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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On Approaching The Town Of Cumanacoa We Found A More Level Soil,
And A Valley Enlarging Itself Progressively.
This small town is
situated in a naked plain, almost circular, and surrounded by lofty
mountains.
It was founded in 1717 by Domingo Arias, on the return
of an expedition to the mouth of the Guarapiche, undertaken with
the view of destroying an establishment which some French
freebooters had attempted to found. The new town was first called
San Baltazar de las Arias; but the Indian name Cumanacoa prevailed;
in like manner the name of Santiago de Leon, still to be found in
our maps, is forgotten in that of Caracas.
On opening the barometer we were struck at seeing the column of
mercury scarcely 7.3 lines shorter than on the coasts. The plain,
or rather the table-land, on which the town of Cumanacoa is
situated, is not more than 104 toises above the level of the sea,
which is three or four times less than is supposed by the
inhabitants of Cumana, on account of their exaggerated ideas of the
cold of Cumanacoa. But the difference of climate observable between
places so near each other is perhaps less owing to comparative
height than to local circumstances. Among these causes we may cite
the proximity of the forests; the frequency of descending currents,
so common in these valleys, closed on every side; the abundance of
rain; and those thick fogs which diminish during a great part of
the year the direct action of the solar rays.
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