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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He Had The Good Fortune To Live At A
Period When Theories Were Less Numerous; And, Like Me, He Was
Struck By Seeing The Natives Equally Bronzed Under The Line, In The
Cold Climate Of The Cordilleras, And In The Plains.
Where
differences of colour are observed, they depend on the race.
We
shall soon find on the burning banks of the Orinoco Indians with a
whitish skin. Durans originis vis est.
CHAPTER 1.10.
SECOND ABODE AT CUMANA.
EARTHQUAKES.
EXTRAORDINARY METEORS.
We remained a month longer at Cumana, employing ourselves in the
necessary preparations for our proposed visit to the Orinoco and
the Rio Negro. We had to choose such instruments as could be most
easily transported in narrow boats; and to engage guides for an
inland journey of ten months, across a country without
communication with the coasts. The astronomical determination of
places being the most important object of this undertaking, I felt
desirous not to miss the observation of an eclipse of the sun,
which was to be visible at the end of October: and in consequence I
preferred remaining till that period at Cumana, where the sky is
generally clear and serene. It was now too late to reach the banks
of the Orinoco before October; and the high valleys of Caracas
promised less favourable opportunities, on account of the vapours
which accumulate round the neighbouring mountains.
I was, however, near being compelled by a deplorable occurrence, to
renounce, or at least to delay for a long time, my journey to the
Orinoco.
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