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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By Interrupting The Blossoming, Nature Is
Obliged To Carry Elsewhere The Saccharine Or Amylaceous Matter,
Which Would Accumulate In The Flowers Of The Maguey And In The
Fruit Of The Mauritia.
Some families of Guaraons, associated with
the Chaymas, live far from their native land, in the Missions of
the plains or llanos of Cumana; for instance, at Santa Rosa de
Ocopi.
Five or six hundred of them voluntarily quitted their
marshes, a few years ago, and formed, on the northern and southern
banks of the Orinoco, twenty-five leagues distant from Cape Barima,
two considerable villages, under the names of Zacupana and Imataca.
When I made my journey in Caripe, these Indians were still without
missionaries, and lived in complete independence. Their excellent
qualities as boatmen, their perfect knowledge of the mouths of the
Orinoco, and of the labyrinth of branches communicating with each
other, give the Guaraons a certain political importance. They
favour that clandestine commerce of which the island of Trinidad is
the centre. The Guaraons run with extreme address on muddy lands,
where the European, the Negro, or other Indians except themselves,
would not dare to walk; and it is, therefore, commonly believed,
that they are of lighter weight than the rest of the natives. This
is also the opinion that is held in Asia of the Burat Tartars. The
few Guaraons whom I saw were of middle size, squat, and very
muscular. The lightness with which they walk in places newly dried,
without sinking in, when even they have no planks tied to their
feet, seemed to me the effect of long habit.
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