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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We Had Already
In Our Canoe Seven Parrots, Two Manakins (Pipa), A Motmot, Two Guans,
Or Pavas De Monte, Two
Manaviris (cercoleptes or Viverra
caudivolvula), and eight monkeys, namely, two ateles,* (* Marimonda of
the Great Cataracts, Simia belzebuth, Brisson.) two
Titis,* (* Simia
sciurea, the saimiri of Buffon.) one viudita,* (* Simia lugens.) two
douroucoulis or nocturnal monkeys,* (* Cusiensi, or Simia trivirgata.)
and a short-tailed cacajao. (* Simia melanocephala, mono feo. These
last three species are new.) Father Zea whispered some complaints at
the daily augmentation of this ambulatory collection. The toucan
resembles the raven in manners and intelligence. It is a courageous
animal, but easily tamed. Its long and stout beak serves to defend it
at a distance. It makes itself master of the house, steals whatever it
can come at, and loves to bathe often and fish on the banks of the
river. The toucan we had bought was very young; yet it took delight,
during the whole voyage, in teasing the cusicusis, or nocturnal
monkeys, which are melancholy and irritable. I did not observe what
has been related in some works of natural history, that the toucan is
forced, from the structure of its beak, to swallow its food by
throwing it up into the air. It raises it indeed with some difficulty
from the ground, but, having once seized it with the point of its
enormous beak, it has only to lift it up by throwing back its head,
and holding it perpendicularly whilst in the act of swallowing. This
bird makes extraordinary gestures when preparing to drink. The monks
say that it makes the sign of the cross upon the water; and this
popular belief has obtained for the toucan, from the creoles, the
singular name of diostede.* (* Dios te de, God gives it thee.)
Most of our animals were confined in small wicker cages; others ran at
full liberty in all parts of the boat. At the approach of rain the
macaws sent forth noisy cries, the toucan wanted to reach the shore to
fish, and the little monkeys (the titis) went in search of Father Zea,
to take shelter in the large sleeves of his Franciscan habit. These
incidents sometimes amused us so much that we forgot the torment of
the mosquitos. At night we placed a leather case (petaca), containing
our provisions, in the centre; then our instruments, and the cages of
our animals; our hammocks were suspended around the cages, and beyond
were those of the Indians. The exterior circle was formed by the fires
which are lighted to keep off the jaguars. Such was the order of our
encampment on the banks of the Cassiquiare. The Indians often spoke to
us of a little nocturnal animal, with a long nose, which surprises the
young parrots in their nests, and in eating makes use of its hands
like the monkeys and the maniveris, or kinkajous. They call it the
guachi; it is, no doubt, a coati, perhaps the Viverra nasua, which I
saw wild in Mexico. The missionaries gravely prohibit the natives from
eating the flesh of the guachi, to which, according to far-spread
superstitious ideas, they attribute the same stimulating qualities
which the people of the East believe to exist in the skink, and the
Americans in the flesh of the alligator.
On the 11th of May, we left the mission of San Francisco Solano at a
late hour, to make but a short day's journey. The uniform stratum of
vapours began to be divided into clouds with distinct outlines: and
there was a light east wind in the upper regions of the air. We
recognized in these signs an approaching change of the weather; and
were unwilling to go far from the mouth of the Cassiquiare, in the
hope of observing during the following night the passage of some star
over the meridian. We descried the Cano Daquiapo to the south, the
Guachaparu to the north, and a few miles further, the rapids of
Cananivacari. The velocity of the current being 6.3 feet in a second,
we had to struggle against the turbulent waves of the Raudal. We went
on shore, and M. Bonpland discovered within a few steps of the beach a
majestic almendron, or Bertholletia excelsa. The Indians assured us,
that the existence of this valuable plant of the banks of the
Cassiquiare was unknown at San Francisco Solano, Vasiva, and
Esmeralda. They did not think that the tree we saw, which was more
than sixty feet high, had been sown by some passing traveller.
Experiments made at San Carlos have shown how rare it is to succeed in
causing the bertholletia to germinate, on account of its ligneous
pericarp, and the oil contained in its nut which so readily becomes
rancid. Perhaps this tree denoted the existence of a forest of
bertholletia in the inland country on the east and north-east. We
know, at least, with certainty, that this fine tree grows wild in the
third degree of latitude, in the Cerro de Guanaya. The plants that
live in society have seldom marked limits, and it happens, that before
we reach a palmar or a pinar,* (* Two Spanish words, which, according
to a Latin form, denote a forest of palm-trees, palmetum, and of
pines, pinetum.) we find solitary palm-trees and pines. They are
somewhat like colonists that have advanced in the midst of a country
peopled with different vegetable productions.
Four miles distant from the rapids of Cunanivacari, rocks of the
strangest form rise in the plains. First appears a narrow wall eighty
feet high, and perpendicular; and at the southern extremity of this
wall are two turrets, the courses of which are of granite, and nearly
horizontal. The grouping of the rocks of Guanari is so symmetrical
that they might be taken for the ruins of an ancient edifice. Are they
the remains of islets in the midst of an inland sea, that covered the
flat ground between the Sierra Parime and the Parecis mountains?* (*
The Sierra de la Parime, or of the Upper Orinoco, and the Sierra (or
Campos) dos Parecis, are part of the mountains of Matto Grosso, and
form the northern back of the Sierra de Chiquitos.
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