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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We Ran
Toward The Zambo, Who, Either From Cowardice, Common Enough In
People Of This Caste, Or Because He Perceived
At a distance some
men on the beach, did not wait for us, but ran off in the direction
of
The Tunal, a little thicket of cactus and arborescent avicennia.
He chanced to fall in running; and M. Bonpland, who reached him
first, seized him round the body. The Zambo drew a long knife; and
in this unequal struggle we should infallibly have been wounded, if
some Biscayan merchants, who were taking the air on the beach, had
not come to our assistance. The Zambo seeing himself surrounded,
thought no longer of defence. He again ran away, and we pursued him
through the thorny cactuses. At length, tired out, he took shelter
in a cow-house, whence he suffered himself to be quietly led to
prison.
M. Bonpland was seized with fever during the night; but being
endowed with great energy and fortitude, and possessing that
cheerful disposition which is one of the most precious gifts of
nature, he continued his labours the next day. The stroke of the
macana had extended to the top of his head, and he felt its effect
for the space of two or three months during the stay we made at
Caracas. When stooping to collect plants, he was sometimes seized
with giddiness, which led us to fear that an internal abscess was
forming. Happily these apprehensions were unfounded, and the
symptoms, at first alarming, gradually disappeared.
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