Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 375 of 406 - First - Home
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. I shall attempt to describe this cavern, so celebrated
among the natives.
We climbed with difficulty, and not without some danger, a steep rock
of granite, entirely bare. It would have been almost impossible to fix
the foot on its smooth and sloping surface, if large crystals of
feldspar, resisting decomposition, did not stand out from the rock,
and furnish points of support. Scarcely had we attained the summit of
the mountain when we beheld with astonishment the singular aspect of
the surrounding country. The foamy bed of the waters is filled with an
archipelago of islands covered with palm-trees. Westward, on the left
bank of the Orinoco, the wide-stretching savannahs of the Meta and the
Casanare resembled a sea of verdure. The setting sun seemed like a
globe of fire suspended over the plain, and the solitary Peak of
Uniana, which appeared more lofty from being wrapped in vapours which
softened its outline, all contributed to augment the majesty of the
scene.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 375 of 406
Words from 194713 to 195217
of 211397