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 Appeal To Those Who, More Sensible To The Beauties Of
Nature Than To The Charms Of Society, Have Long Resided In The
Torrid Zone.
How dear, how memorable during life, is the land on
which they first disembarked!
A vague desire to revisit that spot
remains rooted in their minds to the most advanced age. Cumana and
its dusty soil are still more frequently present to my imagination,
than all the wonders of the Cordilleras. Beneath the bright sky of
the south, the light, and the magic of the aerial hues, embellish a
land almost destitute of vegetation. The sun does not merely
enlighten, it colours the objects, and wraps them in a thin vapour,
which, without changing the transparency of the air, renders its
tints more harmonious, softens the effects of the light, and
diffuses over nature a placid calm, which is reflected in our
souls. To explain this vivid impression which the aspect of the
scenery in the two Indies produces, even on coasts but thinly
wooded, it is sufficient to recollect that the beauty of the sky
augments from Naples to the equator, almost as much as from
Provence to the south of Italy.
We passed at high water the bar formed at the mouth of the little
river Manzanares. The evening breeze gently swelled the waves in
the gulf of Cariaco. The moon had not risen, but that part of the
milky way which extends from the feet of the Centaur towards the
constellation of Sagittarius, seemed to pour a silvery light over
the surface of the ocean.
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