Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804, Volume 3H.G. Bohn, 1853 |
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Amazon ancient Angostura appears Apure arrobas auriferous banks Barcelona basin Batabano branches Brazil Cape Caracas Caribs Caripe Carony Cassipa Cayo Cerro chain civilization coast colonies contains Cordillera cultivation Cumana Cumanacoa Cundinamarca Dorado east eastern Essequibo Europe expedition extend formation gneiss gold granite Grenada Guiana gulf Havannah height Indians inhabitants island of Cuba isthmus kilogrammes Laguna lake land latitude limestone Llanos Lower Orinoco maps Mariara meridian Meta Mexico mica-slate mountains mouth nations natives northern Nueva Barcelona observed Omaguas Ordaz Orinoco parallel Parima peninsula of Araya Peru piastres plains population port province Punta Quito Raleigh region ridge Rio Branco Rio Negro rise river rocks Rupunuwini sandstone Santa shore Sierra Parime slaves soil South America southern Spain Spaniards Spanish square leagues strata sugar summits surface table-land tion toises toises high town trachytes tributary streams Trinidad Uaupes Venezuela village volcanic voyage West Indies western
Popular passages
Page 11 - ... progress of the oscillations of the Orinoco. Immediately after the vernal equinox (the people say on the 25th of March), the commencement of the rising is perceived. It is at first only an inch in twenty-four hours; sometimes the river again sinks in April; it attains its maximum in July; remains full (at the same level) from the end of July till the 25th of August; and then decreases progressively, but more slowly than it increased. It is at its minimum in January and February. In both worlds,...
Page 258 - Europe about the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. It was generally hoped that the cultivation of tobacco, freed from an oppressive monopoly, would be to the Havannah a very profitable object of commerce.
Page 79 - Equidem cum audio socrum meam Laeliam — facilius enim mulieres incorruptam antiquitatem conservant, quod multorum sermonis expertes ea tenent semper quae prima didicerunt...
Page 15 - We know by the testimony of antiquity, that the oscillations of the Nile have been sensibly the same with respect to their, height and duration for thousands of years ; which is a proof well worthy of attention, that the mean state of the humidity and the temperature does not vary in that vast basin.
Page 214 - Dice mas el Almirante, que en las islas pasadas estaban con gran temor de Carib, y en algunas le llamaban Caniba, pero en la Española Carib; y que debe de ser gente arriscada, pues andan por todas estas islas, y comen la gente que pueden haber.
Page 57 - ... delivered all such nations about her, as were by them oppressed, and having freed all the coast of the northern world from their servitude had sent me to free them also, and withal to defend the country of Guiana from their invasion and conquest.
Page 8 - In the season of inundations these clumps of mauritia, with their leaves in the form of a fan, have the appearance of a forest rising from the bosom of the waters. The navigator, in proceeding along the channels of the delta of the Orinoco at night, sees with surprise the summit of the palm-trees illumined by large fires. These are the habitations of the Guaraons (Tivitivas and Waraweties of Ealeighf), which are suspended from the trunks of trees.
Page 226 - The view from the summit is, to quote Humboldt, 'very extensive and varied, and the windings and rents of the coast give it a peculiar character'. 'I was assured,' he adds, 'that sometimes from the window of the convent, and even in the open sea, before the Fort of Boca Chica, the snowy tops of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are discernible.
Page 45 - The powdered gold is fixed on the body by means of an odoriferous resin ; but, as this kind of garment would be uneasy to him while he slept, the prince washes himself every evening, and is gilded anew in the morning, which proves that the empire of El Dorado is 46 METHODS OF EODY-PAIHTING. infinitely rich in mines.
Page 184 - Notwithstanding the small size of our bark, and the boasted skill of our pilot, we often ran aground. The bottom being soft, there was no danger; but, nevertheless, at sun-set, near the pass of Don Cristoval, we preferred to lie at anchor. The first part of the night was beautifully serene : we saw an incalculable number of falling-stars, all following one direction, opposite to that from whence the wind blew in the low regions of the atmosphere. The most absolute solitude prevails in this spot,...