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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The Weather Was Unfavourable For Astronomical Observations.
I
obtained, however, on the 20th of April, a good series of
corresponding altitudes of the sun, according to
Which the chronometer
gave 70 degrees 37 minutes 33 seconds for the longitude of the mission
of Maypures; the latitude was found, by a star observed towards the
north, to be 5 degrees 13 minutes 57 seconds; and by a star observed
towards the south, 5 degrees 13 minutes 7 seconds. The error of the
most recent maps is half a degree of longitude and half a degree of
latitude. It would be difficult to relate the trouble and torments
which these nocturnal observations cost us. Nowhere is a denser cloud
of mosquitos to be found. It formed, as it were, a particular stratum
some feet above the ground, and it thickened as we brought lights to
illumine our artificial horizon. The inhabitants of Maypures, for the
most part, quit the village to sleep in the islets amid the cataracts,
where the number of insects is less; others make a fire of brushwood
in their huts, and suspend their hammocks in the midst of the smoke.
We spent two days and a half in the little village of Maypures, on the
banks of the great Upper Cataract, and on the 21st April we embarked
in the canoe we had obtained from the missionary of Carichana. It was
much damaged by the shoals it had struck against, and the carelessness
of the Indians; but still greater dangers awaited it.
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