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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It Is Well Known, That Europeans, During The First Months After
Their Arrival Under The Scorching Sky Of The Tropics, Are Exposed
To The Greatest Dangers.
They consider themselves to be safe, when
they have passed the rainy season in the West India islands, at
Vera Cruz, or at Carthagena.
This opinion is very general, although
there are examples of persons, who, having escaped a first attack
of the yellow fever, have fallen victims to the same disease in one
of the following years. The facility of becoming acclimated, seems
to be in the inverse ratio of the difference that exists between
the mean temperature of the torrid zone, and that of the native
country of the traveller, or colonist, who changes his climate;
because the irritability of the organs, and their vital action, are
powerfully modified by the influence of the atmospheric heat. A
Prussian, a Pole, or a Swede, is more exposed on his arrival at the
islands or on the continent, than a Spaniard, an Italian, or even
an inhabitant of the South of France. With respect to the people of
the north, the difference of the mean temperature is from nineteen
to twenty-one degrees, while to the people of southern countries it
is only from nine to ten. We were fortunate enough to pass safely
through the interval during which a European recently landed runs
the greatest danger, in the extremely hot, but very dry climate of
Cumana, a city celebrated for its salubrity.
On the morning of the 15th, when nearly on a line with the hill of
St. Joseph, we were surrounded by a great quantity of floating
seaweed. Its stems had those extraordinary appendages in the form
of little cups and feathers, which Don Hippolyto Ruiz remarked on
his return from the expedition to Chile, and which he described in
a separate memoir as the generative organs of the Fucus natans. A
fortunate accident allowed us the means of verifying a fact which
had been but once observed by naturalists. The bundles of fucus
collected by M. Bonpland were completely identical with the
specimens given us by the learned authors of the Flora of Peru. On
examining both with the microscope, we found that the supposed
parts of fructification, the stamina and pistils, belong to a new
genus, of the family of the Ceratophytae.
The coast of Paria stretches to the west, forming a wall of rocks
of no great height, with rounded tops and a waving outline. We were
long without perceiving the bold coasts of the island of Margareta,
where we were to stop for the purpose of ascertaining whether we
could touch at Guayra. We had learned, by altitudes of the sun,
taken under very favourable circumstances, how incorrect at that
period were the most highly-esteemed marine charts. On the morning
of the 15th, when the time-keeper placed us in 66 degrees 1 minute
15 seconds longitude, we were not yet in the meridian of Margareta
island; though according to the reduced chart of the Atlantic ocean,
we ought to have passed the very lofty western cape of this island,
which is laid down in longitude 66 degrees 0 minutes. The
inaccuracy with which the coasts were delineated previously to the
labours of Fidalgo, Noguera, and Tiscar, and I may venture to add,
before the astronomical observations I made at Cumana, might have
become dangerous to navigators, were not the sea uniformly calm in
those regions. The errors in latitude were still greater than those
in longitude, for the coasts of New Andalusia stretch to the
westward of Cape Three Points (or tres Puntas) fifteen or twenty
miles more to the north, than appears in the charts published
before the year 1800.
About eleven in the morning we perceived a very low islet, covered
with a few sandy downs, and on which we discovered with our glasses
no trace of habitation or culture. Cylindrical cactuses rose here
and there in the form of candelabra. The soil, almost destitute of
vegetation, seemed to have a waving motion, in consequence of the
extraordinary refraction which the rays of the sun undergo in
traversing the strata of air in contact with plains strongly
heated. Under every zone, deserts and sandy shores appear like an
agitated sea, from the effect of mirage.
The coasts, seen at a distance, are like clouds, in which each
observer meets the form of the objects that occupy his imagination.
Our bearings and our chronometer being at variance with the charts
which we had to consult, we were lost in vain conjectures. Some
took mounds of sand for Indian huts, and pointed out the place
where they alleged the fort of Pampatar was situated; others saw
herds of goats, which are so common in the dry valley of St. John;
or descried the lofty mountains of Macanao, which seemed to them
partly hidden by the clouds. The captain resolved to send a pilot
on shore, and the men were preparing to get out the long-boat when
we perceived two canoes sailing along the coast. We fired a gun as
a signal for them, and though we had hoisted Spanish colours, they
drew near with distrust. These canoes, like all those in use among
the natives, were constructed of the single trunk of a tree. In
each canoe there were eighteen Guayqueria Indians, naked to the
waist, and of very tall stature. They had the appearance of great
muscular strength, and the colour of their skin was something
between brown and copper-colour. Seen at a distance, standing
motionless, and projected on the horizon, they might have been
taken for statues of bronze. We were the more struck with their
appearance, as it did not correspond with the accounts given by
some travellers respecting the characteristic features and extreme
feebleness of the natives. We afterwards learned, without passing
the limits of the province of Cumana, the great contrast existing
between the physiognomy of the Guayquerias and that of the Chaymas
and the Caribs.
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