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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I Obtained Some Good
Observations Of Latitude And Longitude.* (* I Had Found, On The 4th Of
April, For The Boca
Del Rio Apure (on the western bank of the
Orinoco), the latitude 7 degrees 36 minutes 30 seconds, the longitude
59 degrees 7 minutes 30 seconds; on the 8th of June I found, for the
Hato del Capuchino (on the eastern bank of the Orinoco), the latitude
7 degrees 37 minutes 45 seconds, the longitude 69 degrees 5 minutes 30
seconds.) Having two months before taken horary angles on the bank
opposite Capuchino, these observations were important for determining
the rate of my chronometer, and connecting the situations on the
Orinoco with those on the shore of Venezuela. The situation of this
farm, being at the point where the Orinoco changes its course (which
had previously been from south to north), and runs from west to east,
is extremely picturesque. Granite rocks rise like islets amidst vast
meadows. From their tops we discerned towards the north the Llanos of
Calabozo bounding the horizon. We had been so long accustomed to the
aspect of forests, that this view made a powerful impression on us.
The steppes after sunset assume a tint of greenish gray. The visual
ray being intercepted only by the rotundity of the earth, the stars
seemed to rise as from the bosom of the ocean, and the most
experienced mariner would have fancied himself placed on a projecting
cape of a rocky coast. Our host was a Frenchman who lived amidst his
numerous herds. Though he had forgotten his native language, he seemed
pleased to learn that we came from his country, which he had left
forty years before; and he wished to retain us for some days at his
farm. The small towns of Caycara and Cabruta were only a few miles
distant from the farm; but during part of the year our host was in
complete solitude. The Capuchino becomes an island by the inundations
of the Apure and the Orinoco, and the communication with the
neighbouring farms can be kept up only by means of a boat. The horned
cattle then seek the higher grounds which extend on the south toward
the chain of the mountains of Encaramada. This granitic chain is
intersected by valleys which contain magnetic sands (granulary
oxidulated iron), owing no doubt to the decomposition of some
amphibolic or chloritic strata.
On the morning of the 9th of June we met a great number of boats laden
with merchandize sailing up the Orinoco, in order to enter the Apure.
This is a commercial road much frequented between Angostura and the
port of Torunos in the province of Varinas. Our fellow-traveller, Don
Nicolas Soto, brother-in-law of the governor of Varinas, took the same
course to return to his family. At the period of the high waters,
several months are lost in contending with the currents of the
Orinoco, the Apure, and the Rio de Santo Domingo. The boatmen are
forced to carry out ropes to the trunks of trees and thus warp their
canoes up. In the great sinuosities of the river whole days are
sometimes passed without advancing more than two or three hundred
toises. Since my return to Europe the communications between the mouth
of the Orinoco and the provinces situated on the eastern slope of the
mountains of Merida, Pamplona, and Santa Fe de Bogota, have become
more active; and it may be hoped that steamboats will facilitate these
long voyages on the Lower Orinoco, the Portuguesa, the Rio Santo
Domingo, the Orivante, the Meta, and the Guaviare. Magazines of cleft
wood might be formed, as on the banks of the great rivers of the
United States, sheltering them under sheds. This precaution would be
indispensable, as, in the country through which we passed, it is not
easy to procure dry fuel fit to keep up a fire beneath the boiler of a
steam-engine.
We disembarked below San Rafael del Capuchino, on the right, at the
Villa de Caycara, near a cove called Puerto Sedeno. The Villa is
merely a few houses grouped together. Alta Gracia, la Ciudad de la
Piedra, Real Corona, Borbon, in short all the towns or villas lying
between the mouth of the Apure and Angostura, are equally miserable.
The presidents of the missions, and the governors of the provinces,
were formerly accustomed to demand the privileges of villas and
ciudades at Madrid, the moment the first foundations of a church were
laid. This was a means of persuading the ministry that the colonies
were augmenting rapidly in population and prosperity. Sculptured
figures of the sun and moon, such as I have already mentioned, are
found near Caycara, at the Cerro del Tirano.* (* The tyrant after whom
these mountains are named is not Lope de Aguirre, but probably, as the
name of the neighbouring cove seems to prove, the celebrated
conquistador Antonio Sedeno, who, after the expedition of Herrera,
sought to penetrate by the Orinoco to the Rio Meta. He was in a state
of rebellion against the audiencia of Santo Domingo. I know not how
Sedeno came to Caycara; for historians relate that he was poisoned on
the banks of the Rio Tisnado, one of the tributary streams of the
Portuguesa.) It is the work of the old people (that is of our
fathers), say the natives. On a rock more distant from the shore, and
called Tecoma, the symbolic figures are found, it is said, at the
height of a hundred feet. The Indians knew heretofore a road, that led
by land from Caycara to Demerara and Essequibo.
On the northern bank of the Orinoco, opposite Caycara, is the mission
of Cabruta, founded by the Jesuit Rotella, in 1740, as an advanced
post against the Caribs. An Indian village, known by the name of
Cabritu,* had existed on the same spot for several ages. (* A cacique
of Cabritu received Alonzo de Herrera at his dwelling, on the
expedition undertaken by Herrera for ascending the Orinoco in 1535.)
At the time when this little place became a Christian settlement, it
was believed to be situate in 5 degrees latitude, or two degrees forty
minutes more to the south than I found it by direct observations made
at San Rafael, and at La Boca del Rio Apure.
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