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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I saw a missionary labouring earnestly to
prove that infierno, hell, and invierno, winter, were not one and
the same thing; but as different as heat and cold.
The Chaymas are
acquainted with no other winter than the season of rains; and
consequently they imagined the Hell of the whites to be a place
where the wicked are exposed to frequent showers. The missionary
harangued to no purpose: it was impossible to efface the first
impression produced by the analogy between the two consonants. He
could not separate in the minds of the neophytes the ideas of rain
and hell; invierno and infierno.
After passing almost the whole day in the open air, we employed our
evenings, at the convent, in making notes, drying our plants, and
sketching those that appeared to form new genera. Unfortunately the
misty atmosphere of a valley, where the surrounding forests fill
the air with an enormous quantity of vapour, was unfavourable to
astronomical observations. I spent a part of the nights waiting to
take advantage of the moment when some star should be visible
between the clouds, near its passage over the meridian. I often
shivered with cold, though the thermometer only sunk to 16 degrees,
which is the temperature of the day in our climates towards the end
of September. The instruments remained set up in the court of the
convent for several hours, yet I was almost always disappointed in
my expectations. Some good observations of Fomalhaut and of Deneb
have given 10 degrees 10 minutes 14 seconds as the latitude of
Caripe; which proves that the position indicated in the maps of
Caulin is 18 minutes wrong, and in that of Arrowsmith 14 minutes.
Observations of corresponding altitudes of the sun having given me
the true time, within about 2 seconds, I was enabled to determine
the magnetic variation with precision, at noon. It was, on the 20th
of September, 1799, 3 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds north-east;
consequently 0 degrees 58 minutes 15 seconds less than at Cumana.
If we attend to the influence of the horary variations, which in
these countries do not in general exceed 8 minutes, we shall find,
that at considerable distances the variation changes less rapidly
than is usually supposed. The dip of the needle was 42.75 degrees,
centesimal division, and the number of oscillations, expressing the
intensity of the magnetic forces, rose to 229 in ten minutes.
The vexation of seeing the stars disappear in a misty sky was the
only disappointment we felt in the valley of Caripe. The aspect of
this spot presents a character at once wild and tranquil, gloomy
and attractive. In the solitude of these mountains we are perhaps
less struck by the new impressions we receive at every step, than
with the marks of resemblance we trace in climates the most remote
from each other. The hills by which the convent is backed, are
crowned with palm-trees and arborescent ferns.
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