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 Indians
Showed Us On The Way, What Is No Doubt Very Curious In That Country,
Traces Of Cartwheels In The Rock.
They spoke, as of an unknown animal,
of those beasts with large horns, which, at the time of the
Expedition
to the boundaries, drew the boats through the valley of Keri, from the
Rio Toparo to the Rio Cameji, to avoid the cataracts, and save the
trouble of unloading the merchandize. I believe these poor inhabitants
of Maypures would now be as much astonished at the sight of an ox of
the Spanish breed, as the Romans were at the sight of the Lucanian
oxen, as they called the elephants of the army of Pyrrhus.
We embarked at Puerto de Arriba, and passed the Raudal de Cameji with
some difficulty. This passage is reputed to be dangerous when the
water is very high; but we found the surface of the river beyond the
raudal as smooth as glass. We passed the night in a rocky island
called Piedra Raton, which is three-quarters of a league long, and
displays that singular aspect of rising vegetation, those clusters of
shrubs, scattered over a bare and rocky soil, of which we have often
spoken.
On the 22nd of April we departed an hour and a half before sunrise.
The morning was humid but delicious; not a breath of wind was felt;
for south of Atures and Maypures a perpetual calm prevails. On the
banks of the Rio Negro and the Cassiquiare, at the foot of Cerro
Duida, and at the mission of Santa Barbara, we never heard that
rustling of the leaves which has such a peculiar charm in very hot
climates.
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