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 An Hour's Walk We Found, In A Cleared Spot, Several Inhabitants
Employed In Collecting Palm-Tree Wine.
The dark tint of the zambos
formed a strong contrast with the appearance of a little man with
light hair and a pale complexion who seemed to take no share in the
labour.
I thought at first that he was a sailor who had escaped from
some North American vessel; but I was soon undeceived. This
fair-complexioned man was my countryman, born on the coast of the
Baltic; he had served in the Danish navy and had lived for several
years in the upper part of the Rio Sinu, near Santa Cruz de Lorica. He
had come, to use the words of the loungers of the country para ver
tierras, y pasear, no mas (to see other lands, and to roam about,
nothing else.) The sight of a man who could speak to him of his
country seemed to have no attraction for him; and, as he had almost
forgotten German without being able to express himself clearly in
Spanish, our conversation was not very animated. During the five years
of my travels in Spanish America I found only two opportunities of
speaking my native language. The first Prussian I met with was a
sailor from Memel who served on board a ship from Halifax, and who
refused to make himself known till after he had fired some musket-shot
at our boat. The second, the man we met at the Rio Sinu, was very
amicably disposed.
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