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CHAPTER V.

TO CUBA AND BACK.

THE travellers left Angostura on the 10th of July. Night had set in when they crossed for the last time the bed of the Orinoco. They purposed to rest near the little fort San Rafael, and on the following morning at daybreak to set out on their journey through the plains of Vene zuela. About a month had elapsed since their arrival at Angostura; and they earnestly wished to reach the coast, with the view of finding, at Cumana, or at Nueva Barce lona, a vessel in which they might embark for the island of Cuba, thence to proceed to Mexico. After the sufferings to which they had been exposed during several months, whilst sailing in small boats on rivers infested by mosquitos, the idea of a sea-voyage was not without its charms. They had no idea of ever again returning to South America. Sacrificing the Andes of Peru to the Archipelago of the Philippines, they adhered to their old plan of remaining a year in Mexico, then proceeding in a galleon from Acapulco to Manilla, and returning to Europe by way of Bassora and Aleppo.

Their mules were in waiting for them on the left bank of the Orinoco. The collection of plants, and the differ ent geological series, which they had brought from the

THE CARIBS AT CARI.

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Esmeralda and Rio Negro, had greatly increased their baggage; and, as it would have been dangerous to lose sight of their herbals, they expected to make a very slow journey across the Llanos.

On the 13th they arrived at the village of Cari, the first of the Caribbee missions. They lodged as usual at the convent. Their host could scarcely comprehend "how natives of the north of Europe could arrive at his dwelling from the frontiers of Brazil by the Rio Negro, and not by way of the coast of Cumana." He treated them in the most poilte manner, at the same time manifesting that somewhat importunate curiosity which the appearance of a stranger, not a Spaniard, always excited in South America. He expressed his belief that the minerals they had collected must contain gold; and that the plants, dried with so much care, must be medicinal. Here, as in many parts of Europe, the sciences were thought worthy to occupy the mind only so far as they conferred some immediate and practical benefit on society.

The travellers found more than five hundred Caribs in the village of Cari; and saw many others in the surrounding missions. They were a very tall race of men, their height being from five feet six, to five feet ten inches. According to a practice common in America, the women were more sparingly clothed than the men. The former wore only the guajuco, in the form of a band. The men had the lower part of the body wrapped in a piece of blue cloth, so dark as to be almost black. This drapery was so ample, that, on the lowering of the tem perature towards evening, the Caribs threw it over their shoulders. The men cut their hair in a peculiar manner;

192

DIFFICULTIES WITH THE MULETEERS.

very much in the style of the monks. A part of the forehead was shaved, which made it appear extremely high, and a circular tuft of hair was left near the crown of the head. The Carib women were less robust and good-looking than the men. On them devolved almost the whole burden of domestic work, as well as much of the out-door labour. They asked the travellers eagerly for pins, which they stuck under their lower lip, making the head of the pin penetrate deeply into the skin. The young girls were painted red, and were almost naked.

On quitting the mission of Cari, they had some difficulties to settle with their Indian muleteers. They had discovered that the travellers had brought skeletons with them from the cavern of Ataruipe; and they were fully persuaded that the beasts of burden which carried the bodies of their old relations would perish on the journey. Every precaution the travellers had taken was useless; nothing could escape a Carib's penetration and keen sense of smell, and it required all the authority of the missionary to forward their passage. They had to cross the Rio Cari in a boat, and the Rio de Agua Clara, by fording, or, it may almost be said, by swimming. They had two bad stations, one at Matagorda and the other at Los Riecetos, before they reached the little town of Pao They beheld everywhere the same objects; small huts constructed of reeds, and roofed with leather; men on horseback armed with lances, guarding the herds; herds of cattle half wild, remarkable for their uniform colour, and disputing the pasturage with horses and mules.

The travellers arrived, on the 23rd, at the town of Nueva Barcelona, less fatigued by the heat of the Llanos, to which they had been long accustomed, than annoyed

NUEVA BARCELONA.

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by the winds of sand, which occasioned painful chaps in the skin.

The climate of Barcelona was not so hot as that of Cumana, but it was extremely damp, and somewhat unhealthy in the rainy season. Bonpland had borne very well the irksome journey across the Llanos, and had recovered his strength and activity; but Humboldt suffered more at Barcelona than at Angostura, immediately after their passage on the rivers. They remained nearly a month at Barcelona, where they found their friend Fray Juan Gonzales, who had traversed the Upper Orinoco before them. He expressed regret that they had not been able to prolong their visit to that unknown country; and he examined their plants and animals with that interest which must be felt by even the most uninformed man for the productions of a region he has long since visited. Fray Juan had resolved to go to Europe, and to accompany them as far as the island of Cuba. They were together for the space of seven months, and they found his society agreeable: he was cheerful, intelligent, and obliging. Little did they anticipate the sad fate that awaited him. He took charge of a part of their collections; and a friend of his own confided to his care a child, who was to be conveyed to Spain for its education. Alas! the collection, the child, and the young ecclesiastic, were all buried in the waves.

The packet boats from Corunna bound for Havanna and Mexico had been due three months; and it was believed they had been taken by the English cruisers stationed on this coast. Anxious to reach Cumana, in order to avail themselves of the first opportunity that might offer for their passage to Vera Cruz, the travel

194

TAKEN BY A PRIVATEER.

lers hired an open boat called a lancha, a sort of craft employed habitually in the latitudes east of Cape Codera, where the sea was scarcely ever rough. Their lancha, which was laden with cocoa, carried on a contraband trade with the island of Trinidad. For this reason the owner imagined they had nothing to fear from the enemy's vessels, which then blockaded all the Spanish ports. They embarked their collection of plants, their instruments, and their monkeys; and, the weather being delightful, they hoped to make a very short passage from the mouth of the Rio Neveri to Cumana. But they had scarcely reached the narrow channel between the continent and the rocky isles of Borracha and the Chimanas, when to their great surprise they came in sight of an armed boat, which, whilst hailing them from a great distance, fired some musket-shot at them. The boat belonged to a privateer of Halifax. The protestations of the travellers were without effect; they were carried on board the privateer, and the captain, affecting not to recognise the passports delivered by the governor of Trinidad for the illicit trade, declared them to be a lawful prize. Being a little in the habit of speaking English, Humboldt entered into conversation with the captain, begging not to be taken to Nova Scotia, but to be put on shore on the neighbouring coast. While he endeavoured, in the cabin, to defend his own rights, and those of the owner of the lancha, he heard a noise on deck. Something was whispered to the captain, who left in consternation. Happily for them an English sloop of war, the Hawk, was cruising in those parts, and had signalled the captain to bring to; but the signal not being promptly answered, a gun was fired from the sloop,

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