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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At The Distance Of Half A Mile From The Coast, The Sea
Water Was Not More Than 2.5 Degrees; We Had No Opportunity Of Sounding
But The Depth Of The Water Had No Doubt Diminished.
On the 14th of
March we entered the Rio Guaurabo, one of the two ports of Trinidad de
Cuba, to put on shore the practico, or pilot of Batabano, who had
steered us across the flats of the Jardinillos, though not without
causing us to run aground several times.
We also hoped to find a
packet-boat (correo maritimo) in this port, which would take us to
Carthagena. I landed towards the evening, and placed Borda's azimuth
compass and the artificial horizon on the shore for the purpose of
observing the passage of some stars by the meridian; but we had
scarcely begun our preparations when a party of small traders of the
class called pulperos, who had dined on board a foreign ship recently
arrived, invited us to accompany them to the town. These good people
requested us mount two by two on the same horse; and, as the heat was
excessive, we accepted their offer. The distance from the mouth of the
Rio Guaurabo to Trinidad is nearly four miles in a north-west
direction. The road runs across a plain which seems as if it had been
levelled by a long sojourn of the waters. It is covered with
vegetation, to which the miraguama, a palm-tree with silvered leaves
(which we saw here for the first time), gives a peculiar character.*
(* Corypha miraguama.
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