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 177 of 332 - First - Home
La
Entrada Antigua Era Por Un Angosto Canal Que Llaman Boca Chica; De
Resultas De Esta Invasion Se Acordo Deja Cioga Y Impassable La Boca
Grande, Y Volver A Abrir La Antigua Fortificandola.
[The old entrance
was by a narrow channel called the Boca Chica; but after this invasion
it was determined to close up the Boca Grande and to open the old
passage, fortifying it.] Secr.
Not. volume 1 page 4.) The English
forced the small entrance when they made themselves masters of the
bay; but being unable to take the town of Carthagena, which made a
gallant resistance, they destroyed the Castillo Grande (called also
Santa Cruz) and the two forts of San Luis and San Jose which defended
the Boca Chica.
The apprehension excited by the proximity of the Boca Grande to the
town determined the court of Madrid, after the English expedition, to
shut up the entrance along a distance of 2640 varas. From two and a
half to three fathoms of water were found; and a wall, or rather a
dyke, in stone, from fifteen to twenty feet high, was raised on piles.
The slope on the side of the water is unequal, and seldom 45 degrees.
This immense work was completed under the Viceroy Espeleta in 1795.
But art could not vanquish nature; the sea is unceasingly though
gradually silting up the Boca Chica, while it labours unceasingly to
open and enlarge the Boca Grande. The currents which, during a great
part of the year, especially when the bendavales blow with violence,
ascend from south-west to north-east, throw sand into the Boca Chica,
and even into the bay itself. The passage, which is from seventeen to
eighteen fathoms deep, becomes more and more narrow,* and if a regular
cleansing be not established by dredging machines, vessels will not be
able to enter without risk. (* At the foot of the two forts San Jose
and San Fernando, constructed for the defence of the Boca Chica, it
may be seen how much the land has gained upon the sea. Necks of land
are formed on both sides, and also before the Castillo del Angel
which, northward, commands the fort of San Fernando.) It is this small
entrance which should have been closed; its opening is only 250
toises, and the passage or navigable channel is 110 toises. If it
should one day be determined to abandon the Boca Chica, and
re-establish the Boca Grande in the state which nature seems to
prescribe, new fortifications must be constructed on the
south-south-west of the town. This fortress has always required great
pecuniary outlays to keep it up.
The insalubrity of Carthagena varies with the state of the great
marshes that surround the town on the east and north. The Cienega de
Tesca is more than fifteen miles long; it communicates with the ocean
where it approaches the village of Guayeper. When, in years of
drought, the heaped-up earth prevents the salt water from covering the
whole plain, the emanations that rise during the heat of the day when
the thermometer stands between 28 and 32 degrees are very pernicious
to the health of the inhabitants.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 177 of 332
Words from 92443 to 92975
of 174507