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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Such Is The Natural Progress Of Things In Peopling A
Vast Continent.
It may be hoped that on several points the people will
return to the places that were first chosen.
It is difficult to
conceive why the mouth of a great river, descending from a country
rich in gold and platina, should have remained uninhabited. The
Atrato, heretofore called Rio del Darien, de San Juan or Dabayba, has
had the same fate as the Orinoco. The Indians who wander around the
delta of those rivers continue in a savage state.
We weighed anchor in the road of Zapote, on the 27th March, at
sunrise. The sea was less stormy, and the weather rather warmer,
although the fury of the wind was undiminished. We saw on the north a
succession of small cones of extraordinary form, as far as the Morro
de Tigua; they are known by the name of the Paps (tetas) of Santero,
Tolu, Rincon and Chichimar. The two latter are nearest the coast. The
Tetas de Tolu rise in the middle of the savannahs. There, from the
trunks of the Toluifera balsamum, is collected the precious balsam of
Tolu, heretofore so celebrated in the pharmacopoeias of Europe, and in
which is a profitable article of trade at Corozal, Caimito and the
town of Tocasuan. In the savannahs (altas del Tolu) oxen and mules
wander half wild. Several of those hills between Cienega de Pesquero
and the Punta del Comissario are linked two-and-two together, like
basaltic columns; it is, however, very probable that they are
calcareous, like the Tetas de Managua, south of the Havannah.
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