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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On Examining The Law Which The Primitive Strata Of The Cordillera Of
The Coast Follow In Their Dip, We Believe We Recognize One Of The
Causes Of The Extreme Humidity Of The Land Bounded By This Cordillera
And The Ocean.
The dip of the strata is most frequently to the
north-west; so that the waters flow in that
Direction on the ledges of
rock; and form, as we have stated above, that multitude of torrents
and rivers, the inundations of which become so fatal to the health of
the inhabitants, from cape Codera as far as the lake of Maracaybo.
Among the rivers which descend north-east toward the coast of Porto
Cabello, and La Punta de Hicacos, the most remarkable are those of
Tocuyo, Aroa, and Yaracuy. Were it not for the miasmata which infect
the atmosphere, the valleys of Aroa and of Yaracuy would perhaps be
more populous than those of Aragua. Navigable rivers would even give
the former the advantage of facilitating the exportation of their own
crops of sugar and cacao, and that of the productions of the
neighbouring lands; as the wheat of Quibor, the cattle of Monai, and
the copper of Aroa. The mines from which this copper is extracted, are
in a lateral valley, opening into that of Aroa; and which is less hot,
and less unhealthy, than the ravines nearer the sea. In the latter the
Indians have their gold-washings, and the soil conceals rich
copper-ores, which no one has yet attempted to extract. The ancient
mines of Aroa, after having been long neglected, have been wrought
anew by the care of Don Antonio Henriquez, whom we met at San Fernando
on the borders of the Apure. The total produce of metallic copper is
twelve or fifteen hundred quintals a year. This copper, known at Cadiz
by the name of Caracas copper, is of excellent quality. It is even
preferred to that of Sweden, and of Coquimbo in Chile. Part of the
copper of Aroa is employed for making bells, which are cast on the
spot. Some ores of silver have been recently discovered between Aroa
and Nirgua, near Guanita, in the mountain of San Pablo. Grains of gold
are found in all the mountainous lands between the Rio Yaracuy, the
town of San Felipe, Nirgua, and Barquesimeto; particularly in the Rio
de Santa Cruz, in which the Indian gold-gatherers have sometimes found
lumps of the value of four or five piastres. Do the neighbouring rocks
of mica-slate and gneiss contain veins? or is the gold disseminated
here, as in the granites of Guadarama in Spain, and of the Fichtelberg
in Franconia, throughout the whole mass of the rock? Possibly the
waters, in filtering through it, bring together the disseminated
grains of gold; in which case every attempt to work the rock would be
useless. In the Savana de la Miel, near the town of Barquesimeto, a
shaft has been sunk in a black shining slate resembling ampelite. The
minerals extracted from this shaft, which were sent to me at Caracas,
were quartz, non-auriferous pyrites, and carbonated lead, crystallized
in needles of a silky lustre.
In the early times of the conquest the working of the mines of Nirgua
and of Buria* was begun, notwithstanding the incursions of the warlike
nation of the Giraharas. (* The valley of Buria, and the little river
of the same name, communicate with the valley of the Rio Coxede, or
the Rio de Barquesimeto.) In this very district the accumulation of
negro slaves in 1553 gave rise to an event bearing some analogy to the
insurrection in St. Domingo. A negro slave excited an insurrection
among the miners of the Real de San Felipe de Buria. He retired into
the woods, and founded, with two hundred of his companions, a town,
where he was proclaimed king. Miguel, this new king, was a friend to
pomp and parade. He caused his wife Guiomar, to assume the title of
queen; and, according to Oviedo, he appointed ministers and
counsellors of state, officers of the royal household, and even a
negro bishop. He soon after ventured to attack the neighbouring town
of Nueva Segovia de Barquesimeto; but, being repulsed by Diego de
Losada, he perished in the conflict. This African monarchy was
succeeded at Nirgua by a republic of Zamboes, the descendants of
negroes and Indians. The whole municipality (cabildo) is composed of
men of colour to whom the king of Spain has given the title of "his
faithful and loyal subjects, the Zamboes of Nirgua." Few families of
Whites will inhabit a country where the system of government is so
adverse to their pretensions; and the little town is called in
derision La republica de Zambos y Mulatos.
If the hot valleys of Aroa, of Yaracuy, and of the Rio Tocuyo,
celebrated for their excellent timber, be rendered feverish by
luxuriance of vegetation, and extreme atmospheric humidity, it is
different in the savannahs of Monai and Carora. These Llanos are
separated by the mountainous tract of Tocuyo and Nirgua from the great
plains of La Portuguesa and Calabozo. It is very extraordinary to see
barren savannahs loaded with miasmata. No marshy ground is found
there, but several phenomena indicate a disengagement of hydrogen.* (*
What is that luminous phenomenon known under the name of the Lantern
(farol) of Maracaybo, which is perceived every night toward the
seaside as well as in the inland parts, at Merida for example, where
M. Palacios observed it during two years? The distance, greater than
40 leagues, at which the light is observed, has led to the supposition
that it might be owing to the effects of a thunderstorm, or of
electrical explosions which might daily take place in a pass in the
mountains. It is asserted that, on approaching the farol, the rolling
of thunder is heard. Others vaguely allege that it is an air-volcano,
and that asphaltic soils, like those of Mena, cause these inflammable
exhalations which are so constant in their appearance.
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