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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The Town Consists
Merely Of A Small Group Of Houses And A Fort (Castillito.) On The East
Of Xagua, The
Mountains (Cerros de San Juan) near the coast, assume an
aspect more and more majestic; not from their height, which
Does not
seem to exceed three hundred toises, but from their steepness and
general form. The coast, I was told, is so steep that a frigate may
approach the mouth of the Rio Guaurabo. When the temperature of the
air diminished at night to 23 degrees and the wind blew from the land
it brought that delicious odour of flowers and honey which
characterizes the shores of the island of Cuba.* (* Cuban wax, which
is a very important object of trade, is produced by the bees of Europe
(the species Apis, Latr.). Columbus says expressly that in his time
the inhabitants of Cuba did not collect wax. The great loaf of that
substance which he found in the island in his first voyage, and
presented to King Ferdinand in the celebrated audience of Barcelona,
was afterwards ascertained to have been brought thither by Mexican
barques from Yucatan. It is curious that the wax of melipones was the
first production of Mexico that fell into the hands of the Spaniards,
in the month of November, 1492.) We sailed along the coast keeping two
or three miles distant from land. On the 13th March a little before
sunset we were opposite the mouth of the Rio San Juan, so much dreaded
by navigators on account of the innumerable quantity of mosquitos and
zancudos which fill the atmosphere.
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