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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After Having Passed The Little Forts Of Vieja Guayana, The Bed Of The
Orinoco Again Widens.
The state of cultivation of the country on the
two banks affords a striking contrast.
On the north is seen the desert
part of the province of Cumana, steppes (Llanos) destitute of
habitations, and extending beyond the sources of the Rio Mamo, toward
the tableland or mesa of Guanipa. On the south we find three populous
villages belonging to the missions of Carony, namely, San Miguel de
Uriala, San Felix and San Joaquin. The last of these villages, situate
on the banks of the Carony, immediately below the great cataract, is
considered as the embarcadero of the Catalonian missions. On
navigating more to the east, between the mouth of the Carony and
Angostura, the pilot should avoid the rocks of Guarampo, the sandbank
of Mamo, and the Piedra del Rosario. From the numerous materials which
I brought home, and from astronomical discussions, the principal
results of which I have indicated above, I have constructed a map of
the country bounded by the delta of the Orinoco, the Carony, and the
Cuyuni. This part of Guiana, from its proximity to the coast, will
some day offer the greatest attraction to European settlers.
The whole population of this vast province in its present state is,
with the exception of a few Spanish parishes, scattered on the banks
of the Lower Orinoco, and subject to two monastic governments.
Estimating the number of the inhabitants of Guiana, who do not live in
savage independence, at thirty-five thousand, we find nearly
twenty-four thousand settled in the missions, and thus withdrawn as it
were from the direct influence of the secular arm.
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