Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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While We Were Employed In Herborizing,* Our
Sailors Were Searching Among The Rocks For Lobsters.
(* We gathered
Cenchrus myosuroides, Euphorbia buxifolia, Batis maritima, Iresine
obtusifolia, Tournefortia gnaphalioides, Diomedea glabrata, Cakile
cubensis, Dolichos miniatus, Parthenium hysterophorus, etc.
The
last-named plant, which we had previously found in the valley of
Caracas and on the temperate table-lands of Mexico, between 470 and
900 toises high, covers the fields of the island of Cuba. It is used
by the inhabitants for aromatic baths, and to drive away the fleas
which are so numerous in tropical climates. At Cumana the leaves of
several species of cassia are employed, on account of their smell,
against those annoying insects.) Disappointed at not finding them,
they avenged themselves by climbing on the mangroves and making a
dreadful slaughter of the young alcatras, grouped in pairs in their
nests. This name is given, in Spanish America, to the brown
swan-tailed pelican of Buffon. With the want of foresight peculiar to
the great pelagic birds, the alcatra builds his nest where several
branches of trees unite together. We counted four or five nests on the
same trunk of a mangrove. The young birds defended themselves
valiantly with their enormous beaks, which are six or seven inches
long; the old ones hovered over our heads, making hoarse and plaintive
cries. Blood streamed from the tops of the trees, for the sailors were
armed with great sticks and cutlasses (machetes). In vain we reproved
them for this cruelty. Condemned to long obedience in the solitude of
the seas, this class of men feel pleasure in exercising a cruel
tyranny over animals when occasion offers.
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