Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This Encampment
Contained More Than Three Hundred Persons.
Accustomed, since we had
left San Fernando de Apure, to see only desert shores, we were
singularly struck by the bustle that prevailed here.
We found, besides
the Guamos and the Ottomacs of Uruana, who are both considered as
savage races, Caribs and other Indians of the Lower Orinoco. Every
tribe was separately encamped, and was distinguished by the pigments
with which their skins were painted. Some white men were seen amidst
this tumultuous assemblage, chiefly pulperos, or little traders of
Angostura, who had come up the river to purchase turtle oil from the
natives. The missionary of Uruana, a native of Alcala, came to meet
us, and he was extremely astonished at seeing us. After having admired
our instruments, he gave us an exaggerated picture of the sufferings
to which we should be necessarily exposed in ascending the Orinoco
beyond the cataracts. The object of our journey appeared to him very
mysterious. "How is it possible to believe," said he, "that you have
left your country, to come and be devoured by mosquitos on this river,
and to measure lands that are not your own?" We were happily furnished
with recommendations from the Superior of the Franciscan Missions, and
the brother-in-law of the governor of Varinas, who accompanied us,
soon dissipated the doubts to which our dress, our accent, and our
arrival in this sandy island, had given rise among the Whites. The
missionary invited us to partake a frugal repast of fish and
plantains. He told us that he had come to encamp with the Indians
during the time of the harvest of eggs, "to celebrate mass every
morning in the open air, to procure the oil necessary for the
church-lamps, and especially to govern this mixed republic (republica
de Indios y Castellanos) in which every one wished to profit singly by
what God had granted to all."
We made the tour of the island, accompanied by the missionary and by a
pulpero, who boasted of having, for ten successive years, visited the
camp of the Indians, and attended the turtle-fishery. We were on a
plain of sand perfectly smooth; and were told that, as far as we could
see along the beach, turtles' eggs were concealed under a layer of
earth. The missionary carried a long pole in his hand. He showed us,
that by means of this pole, the extent of the stratum of eggs could be
determined as accurately as the miner determines the limits of a bed
of marl, of bog iron-ore, or of coal. On thrusting the rod
perpendicularly into the ground, the sudden want of resistance shows
that the cavity or layer of loose earth containing the eggs, has been
reached. We saw that the stratum is generally spread with so much
uniformity, that the pole finds it everywhere in a radius of ten
toises around any given spot. Here they talk continually of square
perches of eggs; it is like a mining-country, divided into lots, and
worked with the greatest regularity.
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