Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 39 of 635 - First - Home
(* It Appears That The
Little Table-Lands Between The Mountains Of Upata, Cumanu, And
Tupuquen, Are More Than One Hundred And Fifty Toises Above The Level
Of The Sea.) The Real Wealth Of This Country Is Founded On The Care Of
The Herds And The Cultivation Of Colonial Produce.
It were to be
wished that here, as in the fine and fertile province of Venezuela,
the inhabitants, faithful to the labours of the fields, would not
addict themselves too hastily to the research of mines.
The example of
Germany and Mexico proves, no doubt, that the working of metals is not
at all incompatible with a flourishing state of agriculture; but,
according to popular traditions, the banks of the Carony lead to the
lake Dorado and the palace of the gilded man* (* El Dorado, that is,
el rey o hombre dorado. See volume 2.23.): and this lake, and this
palace, being a local fable, it might be dangerous to awaken
remembrances which begin gradually to be effaced. I was assured that
in 1760, the independent Caribs went to Cerro de Pajarcima, a mountain
to the south of Vieja Guayana, to submit the decomposed rock to the
action of washing. The gold-dust collected by this labour was put into
calabashes of the Crescentia cujete and sold to the Dutch at
Essequibo. Still more recently, some Mexican miners, who abused the
credulity of Don Jose Avalo, the intendant of Caracas, undertook a
very considerable work in the centre of the missions of the Rio
Carony, near the town of Upata, in the Cerros del Potrero and de
Chirica.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 39 of 635
Words from 10279 to 10546
of 174507
