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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When The Observantin Monks In 1752 Made Their
First Entradas On The Territory Of The Caribs, They Constructed On
This Spot A Small Fort.
The proximity of the lofty mountains of
Araguacais renders Muitaco one of the most healthy places on the Lower
Orinoco.
There Iturriaga took up his abode in 1756, to repose after
the fatigues of the expedition of the boundaries; and as he attributed
his recovery to this hot rather than humid climate, the town, or more
properly the village, of Real Corona took the name of Pueblo del
Puerto sano. Going down the Orinoco more to the east, we left the
mouth of the Rio Pao on the north, and that of the Arui on the south.
The latter river, which is somewhat considerable, is often mentioned
by Raleigh. The current of the Orinoco diminished in velocity as we
advanced. I measured several times a base along the beach, to
ascertain the time taken by floating bodies in traversing a known
distance. Above Alta Gracia, near the mouth of the Rio Ujape, I had
found the velocity of the Orinoco 2.3 feet in a second; between
Muitaco and Borbon it was only 1.7 foot. The barometric observations
made in the neighbouring steppes prove the small slope of the ground
from the longitude of 69 degrees to the eastern coast of Guiana. We
found in this country, on the right bank of the Orinoco, small
formations of primitive grunstein, superimposed on granite (perhaps
even embedded in the rock). We saw between Muitaco and the island of
Ceiba a hill entirely composed of balls with concentric layers, in
which we perceived a close mixture of hornblende and feldspar, with
some traces of pyrites.
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