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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These boats
remind us of the canoes of the Rio Chagres in the isthmus of Panama,
in the torrid zone.
The Populus balsamifera also attains an immense
height, on the mountains that border Norfolk Sound.) Towards night we
arrived at a small farm, in the puerto or landing place of Pimichin.
We were shown a cross near the road, which marked the spot where a
poor capuchin missionary had been killed by wasps. I state this on the
authority of the monks of Javita and the Indians. They talk much in
these countries of wasps and venomous ants, but we saw neither one nor
the other of these insects. It is well known that in the torrid zone
slight stings often cause fits of fever almost as violent as those
that with us accompany severe organic injuries. The death of this poor
monk was probably the effect of fatigue and damp, rather than of the
venom contained in the stings of wasps, which the Indians dread
extremely. We must not confound the wasps of Javita with the melipones
bees, called by the Spaniards angelitos (little angels) which covered
our faces and hands on the summit of the Silla de Caracas.
The landing place of Pimichin is surrounded by a small plantation of
cacao-trees; they are very vigorous, and here, as on the banks of the
Atabapo and the Guainia, they are loaded with flowers and fruits at
all seasons. They begin to bear from the fourth year; on the coast of
Caracas they do not bear till the sixth or eighth year.
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