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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All The Military Posts
Were Attacked On The Same Night, On A Line Of Nearly Fifty Leagues In
Length.
The houses were burnt, and many soldiers massacred; a very
small number only owing their preservation to the pity of the Indian
women.
This nocturnal expedition is still mentioned with horror. It
was concerted in the most profound secrecy, and executed with that
spirit of unity which the natives of America, skilled in concealing
their hostile passions, well know how to practise in whatever concerns
their common interests. Since 1776 no attempt has been made to
re-establish the road which leads by land from the Upper to the Lower
Orinoco, and no white man has been able to pass from Esmeralda to the
Erevato. It is certain, however, that in the mountainous lands,
between the sources of the Padamo and the Ventuari (near the sites
called by the Indians Aurichapa, Ichuana, and Irique) there are many
spots where the climate is temperate, and where there are pasturages
capable of feeding numerous herds of cattle. The military posts were
very useful in preventing the incursions of the Caribs, who, from time
to time carried off slaves, though in very small numbers, between the
Erevato and the Padamo. They would have resisted the attacks of the
natives, if, instead of leaving them isolated and solely to the
control of the soldiery, they had been formed into communities, and
governed like the villages of neophyte Indians.
We left the mission of Esmeralda on the 23rd of May. Without being
positively ill, we felt ourselves in a state of languor and weakness,
caused by the torment of insects, bad food, and a long voyage, in
narrow and damp boats. We did not go up the Orinoco beyond the mouth
of the Rio Guapo, which we should have done, if we could have
attempted to reach the sources of the river. There remains a distance
of fifteen leagues from the Guapo to the Raudal of the Guaharibos. At
this cataract, which is passed on a bridge of lianas, Indians are
posted armed with bows and arrows to prevent the whites, or those who
come from their territory from advancing westward. How could we hope
to pass a point where the commander of the Rio Negro, Don Francisco
Bovadilla, was stopped when, accompanied by his soldiers, he tried to
penetrate beyond the Gehette?* (* See above.) The carnage then made
among the natives has rendered them more distrustful, and more averse
to the inhabitants of the missions. It must be remembered that the
Orinoco had hitherto offered to geographers two distinct problems,
alike important, the situation of its sources, and the mode of its
communication with the Amazon. The latter problem formed the object of
the journey which I have described; with respect to the discovery of
its sources, that remains to be done by the Spanish and Portuguese
governments.
Our canoe was not ready to receive us till near three o'clock in the
afternoon. It had been filled with innumerable swarms of ants during
the navigation of the Cassiquiare; and the toldo, or roof of
palm-leaves, beneath which we were again doomed to remain stretched
out during twenty-two days, was with difficulty cleared of these
insects.
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