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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This Town Was Peopled Solely By Natives Who Came From The
Saltworks Of Apaicuare.
In 1637 Urpin founded, two leagues farther
inland, the Spanish town of Nueva Barcelona, which he peopled with
some
Of the inhabitants of Cumanagoto, together with some Catalonians.
For thirty-four years, disputes were incessantly arising between the
two neighbouring communities till in 1671, the governor Angulo
succeeded in persuading them to establish themselves on a third spot,
where the town of Barcelona now stands. According to my observations
it is situated in latitude 10 degrees 6 minutes 52 seconds.* (* These
observations were made on the Plaza Major. They are merely the result
of six circum-meridian heights of Canopus, taken all in one night. In
Las Memorias de Espinosa the latitude is stated to be 10 degrees 9
minutes 6 seconds. The result of M. Ferrer's observations made it 10
degrees 8 minutes 24 seconds.) The ancient town of Cumanagoto is
celebrated in the country for a miraculous image of the Virgin,* which
the Indians say was found in the hollow trunk of an old tutumo, or
calabash-tree (Crescentia cujete). (* La milagrosa imagen de Maria
Santissima del Socorro, also called La Virgen del Tutumo.) This image
was carried in procession to Nueva Barcelona; but whenever the clergy
were dissatisfied with the inhabitants of the new city, the Virgin
fled at night, and returned to the trunk of the tree at the mouth of
the river. This miracle did not cease till a fine convent (the college
of the Propaganda) was built, to receive the Franciscans. In a similar
case, the Bishop of Caracas caused the image of Our Lady de los
Valencianos to be placed in the archives of the bishopric, where she
remained thirty years under seal.
The climate of Barcelona is not so hot as that of Cumana but it is
extremely damp and somewhat unhealthy in the rainy season. M. Bonpland
had borne very well the irksome journey across the Llanos; and had
recovered his strength and activity. With respect to myself, I
suffered more at Barcelona than I did at Angostura, immediately after
our passage on the rivers. One of those extraordinary tropical rains
during which, at sunset, drops of enormous size fall at great
distances from one another, caused me to experience sensations which
seemed to threaten an attack of typhus, a disease then prevalent on
that coast. We remained nearly a month at Barcelona where we found our
friend Fray Juan Gonzales, of whom I have often spoken, and who had
traversed the Upper Orinoco before us. He expressed regret that we had
not been able to prolong our visit to that unknown country; and he
examined our plants and animals with that interest which must be felt
by even the most uninformed man for the productions of a region he has
long since visited. Fray Juan had resolved to go to Europe and to
accompany us as far as the island of Cuba. We were together for the
space of seven months, and his society was most agreeable:
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