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 The 27th Of October, The Day Before The Eclipse, We
Went As Usual, To Take The Air On The Shore Of The Gulf, And To
Observe The Instant Of High Water, Which In Those Parts Is Only
Twelve Or Thirteen Inches.
It was eight in the evening, and the
breeze was not yet stirring.
The sky was cloudy; and during a dead
calm it was excessively hot. We crossed the beach which separates
the suburb of the Guayqueria Indians from the embarcadero. I heard
some one walking behind us, and on turning, I saw a tall man of the
colour of the Zambos, naked to the waist. He held almost over my
head a macana, which is a great stick of palm-tree wood, enlarged
to the end like a club. I avoided the stroke by leaping towards the
left; but M. Bonpland, who walked on my right, was less fortunate.
He did not see the Zambo so soon as I did, and received a stroke
above the temple, which levelled him with the ground. We were
alone, without arms, half a league from any habitation, on a vast
plain bounded by the sea. The Zambo, instead of attacking me, moved
off slowly to pick up M. Bonpland's hat, which, having somewhat
deadened the violence of the blow, had fallen off and lay at some
distance. Alarmed at seeing my companion on the ground, and for
some moments senseless, I thought of him only. I helped him to
raise himself, and pain and anger doubled his strength.
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