruments
somewhat chilled the mother's confidence. She said "that in a long
journey, amidst so many cares of another kind, we might well forget
the colour of her child's eyes."
On the road from Maracay to the Hacienda de Cura we enjoyed from
time to time the view of the lake of Valencia. An arm of the
granitic chain of the coast stretches southward into the plain. It
is the promontory of Portachuelo which would almost close the
valley, were it not separated by a narrow defile from the rock of
La Cabrera. This place has acquired a sad celebrity in the late
revolutionary wars of Caracas; each party having obstinately
disputed its possession, as opening the way to Valencia, and to the
Llanos. La Cabrera now forms a peninsula: not sixty years ago it
was a rocky island in the lake, the waters of which gradually
diminish. We spent seven very agreeable days at the Hacienda da
Cura, in a small habitation surrounded by thickets.
We lived after the manner of the rich in this country; we bathed
twice, slept three times, and made three meals in the twenty-four
hours. The temperature of the water of the lake is rather warm,
being from twenty-four to twenty-five degrees; but there is another
cool and delicious bathing-place at Toma, under the shade of ceibas
and large zamangs, in a torrent gushing from the granitic mountains
of the Rincon del Diablo. In entering this bath, we had not to fear
the sting of insects, but to guard against the little brown hairs
which cover the pods of the Dolichos pruriens. When these small
hairs, well characterised by the name of picapica, stick to the
body, they excite a violent irritation on the skin; the dart is
felt, but the cause is unperceived.
Near Cura we found all the people occupied in clearing the ground
covered with mimosa, sterculia, and Coccoloba excoriata, for the
purpose of extending the cultivation of cotton.
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