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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After Quitting The Rock, Our Passage
Was Not Exempt From Danger.
The river is eight hundred toises broad,
and must be crossed obliquely, above the cataract, at the point where
the waters, impelled by the slope of their bed, rush with extreme
violence toward the ledge from which they are precipitated.
We were
overtaken by a storm, accompanied happily by no wind, but the rain
fell in torrents. After rowing for twenty minutes, the pilot declared
that, far from gaining upon the current, we were again approaching the
raudal. These moments of uncertainty appeared to us very long: the
Indians spoke only in whispers, as they do always when they think
their situation perilous. They redoubled their efforts, and we arrived
at nightfall, without any accident, in the port of Maypures.
Storms within the tropics are as short as they are violent. The
lightning had fallen twice near our boat, and had no doubt struck the
surface of the water. I mention this phenomenon, because it is pretty
generally believed in those countries that the clouds, the surface of
which is charged with electricity, are at so great a height that the
lightning reaches the ground more rarely than in Europe. The night was
extremely dark, and we could not in less than two hours reach the
village of Maypures. We were wet to the skin. In proportion as the
rain ceased, the zancudos reappeared, with that voracity which
tipulary insects always display immediately after a storm. My
fellow-travellers were uncertain whether it would be best to stop in
the port or proceed on our way on foot, in spite of the darkness of
the night.
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