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 Andes Of
South America Bound The Plains Of The Orinoco, The Amazon, And The Rio
De La Plata, On The West, Like A Rocky Wall Raised Across A Crevice
1300 Leagues Long, And Stretching From South To North.
This upheaved
part (if I may be permitted to use an expression founded on a
geological hypothesis) comprises a surface of 58,900 square leagues,
between the parallel of Cape Pilesar and the northern Choco.
To form
an idea of the variety of rocks which this space may furnish for the
observation of the traveller, we must recollect that the Pyrenees,
according to the observations of M. Charpentier, occupy only 768
square sea leagues.
The name of Andes in the Quichua language (which wants the consonants
d, f, and g) Antis, or Ante, appears to me to be derived from the
Peruvian word anta, signifying copper or metal in general. Anta chacra
signifies mine of copper; antacuri, copper mixed with gold; and puca
anta, copper, or red metal. As the group of the Altai mountains* takes
its name from the Turkish word altor or altyn (* Klaproth. Asia
polyglotta page 211. It appears to me less probable that the tribe of
the Antis gave its name to the mountains of Peru.), in the same manner
the Cordilleras may have been termed "Copper-country," or Anti-suyu,
on account of the abundance of that metal, which the Peruvians
employed for their tools. The Inca Garcilasso, who was the son of a
Peruvian princess, and who wrote the history of his native country in
the first years of the conquest, gives no etymology of the name of the
Andes.
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