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 Great Geologist, Leopold
Von Buch, Has Imparted New Interest To These Observations By Examining
Whether It Be Not Rather Some Parts Of The Continent Of Scandinavia
Which Insensibly Heaves Up.
An analogous supposition was entertained
by the inhabitants of Dutch Guiana.) When the coast is so low that the
Level of the soil, at a league within the island, does not change to
extent of a few inches, these swellings and diminution of the waters
strike the imagination of the inhabitants.
The Cayo bonito (Pretty Rock), which we first visited, fully merits
its name from the richness of its vegetation. Everything denotes that
it has been long above the surface of the ocean; and the central part
of the Cayo is not more depressed than the banks. On a layer of sand
and land shells, five to six inches thick, covered by a fragmentary
madreporic rock, rises a forest of mangroves (Rhizophora). From their
form and foliage they might at a distance be mistaken for laurel
trees. The Avicennia, the Batis, some small Euphorbia and grasses, by
the intertwining of their roots, fix the moving sands. But the
characteristic distinction of the Flora of these coral islands is the
magnificent Tournefortia gnaphalioides of Jacquin, with silvered
leaves, which we found here for the first time. This is a social plant
and is a shrub from four feet and a half to five feet high. Its
flowers emit an agreeable perfume; and it is the ornament of Cayo
Flamenco, Cayo Piedras and perhaps of the greater part of the low
lands of the Jardinillos. While we were employed in herborizing,* our
sailors were searching among the rocks for lobsters. (* We gathered
Cenchrus myosuroides, Euphorbia buxifolia, Batis maritima, Iresine
obtusifolia, Tournefortia gnaphalioides, Diomedea glabrata, Cakile
cubensis, Dolichos miniatus, Parthenium hysterophorus, etc. The
last-named plant, which we had previously found in the valley of
Caracas and on the temperate table-lands of Mexico, between 470 and
900 toises high, covers the fields of the island of Cuba. It is used
by the inhabitants for aromatic baths, and to drive away the fleas
which are so numerous in tropical climates. At Cumana the leaves of
several species of cassia are employed, on account of their smell,
against those annoying insects.) Disappointed at not finding them,
they avenged themselves by climbing on the mangroves and making a
dreadful slaughter of the young alcatras, grouped in pairs in their
nests. This name is given, in Spanish America, to the brown
swan-tailed pelican of Buffon. With the want of foresight peculiar to
the great pelagic birds, the alcatra builds his nest where several
branches of trees unite together. We counted four or five nests on the
same trunk of a mangrove. The young birds defended themselves
valiantly with their enormous beaks, which are six or seven inches
long; the old ones hovered over our heads, making hoarse and plaintive
cries. Blood streamed from the tops of the trees, for the sailors were
armed with great sticks and cutlasses (machetes). In vain we reproved
them for this cruelty. Condemned to long obedience in the solitude of
the seas, this class of men feel pleasure in exercising a cruel
tyranny over animals when occasion offers. The ground was covered with
wounded birds struggling in death. At our arrival a profound calm
prevailed in this secluded spot; now, everything seemed to say: Man
has passed this way.
The sky was veiled with reddish vapours, which however dispersed in
the direction of south-west; we hoped, but in vain, to discern the
heights of the island of Pinos. Those spots have a charm in which most
parts of the New World are wanting. They are associated with
recollections of the greatest names of the Spanish monarchy - those of
Christopher Columbus and of Hernan Cortez. It was on the southern
coast of the island of Cuba, between the bay of Xagua and the island
of Pinos, that the great Spanish Admiral, in his second voyage, saw,
with astonishment, "that mysterious king who spoke to his subjects
only by signs, and that group of men who wore long white tunics, like
the monks of La Merced, whilst the rest of the people were naked."
"Columbus in his fourth voyage found in the Jardinillos, great boats
filled with Mexican Indians, and laden with the rich productions and
merchandise of Yucatan." Misled by his ardent imagination, he thought
he had heard from those navigators, "that they came from a country
where the men were mounted on horses,* and wore crowns of gold on
their heads." (* Compare the Lettera rarissima di Christoforo Colombo,
di 7 di Julio, 1503; with the letter of Herrera, dated December 1.
Nothing can be more touching and pathetic than the expression of
melancholy which prevails in the letter of Columbus, written at
Jamaica, and addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. I
recommend to the notice of those who wish to understand the character
of that extraordinary man, the recital of the nocturnal vision, in
which he imagined that he heard a celestial voice, in the midst of a
tempest, encouraging him by these words: Iddio maravigliosamente fece
sonar tuo nome nella terra. Le Indie que sono pa te del mondo cosi
ricca, te le ha date per tue; tu le hai repartite dove ti e piaciuto,
e ti dette potenzia per farlo. Delli ligamenti del mare Oceano che
erano serrati con catene cosi forte, ti dono le chiave, etc. [God
marvellously makes thy name resound throughout the world. The Indies,
which are so rich a portion of the world, he gives to thee for
thyself; thou mayest distribute them in the way thou pleasest, and God
gives thee power to do so. Of the shores of the Atlantic, which were
closed by such strong chains, he gives thee the key.] This fragment
has been handed down to us only in an ancient Italian tradition; for
the Spanish original mentioned in the Biblioteca Nautica of Don
Antonio Leon has not hitherto been found.
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