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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These Various Phenomena, So
Common In The Tropics, Acquire Additional Interest From The Form Of
The Mountains, The Direction Of The Slopes, And The Height Of The
Savannahs Covered With Alpine Grasses.
During the day, the wind of
Petare, blowing from the east, drives the smoke towards the town,
and diminishes the transparency of the air.
If we had reason to be satisfied with the situation of our house,
we had still greater cause for satisfaction in the reception we met
with from all classes of the inhabitants. Though I have had the
advantage, which few Spaniards have shared with me, of having
successively visited Caracas, the Havannah, Santa Fe de Bogota,
Quito, Lima, and Mexico, and of having been connected in these six
capitals of Spanish America with men of all ranks, I will not
venture to decide on the various degrees of civilization, which
society has attained in the several colonies. It is easier to
indicate the different shades of national improvement, and the
point towards which intellectual development tends, than to compare
and class things which cannot all be considered under one point of
view. It appeared to me, that a strong tendency to the study of
science prevailed at Mexico and Santa Fe de Bogota; more taste for
literature, and whatever can charm an ardent and lively
imagination, at Quito and Lima; more accurate notions of the
political relations of countries, and more enlarged views on the
state of colonies and their mother-countries, at the Havannah and
Caracas.
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