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 Observation Of The Latter
Phenomenon Might Have Been Very Important In Determining The Longitude
Of Carthagena.
In vain I urged the captain to allow one of his sailors
to accompany me by land to the foot of Boca Chica, a distance of five
miles.
He objected on account of the wild state of the country in
which there is neither habitation nor path. A little incident which
might have rendered Palm-Sunday more fatal justified the prudence of
the captain. We went by moonlight to collect plants on the shore; as
we approached the land, we saw a young negro issue from the thicket.
He was quite naked, loaded with chains, and armed with a machete. He
invited us to land on a part of the beach covered with large
mangroves, as being a spot where the surf did not break, and offered
to conduct us to the interior of the island of Baru if we would
promise to give him some clothes. His cunning and wild appearance, the
often-repeated question whether we were Spaniards, and certain
unintelligible words which he addressed to some of his companions who
were concealed amidst the trees, inspired us with some mistrust. These
blacks were no doubt maroon negroes: slaves escaped from prison. This
unfortunate class are much to be feared: they have the courage of
despair, and a desire of vengeance excited by the severity of the
whites. We were without arms; the negroes appeared to be more numerous
than we were and, thinking that possibly they invited us to land with
the desire of taking possession of our canoe, we thought it most
prudent to return on board. The aspect of a naked man wandering on an
uninhabited beach, unable to free himself from the chains fastened
round his neck and the upper part of his arm, was an object calculated
to excite the most painful impressions. Our sailors wished to return
to the shore for the purpose of seizing the fugitives, to sell them
secretly at Carthagena. In countries where slavery exists the mind is
familiarized with suffering and that instinct of pity which
characterizes and enobles our nature is blunted.
Whilst we lay at anchor near the island of Baru in the meridian of
Punta Gigantes I observed the eclipse of the moon of the 29th of
March, 1801. The total immersion took place at 11 hours 30 minutes
12.6 seconds mean time. Some groups of vapours, scattered over the
azure vault of the sky, rendered the observation of the immersion
uncertain.
During the total eclipse the lunar disc displayed, as almost always
happens, a reddish tint, without disappearing; the edges, examined
with a sextant, were strongly undulating, notwithstanding the
considerable altitude of the orb. It appeared to me that the moon was
more luminous than I had ever seen it in the temperate zone. The
vividness of the light, it may be conceived, does not depend solely on
the state of the atmosphere, which reflects, more or less feebly, the
solar rays, by inflecting them in the cone of the shade. The light is
also modified by the variable transparency of that part of the
atmosphere across which we perceived the moon eclipsed. Within the
tropics great serenity of the sky and a perfect dissolution of the
vapours diminish the extinction of the light sent back to us by the
lunar disc. I was singularly struck during the eclipse by the want of
uniformity in the distribution of the refracted light by the
terrestrial atmosphere. In the central region of the disc there was a
shadow like a round cloud, the movement of which was from east to
west. The part where the immersion was to take place was consequently
a few minutes prior to the immersion much more brightly illumined than
the western edges. Is this phenomenon to be attributed to an
inequality of our atmosphere; to a partial accumulation of vapour
which, by absorbing a considerable part of the solar light, inflects
less on one side the cone of the shadow of the earth? If a similar
cause, in the perigee of central eclipses, sometimes renders the disc
invisible, may it not happen also that only a small portion of the
moon is seen; a disc, irregularly formed, and of which different parts
were successively enlightened?
On the morning of the 30th of March we doubled Punta Gigantes, and
made for the Boca Chica, the present entrance of the port of
Carthagena. From thence the distance is seven or eight miles to the
anchorage near the town; and although we took a practico to pilot us,
we repeatedly touched on the sandbanks. On landing I learned, with
great satisfaction, that the expedition appointed to take the survey
of the coast under the direction of M. Fidalgo, had not yet put to
sea. This circumstance not only enabled me to ascertain the
astronomical position of several towns on the shore which had served
me as points of departure in fixing chronometrically the longitude of
the Llanos and the Orinoco, but also served to guide me with respect
to the future direction of my journey to Peru. The passage from
Carthagena to Porto Bello and that of the isthmus by the Rio Chagres
and Cruces, are alike short and easy; but it was to be feared that we
might stay long at Panama before we found an opportunity of proceeding
to Guayaquil, and in that case the voyage on the Pacific would be
extremely lingering, as we should have to sail against contrary winds
and currents. I relinquished with regret the hope of levelling by the
barometer the mountains of the isthmus, though it would then have been
difficult to foresee that at the present time (1827), while
measurements have been effected on so many other points of Mexico and
Columbia, we should remain in ignorance of the height of the ridge
which divides the waters in the isthmus. The persons we consulted all
agreed that the journey by land along the Cordilleras by Santa Fe de
Bogota, Popayan, Quito and Caxamarca would be preferable to the
sea-voyage, and would furnish an immense field for exploration.
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