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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"What That Woman Performed," Added The
Missionary, Who Gave Us This Sad Narrative, "The Most Robust Indian
Would Not Have Ventured To Undertake!" She Traversed The Woods At A
Season When The Sky Is Constantly Covered With Clouds, And The Sun
During Whole Days Appears But For A Few Minutes.
Did the course of the
waters direct her way?
The inundations of the rivers forced her to go
far from the banks of the main stream, through the midst of woods
where the movement of the water is almost imperceptible. How often
must she have been stopped by the thorny lianas, that form a network
around the trunks they entwine! How often must she have swum across
the rivulets that run into the Atabapo! This unfortunate woman was
asked how she had sustained herself during four days. She said that,
exhausted with fatigue, she could find no other nourishment than those
great black ants called vachacos, which climb the trees in long bands,
to suspend on them their resinous nests. We pressed the missionary to
tell us whether the Guahiba had peacefully enjoyed the happiness of
remaining with her children; and if any repentance had followed this
excess of cruelty. He would not satisfy our curiosity; but at our
return from the Rio Negro we learned that the Indian mother was again
separated from her children, and sent to one of the missions of the
Upper Orinoco. There she died, refusing all kind of nourishment, as
savages frequently do in great calamities.
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