Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 156 of 635 - First - Home
This Town Was Peopled Solely By Natives Who Came From The
Saltworks Of Apaicuare.
In 1637 Urpin founded, two leagues farther
inland, the Spanish town of Nueva Barcelona, which he peopled with
some
Of the inhabitants of Cumanagoto, together with some Catalonians.
For thirty-four years, disputes were incessantly arising between the
two neighbouring communities till in 1671, the governor Angulo
succeeded in persuading them to establish themselves on a third spot,
where the town of Barcelona now stands. According to my observations
it is situated in latitude 10 degrees 6 minutes 52 seconds.* (* These
observations were made on the Plaza Major. They are merely the result
of six circum-meridian heights of Canopus, taken all in one night. In
Las Memorias de Espinosa the latitude is stated to be 10 degrees 9
minutes 6 seconds. The result of M. Ferrer's observations made it 10
degrees 8 minutes 24 seconds.) The ancient town of Cumanagoto is
celebrated in the country for a miraculous image of the Virgin,* which
the Indians say was found in the hollow trunk of an old tutumo, or
calabash-tree (Crescentia cujete). (* La milagrosa imagen de Maria
Santissima del Socorro, also called La Virgen del Tutumo.) This image
was carried in procession to Nueva Barcelona; but whenever the clergy
were dissatisfied with the inhabitants of the new city, the Virgin
fled at night, and returned to the trunk of the tree at the mouth of
the river. This miracle did not cease till a fine convent (the college
of the Propaganda) was built, to receive the Franciscans.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 635
Words from 42700 to 42960
of 174507
