Travels in South America, during ... 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. Transl, Volume 1

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Page 453 - ... diameter ; and the middle one, to which the moving power is applied, turns the other two by means of cogs. Between these rollers, the canes...
Page 269 - I request the reader not to infer from my opinion of the tribunals of residence, my confidence in their efficacy. My homage is immediately and solely addressed to the wisdom of the law. I resign all criticism on its operation, to those who know the seductive influence of Plutus over the feeble and pliant Themis.
Page 64 - The ^ast forests which cover them would be capable of furnishing, for ages, the most extensive ship-yards, with an abundant supply of timber, if the roughness of the mountains did not render the labour of cutting and conveyance too difficult and too expensive for a country, whose navigation does not receive sufficient encouragement to enable it to support its own expense. It is twenty years since the king ordered arrangements to be made in the province of Cumana for the felling of wood to supply...
Page 413 - Domingo, some years ago, the following criterion to ascertain invariably the correct fermentation of the indigo. It is only requisite to write on white paper with the matter to be examined. If this ink be of very high colour it is a proof that the fermentation is not yet at its true point. The experiment is repeated every quarter of an hour, till it is perceived that the liquid has lost its colour.
Page 240 - Indians are so much accustomed to thepractice of lying, and so little sensible of the sacred obligation of truth, that the Spaniards have thought it proper, in order to prevent the unhappy effects which their testimony might cause to innocent persons, to pass a law by which it is enacted, that not less than six Indians are to be admitted as witnesses in one cause, and the testimony of these six, shall only be equiva* lent to the sworn evidence of one white person.
Page 101 - ... this Gulf is a real port, which, for excellence and extent, vies with the handsomest in the world. It has a muddy bottom, except near the coast of Tierra Firme, where there are shoals and banks of sand. The Gulf receives, on the SS W. a considerable volume of water by different mouths of the Orinoco, which enters it with a velocity that very much incommodes the vessels which steer that way upon their passage. There is some reason to believe, that a part of those waters of the Orinoco have, in...
Page 240 - ... Spaniards have thought it proper, in order to prevent the unhappy effects which their testimony might cause to innocent persons, to pass a law by which it is enacted, that not less than six Indians are to be admitted as witnesses in one cause, and the testimony of these six, shall only be equivalent to the sworn evidence of one white person. Thus we see that the statesman, with all his expedients and resources, has not been able to accomplish his object...
Page 73 - Spaniards, regardless of the insalubrity of the air, to fix their habitations there, in order to raise cacao and provisions. These settlements, which were very much dispersed, were not able to command sufficient funds for laying the foundation of a village, much less of a city. There is but one chapel, placed nearly in the centre of the scattered habitations, and a curate for performing divine service and administering the sacraments. The southern extremity of the lake is uncultivated and uninhabited....
Page 60 - Cundinamarca, also, salt is obtained in great quantity, and it produces many other valuable mineral substances. These provinces abound in mineral waters, both warm and cold. They are to be found of various qualities, such as the ammoniacal, the ferruginous, the nitrous, and even the acidulous. Medicine does not derive from them all the advantages they are capable of affording, because, in general, they are at too great a distance from inhabited places, and consequently the patient cannot, without...
Page 410 - The cutting of Indigo. After three months, the indigo is commonly fit to cut, and this operation is far from immaterial. It has also its rules and its procedure. The first object of attention is the maturity of the indigo : the second, to cut the plant one inch from the earth. To cut it higher may retard the shoots of a second cutting, or may even entirely prevent them. Large crooked knives are much more convenient for this purpose than any other instrument ; and at the same time more advantageous...

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