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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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. No idea was then
conceived of the direction of a road that could lead by land to Nueva
Valencia and Caracas, which were supposed to be at an immense
distance. The merit of having first crossed the Llanos to go to
Cabruta from the Villa de San Juan Baptista del Pao belongs to a
woman. Father Gili relates that Dona Maria Bargas was so devoted to
the Jesuits that she attempted herself to discover the way to the
missions.
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