Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The
Missions Form (I Will Not Say According To Their Primitive And
Canonical Institutions, But In Reality) A Distinct And Nearly
Independent Hierarchy, The Views Of Which Seldom Accord With Those
Of The Secular Clergy.
The missionary of San Fernando was a Capuchin, a native of Aragon,
far advanced in years, but strong and healthy.
His extreme
corpulency, his hilarity, the interest he took in battles and
sieges, ill accorded with the ideas we form in northern countries
of the melancholy reveries and the contemplative life of
missionaries. Though extremely busy about a cow which was to be
killed next day, the old monk received us with kindness, and
permitted us to hang up our hammocks in a gallery of his house.
Seated, without doing anything, the greater part of the day, in an
armchair of red wood, he bitterly complained of what he called the
indolence and ignorance of his countrymen. Our missionary, however,
seemed well satisfied with his situation.
He treated the Indians with mildness; he beheld his Mission
prosper, and he praised with enthusiasm the waters, the bananas,
and the dairy-produce of the district. The sight of our
instruments, our books, and our dried plants, drew from him a
sarcastic smile; and he acknowledged, with the naivete peculiar to
the inhabitants of those countries, that of all the enjoyments of
life, without excepting sleep, none was comparable to the pleasure
of eating good beef (carne de vaca): thus does sensuality obtain an
ascendancy, where there is no occupation for the mind.
The mission of San Fernando was founded about the end of the 17th
century, near the junction of the small rivers of the Manzanares
and Lucasperez. A fire, which consumed the church and the huts of
the Indians, induced the Capuchins to build the village in its
present fine situation. The number of families is increased to one
hundred, and the missionary observed to us, that the custom of
marrying at thirteen or fourteen years of age contributes greatly
to this rapid increase of population. He denied that old age was so
premature among the Chaymas, as is commonly believed in Europe. The
government of these Indian parishes is very complicated; they have
their governor, their major-alguazils, and their
militia-commanders, all copper-coloured natives. The company of
archers have their colours, and perform their exercise with the bow
and arrow, in shooting at a mark; this is the national guard
(militia) of the country. This military establishment, under a
purely monastic system, seemed to us very singular.
On the night of the 5th of September, and the following morning,
there was a thick fog; yet we were not more than a hundred toises
above the level of the sea. I determined geometrically, at the
moment of our departure, the height of the great calcareous
mountain which rises at 800 toises distance to the south of San
Fernando, and forms a perpendicular cliff on the north side. It is
only 215 toises higher than the great square; but naked masses of
rock, which here exhibit themselves in the midst of a thick
vegetation, give it a very majestic aspect.
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