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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The Patient Was Removed Into An Airy Place Near
The Hatchway, Where A Small Square Berth Had Been Formed With
Sailcloth.
Here he was to remain till he died, which was an event
expected every moment; but passing from an atmosphere heated,
stagnant, and filled with miasma, into fresher and purer air, which
was renewed every instant, he gradually revived from his lethargic
state.
His recovery dated from the day when he quitted the middle
deck; and as it often happens in medicine that the same facts are
cited in support of systems diametrically opposite, this recovery
confirmed our doctor in his idea of the inflammation of the blood,
and the necessity of bleeding, evacuating, and all the asthenic
remedies. We soon felt the fatal effects of this treatment.
For several days the pilot's reckoning differed 1 degree 12 minutes
in longitude from that of my time. This difference was owing less
to the general current, which I have called the current of
rotation, than to that particular movement, which, drawing the
waters toward the north-west, from the coast of Brazil to the
Antilles, shortens the passage from Cayenne to Guadaloupe.* (* In
the Atlantic Ocean there is a space where the water is constantly
milky, though the sea is very deep. This curious phenomenon exists
in the parallel of the island of Dominica, very near the 57th
degree of longitude. May there not be in this place some sunken
volcanic islet, more easterly still than Barbadoes?) On the 12th of
July, I thought I might foretell our seeing land next day before
sunrise. We were then, according to my observations, in latitude 10
degrees 46 minutes, and west longitude 60 degrees 54 minutes. A few
series of lunar distances confirmed the chronometrical result; but
we were surer of the position of the vessel, than of that of the
land to which we were directing our course, and which was so
differently marked in the French, Spanish, and English charts. The
longitudes deduced from the accurate observations of Messrs.
Churruca, Fidalgo, and Noguera, were not then published.
The pilots trusted more to the log than the timekeeper; they smiled
at the prediction of so speedily making land, and thought
themselves two or three days' sail from the coast. It was therefore
with great pleasure, that on the 13th, about six in the morning, I
learned that very high land was seen from the mast-head, though not
clearly, as it was surrounded with a thick fog. The wind blew hard,
and the sea was very rough. Large drops of rain fell at intervals,
and every indication menaced tempestuous weather. The captain of
the Pizarro intended to pass through the channel which separates
the islands of Tobago and Trinidad; and knowing that our sloop was
very slow in tacking, he was afraid of falling to leeward towards
the south, and approaching the Boca del Drago. We were in fact
surer of our longitude than of our latitude, having had no
observation at noon since the 11th. Double altitudes which I took
in the morning, after Douwes's method, placed us in 11 degrees 6
minutes 50 seconds, consequently 15 minutes north of our reckoning.
Though the result clearly proved that the high land on the horizon
was not Trinidad, but Tobago, yet the captain continued to steer
north-north-west, in search of this latter island.
An observation of the meridian altitude of the sun fully confirmed
the latitude obtained by Douwes's method. No more doubt remained as
to the position of the vessel, with respect to the island, and we
resolved to double Cape North (Tobago) to pass between that island
and Grenada, and steer towards a port in Margareta.
The island of Tobago presents a very picturesque aspect. It is
merely a heap of rocks carefully cultivated. The dazzling whiteness
of the stone forms an agreeable contrast to the verdure of some
scattered tufts of trees. Cylindric and very lofty cactuses crown
the top of the mountains, and give a peculiar physiognomy to this
tropical landscape. The sight of the trees alone is sufficient to
remind the navigator that he has reached an American coast; for
these cactuses are as exclusively peculiar to the New World, as the
heaths are to the Old.
We crossed the shoal which joins Tobago to the island of Grenada.
The colour of the sea presented no visible change; but the
centigrade thermometer, plunged into the water to the depth of some
inches, rose only to 23 degrees; while farther at sea eastward on
the same parallel, and equally near the surface, it kept at 25.6
degrees. Notwithstanding the currents, the cooling of the water
indicated the existence of the shoal, which is noted in only a very
few charts. The wind slackened after sunset, and the clouds
disappeared as the moon reached the zenith. The number of falling
stars was very considerable on this and the following nights; they
appeared less frequent towards the north than the south over Terra
Firma, which we began to coast. This position seems to prove the
influence of local causes on meteors, the nature of which is not
yet sufficiently known to us.
On the 14th at sunrise, we were in sight of the Boca del Drago. We
distinguished Chacachacarreo, the most westerly of the islands
situated between Cape Paria and the north-west cape of Trinidad.
When we were five leagues distant from the coast, we felt, near
Punta de la Boca, the effect of a particular current which carried
the ship southward. The motion of the waters which flow through the
Boca del Draco, and the action of the tides, occasion an eddy. We
cast the lead, and found from thirty-six to forty-three fathoms on
a bottom of very fine green clay. According to the rules
established by Dampier, we ought not to have expected so little
depth near a coast formed by very high and perpendicular mountains.
We continued to heave the lead till we reached Cabo de tres
Puntas* (* Cape Three Points, the name given to it by Columbus.) and
we every where found shallow water, apparently indicating the
prolongation of the ancient coast.
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