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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During The Whole Day We Enjoyed The View Of The Fine
Mountains Of Sipapo, Which Rise At A Distance Of More Than Eighteen
Leagues In The Direction Of North-North-West.
The vegetation of the
banks of the Orinoco is singularly varied in this part of the country;
the aborescent ferns* descend from the mountains, and mingle with the
palm-trees of the plain.
(* The geographical distribution of these
plants is extremely singular. Scarcely any are found on the eastern
coast of Brazil. See the interesting work of Prince Maximilian of
Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien volume 1 page 274.) We rested that night
on the island of Minisi; and, after having passed the mouths of the
little rivers Quejanuma, Ubua, and Masao, we arrived, on the 27th of
May, at San Fernando de Atabapo. We lodged in the same house which we
had occupied a month previously, when going up the Rio Negro. We then
directed our course towards the south, by the Atabapo and the Temi; we
were now returning from the west, having made a long circuit by the
Cassiquiare and the Upper Orinoco.
We remained only one day at San Fernando de Atabapo, although that
village, adorned as it was by the pirijao palm-tree, with fruit like
peaches, appeared to us a delicious abode. Tame pauxis* (* Not the
ourax of Cuvier, Crax pauxi Linn., but the Crax alector.) surrounded
the Indian huts; in one of which we saw a very rare monkey, which
inhabits the banks of the Guaviare. This monkey is the caparro, which
I have made known in my Observations on Zoology and comparative
Anatomy; it forms, as Geoffroy believes, a new genus (Lagothrix)
between the ateles and the alouates. The hair of this monkey is grey,
like that of the marten, and extremely soft to the touch. The caparro
is distinguished by a round head, and a mild and agreeable expression
of countenance. I believe the missionary Gili is the only author who
has made mention before me of this curious animal, around which
zoologists begin to group other monkeys of Brazil. Having quitted San
Fernando on the 27th of May, we arrived, by help of the rapid current
of the Orinoco, in seven hours, at the mouth of the Rio Mataveni. We
passed the night in the open air, under the granitic rock El
Castillito, which rises in the middle of the river, and the form of
which reminded us of the ruin called the Mouse-tower (Mausethurm), on
the Rhine, opposite Bingen. Here, as on the banks of the Atabapo, we
were struck by the sight of a small species of drosera, having exactly
the appearance of the drosera of Europe.
The Orinoco had sensibly swelled during the night; and the current,
strongly accelerated, bore us, in ten hours, from the mouth of the
Mataveni to the Upper Great Cataract, that of Maypures, or Quituna.
The distance which we passed over was thirteen leagues. We recalled to
mind, with much satisfaction, the scenes where we had reposed in going
up the river. We again found the Indians who had accompanied us in our
herborizations; and we visited anew the fine spring that issues from a
rock of stratified granite behind the house of the missionary: its
temperature was not changed more than 0.3 degrees. From the mouth of
the Atabapo as far as that of the Apure we seemed to be travelling as
through a country which we had long inhabited. We were reduced to the
same abstinence; we were stung by the same mosquitos; but the
certainty of reaching in a few weeks the term of our physical
sufferings kept up our spirits.
The passage of the canoe through the Great Cataract obliged us to stop
two days at Maypures. Father Bernardo Zea, missionary at the Raudales,
who had accompanied us to the Rio Negro, though ill, insisted on
conducting us with his Indians as far as Atures. One of these Indians,
Zerepe, the interpreter, who had been so unmercifully punished at the
beach of Pararuma, rivetted our attention by his appearance of deep
sorrow. We learned that his grief was caused by the loss of a young
girl to whom he was engaged, and that he had lost her in consequence
of false intelligence which had been spread respecting the direction
of our journey. Zerepe, who was a native of Maypures, had been brought
up in the woods by his parents, who were of the tribe of the Macos. He
had brought with him to the mission a girl of twelve years of age,
whom he intended to marry at our return from the Cataracts. The Indian
girl was little pleased with the life of the missions, and she was
told that the whites would go to the country of the Portuguese
(Brazil), and would take Zerepe with them. Disappointed in her hopes,
she seized a boat, and with another girl of her own age, crossed the
Great Cataract, and fled al monte. The recital of this courageous
adventure was the great news of the place. The affliction of Zerepe,
however, was not of long duration. Born among the Christians, having
travelled as far as the foot of the Rio Negro, understanding Spanish
and the language of the Macos, he thought himself superior to the
people of his tribe, and he no doubt soon forgot his forest love.
On the 31st of May we passed the rapids of Guahibos and Garcita. The
islands which rise in the middle of the waters of the river were
overspread with the purest verdure. The rains of winter had unfolded
the spathes of the vadgiai palm-tree, the leaves of which rise
straight toward the sky. The eye is never wearied of the view of those
scenes, where the trees and rocks give the landscape that grand and
severe character which we admire in the background of the pictures of
Salvator Rosa. We landed before sunset on the eastern bank of the
Orinoco, at the Puerto de la Expedicion, in order to visit the cavern
of Ataruipe, which is the place of sepulchre of a whole nation
destroyed.
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