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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It Is Almost Superfluous To
Repeat That The Line Which Passes Through These Lofty Summits (Like
Those Of The Pyrenees, The Carpathian Mountains, And So Many Other
Chains Of The Old Continent) Is Very Distinct From The Line That Marks
The Partition Of The Waters.
This latter line, which separates the
tributary streams of the Lower and Upper Orinoco, intersects the
meridian of 64 degrees in latitude 4 degrees.
After having separated
the sources of the Rio Branco and the Carony, it runs north-west,
sending off the waters of the Padamo, the Jao, and the Ventuari
towards the south, and the waters of the Arui, the Caura, and the
Cuchivero towards the north.
The Orinoco may be ascended without danger from Esmeralda as far as
the cataracts occupied by the Guaica Indians, who prevent all farther
progress of the Spaniards. This is a voyage of six days and a half. In
the first two days you arrive at the mouth of the Rio Padamo, or
Patamo, having passed, on the north, the little rivers of Tamatama,
Sodomoni, Guapo, Caurimoni, and Simirimoni; and on the south the Cuca,
situate between the rock of Guaraco, which is said to throw out
flames, and the Cerro Canclilla. Throughout this course the Orinoco
continues to be three or four hundred toises broad. The tributary
streams are most frequent on the right bank, because on that side the
river is bounded by the lofty cloud-capped mountains of Duida and
Maraguaca, while the left bank on the contrary is low and contiguous
to a plain, the general slope of which inclines to the south-west. The
northern Cordilleras are covered with fine timber. The growth of
plants is so enormous in this hot and constantly humid climate, that
the trunks of the Bombax ceiba are sixteen feet in diameter. From the
mouth of the Rio Padamo, which is of considerable breadth, the Indians
arrive, in a day and a half, at the Rio Mavaca. The latter takes its
rise in the lofty mountains of Unturan, and communicates with a lake,
on the banks of which the Portuguese* of the Rio Negro gather the
aromatic seeds of the Laurus pucheri, known in trade by the names of
the pichurim bean, and toda specie. (* The pichurim bean is the
puchiri of La Condamine, which abounds at the Rio Xingu, a tributary
stream of the Amazon, and on the banks of the Hyurubaxy, or Yurubesh,
which runs into the Rio Negro. The puchery, or pichurim, which is
grated like nutmeg, differs from another aromatic fruit (a laurel?)
known in trade at Grand Para by the names of cucheri, cuchiri, or
cravo (clavus) do Maranhao, and which, on account of its odour, is
compared with cloves.) Between the confluence of the Padamo and that
of the Mavaca, the Orinoco receives on the north the Ocamo, into which
the Rio Matacona falls. At the sources of the latter live the
Guainares, who are much less copper-coloured, or tawny, than the other
inhabitants of those countries. This is one of the tribes called by
the missionaries fair Indians (Indios blancos). Near the mouth of the
Ocamo, travellers are shown a rock, which is the wonder of the
country. It is a granite passing into gneiss, and remarkable for the
peculiar distribution of the black mica, which forms little ramified
veins. The Spaniards call this rock Piedra Mapaya (the map-stone). The
little fragment which I procured indicated a stratified rock, rich in
white feldspar, and containing, together with spangles of mica,
grouped in streaks, and variously twisted, some crystals of
hornblende. It is not a syenite, but probably a granite of new
formation, analogous to those to which the stanniferous granites
(hyalomictes) and the pegmatites, or graphic granites, belong.
Beyond the confluence of the Macava, the Orinoco suddenly diminishes
in breadth and depth, becoming extremely sinuous, like an Alpine
torrent. Its banks are surrounded by mountains, and the number of its
tributary streams on the south augments considerably, yet the
Cordillera on the north remains the most elevated. It requires two
days to go from the mouth of the Macava, to the Rio Gehette, the
navigation being very difficult, and the boats, on account of the want
of water, being often dragged along the shore. The tributary streams
along this distance are, on the south, the Daracapo and the Amaguaca;
which skirt on the west and east the mountains of Guanaya and
Yumariquin, where the bertholletias are gathered. The Rio Manaviche
flows down from the mountains on the north, the elevation of which
diminishes progressively from the Cerro Maraguaca. As we advance
further up the Orinoco, the whirlpools and little rapids (chorros y
remolinos) become more and more frequent; on the north lies the Cano
Chiquire, inhabited by the Guaicas, another tribe of white Indians;
and two leagues distant is the mouth of the Gehette, where there is a
great cataract. A dyke of granitic rocks crosses the Orinoco these
rocks are, as it were, the columns of Hercules, beyond which no white
man has been able to penetrate. It appears that this point, known by
the name of the great Raudal de Guaharibos, is three-quarters of a
degree west of Esmeralda, consequently in longitude 67 degrees 38
minutes. A military expedition, undertaken by the commander of the
fort of San Carlos, Don Francisco Bovadilla, to discover the sources
of the Orinoco, led to some information respecting the cataracts of
the Guaharibos. Bovadilla had heard that some fugitive negroes from
Dutch Guiana, proceeding towards the west (beyond the isthmus between
the sources of the Rio Carony and the Rio Branco) had joined the
independent Indians. He attempted an entrada (hostile incursion)
without having obtained the permission of the governor; the desire of
procuring African slaves, better fitted for labour than the
copper-coloured race, was a far more powerful motive than that of zeal
for the progress of geography. Bovadilla arrived without difficulty as
far as the little Raudal* opposite the Gehette (* It is called Raudal
de abaxo (Low Cataract) in opposition to the great Raudal de
Guaharibos, which is situated higher up toward the east.); but having
advanced to the foot of the rocky dike that forms the great cataract,
he was suddenly attacked, while he was breakfasting, by the Guaharibos
and Guaycas, two warlike tribes, celebrated for the virulence of the
curare with which their arrows are empoisoned.
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