Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is An
Inland Gulf Two Miles And A Half Long From East To West, And One Mile
Broad.
The rocks of mica-slate that form the entrance of the port
leave a free passage only two hundred and fifty toises broad.
The
water is everywhere from fifteen to twenty-five fathoms deep. Probably
the government of Cumana will one day take advantage of the possession
of this inland gulf and of that of Mochima,* eight leagues east of the
bad road of Nueva Barcelona. (* This is a long narrow gulf, three
miles from north to south, similar to the fiords of Norway.) The
family of M. Navarete were waiting for us with impatience on the
beach; and, though our boat carried a large sail, we did not arrive at
Maniquarez before night.
We prolonged our stay at Cumana only a fortnight. Having lost all hope
of the arrival of a packet from Corunna, we availed ourselves of an
American vessel, laden at Nueva Barcelona with salt provision for the
island of Cuba. We had now passed sixteen months on this coast and in
the interior of Venezuela, and on the 16th of November we parted from
our friends at Cumana to make the passage for the third time across
the gulf of Cariaco to Nueva Barcelona. The night was cool and
delicious. It was not without emotion that we beheld for the last time
the disc of the moon illuminating the summit of the cocoa-trees that
surround the banks of the Manzanares.
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