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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I Mention This Circumstance To Prove How Difficult, Within
The Tropics, On The Banks Of Great Rivers, Are The First Attempts Of
Man To Appropriate To Himself A Little Spot Of Earth In That Vast
Domain Of Nature, Invaded By Animals, And Covered By Spontaneous
Plants.
During the night of the 13th of May, I obtained some observations of
the stars, unfortunately the last at the Cassiquiare.
The latitude of
Mandavaca is 2 degrees 4 minutes 7 seconds; its longitude, according
to the chronometer, 69 degrees 27 minutes. I found the magnetic dip
25.25 degrees (cent div), showing that it had increased considerably
from the fort of San Carlos. Yet the surrounding rocks are of the same
granite, mixed with a little hornblende, which we had found at Javita,
and which assumes a syenitic aspect. We left Mandavaca at half-past
two in the morning. After six hours' voyage, we passed on the east the
mouth of the Idapa, or Siapa, which rises on the mountain of Uuturan,
and furnishes near its sources a portage to the Rio Mavaca, one of the
tributary streams of the Orinoco. This river has white waters, and is
not more than half as broad as the Pacimoni, the waters of which are
black. Its upper course has been strangely misrepresented on maps. I
shall have occasion hereafter to mention the hypotheses that have
given rise to these errors, in speaking of the source of the Orinoco.
We stopped near the raudal of Cunuri.
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