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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After Having Proceeded Three Quarters Of An Hour Along A
Shore Covered By The Tide We Were Joined By The Negro, Who Carried
Our Provision.
Uneasy at not seeing us arrive, he had come to meet
us, and he led us through a wood of nopals to a hut inhabited by an
Indian family.
We were received with the cordial hospitality
observed in this country among people of every tribe. The hut in
which we slung our hammocks was very clean; and there we found
fish, plantains, and what in the torrid zone is preferable to the
most sumptuous food, excellent water.
The next day at sunrise we found that the hut in which we had
passed the night formed part of a group of small dwellings on the
borders of the salt lake, the remains of a considerable village
which had formerly stood near the castle. The ruins of a church
were seen partly buried in the sand, and covered with brushwood.
When, in 1762, to save the expense of the garrison, the castle of
Araya was totally dismantled, the Indians and Mulattoes who were
settled in the neighbourhood emigrated by degrees to Maniquarez, to
Cariaco, and in the suburb of the Guayquerias at Cumana. A small
number, bound from affection to their native soil, remained in this
wild and barren spot. These poor people live by catching fish,
which are extremely abundant on the coast and the neighbouring
shoals. They appear satisfied with their condition, and think it
strange when they are asked why they have no gardens or culinary
vegetables.
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