Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 90 of 170 - First - Home
The
Predilection Of Europeans For The Tierras Frias, That Is To Say, The
Cold And Temperate Climate That Prevails On The Back Of The Andes,
Gave Further Weight To These Counsels.
The distances were known, but
we were deceived with respect to the time it would take to traverse
them on mules' backs.
We did not imagine that it would require more
than eighteen months to go from Carthagena to Lima. Notwithstanding
this delay, or rather owing to the slowness with which we passed
through Cundinamarca, the provinces of Popayan and Quito, I did not
regret having sacrificed the passage of the isthmus to the route of
Bogota, for every step of the journey was full of interest both
geographically and botanically. This change of direction gave me
occasion to trace the map of the Rio Magdalena, to determine
astronomically the position of eighty points situated in the inland
country between Carthagena, Popayan, and the upper course of the river
Amazon and Lima, to discover the error in the longitude of Quito, to
collect several thousand new plants, and to observe on a vast scale
the relations between the rocks of syenitic porphyry and trachyte with
the fire of volcanoes.
The result of those labours of which it is not for me to appreciate
the importance have long since been published. My map of the Rio
Magdalena, multiplied by the copies of the year 1802 in America and
Spain, and comprehending the country between Almaguer and Santa Marta,
from 1 degree 54 minutes to 11 degrees 15 minutes latitude, appeared
in 1816. Till that period no traveller had undertaken to describe New
Grenada; and the public, except in Spain, knew the navigation of the
Magdalena only by some lines traced by Bouguer. That learned traveller
had descended the river from Honda; but, being in want of astronomical
instruments, he had ascertained but four or five latitudes, by means
of small dials hastily constructed. The narratives of travels in
America are now singularly multiplied. Political events have led
numbers of persons to those countries: and travellers have perhaps too
hastily published their journals on returning to Europe. They have
described the towns where they resided, and landscape scenery
remarkable for beauty; they have furnished information respecting the
inhabitants and the different modes of travelling in barks, on mules
or on men's backs. These works, several of which are agreeable and
instructive, have familiarized the nations of the Old World with those
of Spanish America, from Buenos Ayres and Chili as far as Zacatecas
and New Mexico. But unfortunately, in many instances, the want of a
thorough knowledge of the Spanish language and the little care taken
to acquire the names of places, rivers and tribes, have occasioned
extraordinary mistakes.
During the six days of our stay at Carthagena our most interesting
excursions were to the Boca Grande and the hill of Popa; the latter
commands the town and a very extensive view. The port, or rather the
bahia, is nearly nine miles and a half long, if we compute the length
from the town (near the suburb of Jehemani or Xezemani) to the Cienega
of Cacao. The Cienega is one of the nooks of the isle of Baru,
south-west of the Estero de Pasacaballos, by which we reach the
opening of the Dique de Mahates. Two extremities of the small island
of Tierra Bomba form, on the north, with a neck of land of the
continent, and on the south, with a cape of the island of Baru, the
only entrances to the Bay of Carthagena; the former is called Boca
Grande, the second Boca Chica. This extraordinary conformation of the
land has given birth, for the space of a century, to theories entirely
contradictory respecting the defence of a place which, next to the
Havannah and Porto Cabello, is the most important of the main land and
the West Indies. Engineers differed respecting the choice of the
opening which should be closed; and it was not, as some writers have
stated, after the landing of Admiral Vernon, in 1741, that the idea
was first conceived* of filling up the Boca Grande. (* Don Jorge Juan
in his Secret Notices addressed to the Marques de la Ensenada says: La
entrada antigua era por un angosto canal que llaman Boca Chica; de
resultas de esta invasion se acordo deja cioga y impassable la Boca
Grande, y volver a abrir la antigua fortificandola. [The old entrance
was by a narrow channel called the Boca Chica; but after this invasion
it was determined to close up the Boca Grande and to open the old
passage, fortifying it.] Secr. Not. volume 1 page 4.) The English
forced the small entrance when they made themselves masters of the
bay; but being unable to take the town of Carthagena, which made a
gallant resistance, they destroyed the Castillo Grande (called also
Santa Cruz) and the two forts of San Luis and San Jose which defended
the Boca Chica.
The apprehension excited by the proximity of the Boca Grande to the
town determined the court of Madrid, after the English expedition, to
shut up the entrance along a distance of 2640 varas. From two and a
half to three fathoms of water were found; and a wall, or rather a
dyke, in stone, from fifteen to twenty feet high, was raised on piles.
The slope on the side of the water is unequal, and seldom 45 degrees.
This immense work was completed under the Viceroy Espeleta in 1795.
But art could not vanquish nature; the sea is unceasingly though
gradually silting up the Boca Chica, while it labours unceasingly to
open and enlarge the Boca Grande. The currents which, during a great
part of the year, especially when the bendavales blow with violence,
ascend from south-west to north-east, throw sand into the Boca Chica,
and even into the bay itself. The passage, which is from seventeen to
eighteen fathoms deep, becomes more and more narrow,* and if a regular
cleansing be not established by dredging machines, vessels will not be
able to enter without risk.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 90 of 170
Words from 91736 to 92754
of 174507