Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Thermometer Did Not
Rise In The Crevice Above 42 Degrees.
The water is collected in a
basin surrounded by large trees; it is nearly circular, from fifteen
to eighteen feet diameter, and three feet deep.
The slaves throw
themselves into this bath at the end of the day, when covered with
dust, after having worked in the neighbouring fields of indigo and
sugar-cane. Though the water of this bath (bano) is habitually from 12
to 14 degrees hotter than the air, the negroes call it refreshing;
because in the torrid zone this term is used for whatever restores
strength, calms the irritation of the nerves, or causes a feeling of
comfort. We ourselves experienced the salutary effects of the bath.
Having slung our hammocks on the trees round the basin, we passed a
whole day in this charming spot, which abounds in plants. We found
near the bano of Mariara the volador, or gyrocarpus. The winged fruits
of this large tree turn like a fly-wheel, when they fall from the
stalk. On shaking the branches of the volador, we saw the air filled
with its fruits, the simultaneous fall of which presents the most
singular spectacle. The two membranaceous and striated wings are
turned so as to meet the air, in falling, at an angle of 45 degrees.
Fortunately the fruits we gathered were at their maturity. We sent
some to Europe, and they have germinated in the gardens of Berlin,
Paris, and Malmaison. The numerous plants of the volador, now seen in
hot-houses, owe their origin to the only tree of the kind found near
Mariara. The geographical distribution of the different species of
gyrocarpus, which Mr. Brown considers as one of the laurineae, is very
singular. Jacquin saw one species near Carthagena in America.* (* The
Gyrocarpus Jacquini of Gartner, or Gyrocarpus americanus of
Willdenouw.) This is the same which we met with again in Mexico, near
Zumpango, on the road from Acapulco to the capital.* (* The natives of
Mexico called it quitlacoctli. I saw some of its young leaves with
three and five lobes; the full-grown leaves are in the form of a
heart, and always with three lobes. We never met with the volador in
flower.) Another species, which grows on the mountains of Coromandel,*
(* This is the Gyrocarpus asiaticus of Willdenouw.) has been described
by Roxburgh; the third and fourth* grow in the southern hemisphere, on
the coasts of Australia. (* Gyrocarpus sphenopterus, and G. rugosus.)
After getting out of the bath, while, half-wrapped in a sheet, we were
drying ourselves in the sun, according to the custom of the country, a
little man of the mulatto race approached us. After bowing gravely, he
made us a long speech on the virtues of the waters of Mariara,
adverting to the numbers of invalids by whom they have been visited
for some years past, and to the favourable situation of the springs,
between the two towns Valencia and Caracas. He showed us his house, a
little hut covered with palm-leaves, situated in an enclosure at a
small distance, on the bank of a rivulet, communicating with the bath.
He assured us that we should there find all the conveniences of life;
nails to suspend our hammocks, ox-leather to stretch over benches made
of reeds, earthern vases always filled with cool water, and what,
after the bath, would be most salutary of all, those great lizards
(iguanas), the flesh of which is known to be a refreshing aliment.
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