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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Notwithstanding A Victory So
Easily Won, The Spaniards Did Not Dare To Advance Eastward In A
Mountainous Country, And Along A River Inclosed By Very High Banks.
These white Guaharibos have constructed a bridge of lianas above the
cataract, supported on rocks that rise, as generally happens in the
pongos of the Upper Maranon, in the middle of the river.
The existence
of this bridge, which is known to all the inhabitants of Esmeralda,*
seems to indicate that the Orinoco must be very narrow at this point.
(* The Amazon also is crossed twice on bridges of wood near its source
in the lake Lauricocha; first north of Chavin, and then below the
confluence of the Rio Aguamiras. These, the only two bridges that have
been thrown over the largest river we yet know, are called Puente de
Quivilla, and Puente de Guancaybamba.) It is generally estimated by
the Indians to be only two or three hundred feet broad. They say that
the Orinoco, above the Raudal of the Guaharibos, is no longer a river,
but a brook (riachuelo); while a well informed ecclesiastic, Fray Juan
Gonzales, who had visited those countries, assured me that the
Orinoco, in the part where its farther course is no longer known, is
two-thirds of the breadth of the Rio Negro near San Carlos. This
opinion appears to me hardly probable; but I relate what I have
collected, and affirm nothing positively.
In the rocky dike that crosses the Orinoco, forming the Raudal of the
Guaharibos, Spanish soldiers pretend to have found the fine kind of
saussurite (Amazon-stone), of which we have spoken. This tradition
however is very uncertain; and the Indians, whom I interrogated on the
subject, assured me that the green stones, called piedras de Macagua*
at Esmeralda, were purchased from the Guaicas and Guaharibos, who
traffic with hordes much farther to the east. (* The etymology of this
name, which is unknown to me, might lead to the knowledge of the spot
where these stones are found. I have sought in vain the name of
Macagua among the numerous tributary streams of the Tacutu, the Mahu,
the Rupunury, and the Rio Trombetas.) The same uncertainty prevails
respecting these stones, as that which attaches to many other valuable
productions of the Indies. On the coast, at the distance of some
hundred leagues, the country where they are found is positively named;
but when the traveller with difficulty penetrates into that country,
he discovers that the natives are ignorant even of the name of the
object of his research. It might be supposed that the amulets of
saussurite found in the possession of the Indians of the Rio Negro,
come from the Lower Maranon, while those that are received by the
missions of the Upper Orinoco and the Rio Carony come from a country
situated between the sources of the Essequibo and the Rio Branco. The
opinion that this stone is taken in a soft state like paste from the
little lake Amucu, though very prevalent at Angostura, is wholly
without foundation.
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Words from 186872 to 187380
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