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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On The 24th A Violent Rain Obliged Us Early To Return To Our Boat.
We
departed at two o'clock, after having lost some books, which we could
not find in the darkness of the night, on the rock of Aricagua.
The
river runs straight from south to north; its banks are low, and shaded
on both sides by thick forests. We passed the mouths of the Ucata, the
Arapa, and the Caranaveni. About four in the afternoon we landed at
the Conucos de Siquita, the Indian plantations of the mission of San
Fernando. The good people wished to detain us among them, but we
continued to go up against the current, which ran at the rate of five
feet a second, according to a measurement I made by observing the time
that a floating body took to go down a given distance. We entered the
mouth of the Guaviare on a dark night, passed the point where the Rio
Atabapo joins the Guaviare, and arrived at the mission after midnight.
We were lodged as usual at the Convent, that is, in the house of the
missionary, who, though much surprised at our unexpected visit,
nevertheless received us with the kindest hospitality.
NOTE.
If, in the philosophical study of the structure of languages, the
analogy of a few roots acquires value only when they can be
geographically connected together, neither is the want of resemblance
in roots any very strong proof against the common origin of nations.
In the different dialects of the Totonac language (that of one of the
most ancient tribes of Mexico) the sun and the moon have names which
custom has rendered entirely different.
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