distant, are timid and inoffensive. At San Fernando our voyagers embarked on the Apure to descend to the Oroonoko. The thick forests on the banks of the river were peopled by an innumerable quantity of birds of various kinds, which, when suddenly put to flight, darkened the air like clouds. The underwood grew close to the water's edge, so as to form a fence about four feet high, through which the wild quadrupeds of this country, the tigers, tapirs, and pecaries, have made paths to drink at the river. Here untamed and savage nature resumes its dominion. Wild animals of different kinds are seen to follow one another through every opening in the forest. The largest tiger our travellers had ever seen, and which surpassed in size the tigers of India exhibited in European menageries, was seen lying stretched beneath the shade of a large zamany. At sunset the howling monkeys commence their moaning, which may be heard at the distance of many miles. The other animals then take the alarm, and mingle their various cries in this savage concert; the howling of the tigers, the screams of birds, and the whistling of monkeys seem vying with each other to predominate in this. terrible din. "When the natives are interrogated on the cause of this tremendous noise made by the beasts of the forest at certain hours of the night, they reply gaily, 'They are keeping the feast of the full moon.""

The Apure, as well as the Oroonoko, is infested with crocodiles of great size; the species that is so abundant in these rivers is not a cayman or alligator, but a real crocodile, with feet dentated at the external edges analogous to that of the Nile. Some were seen measuring seventeen feet in length. There is a small fish, only four or five inches long, known in the country by the name of caribe or caribito, because no other fish has such a thirst for blood. It attacks bathers and swimmers, from whom it often carries away considerable pieces of flesh: when a person is only slightly wounded, it is difficult for him to get out of the water without receiving severer injury. These cruel and voracious fish live at the bottom of rivers; but if a few drops of blood be sprinkled on the water, they come to the surface in thousands. As no one dares to bathe where this fish is found, the caribito may be considered as one of the greatest scourges of those climates, in which the sting of the musquitoes and the irritation of the skin render the use of baths so necessary.

Having at length reached the Oroonoko, our voyagers commenced the descent of that noble river, which was in many places three miles wide, at a distance of 500 miles from the sea. They continued to descend this river till they reached the Temi, which flows into it from the south, and which is connected by a short portage with the Cano Pimichin, which flows into the Rio Ne

gro. On the banks of the Temi the forests are often inundated to a great extent; and, to shorten the navigation, the Indians open channels among the trees four or five feet broad. Thus a part of the voyage was performed through a forest of stately trees, towering to the height of 100 or 120 feet. On beating the bushes, shoals of fresh water dolphins surrounded the boat, and swam across the forest, throwing out those spouts of compressed air and water which have procured them from seamen the name of blowers. This was a singular spectacle in the middle of the continent, 300 or 400 leagues from the mouths of the Oroonoko and Amazon. It was the labour of four days to drag the canoes over land to the Cano Pimichin, by which they descended into the Rio Negro, one of the tributaries to the Maranon, or River of Amazons. The object of our voyagers in making this laborious excursion, during which they suffered so much from the stings of musquitoes, the want of rest, and the confinement in a narrow canoe, was to ascertain, by astronomical observations, the position of the Cassiquiare, a branch of the Oroonoko which meets the Rio Negro, and thus establishes a communication between the former river and the waters of the Maranon. They found that this junction, which is on the frontiers of Brazil and of the Spanish dominions, is situated two degrees to the northward of the equator; though it is generally supposed in the country to be placed directly on the equatorial line. Passing northwards up the Cassiquiare, our travellers again entered the Oroonoko, flowing here from the east, and would have sought the sources of that great river, but that the Guaica Indians, a fair-complexioned and warlike race, and the savage Guajaribes, a copper-coloured nation of cannibals, rendered the undertaking dangerous. They had now travelled 180 leagues in the boat, from San Fernando on the Apure to San Carlos on the Rio Negro; and on again entering the Oroonoko, they had to navigate 320 leagues to arrive at Angostura. In the course of their voyage down the river they visited the cavern of Ataruipo, situated in a shady and secluded spot, on the declivity of a steep mountain. This grotto is a tomb of a whole extinct tribe: 600 skeletons are here seen arranged in order, and perfectly well preserved; some being dyed red, and some, like real mummies, being varnished with odoriferous resins, and enveloped in leaves of the heliconia or plantain tree. At length they reached Angostura, wearied with the length of the voyage and with the inconveniences inseparable from river navigation in a sultry climate.

From the Oroonoko our voyagers returned to Barcelona and Cumana, through the missions of the Caraibe Indians, a tall and stately race of men, whose figure bespeaks that physical superiority which once rendered them formidable to the conquerors

of the New World. From the coast they proceeded, through the southern parts of St. Domingo and Jamaica, to Cuba. Here they employed themselves in contributing, by their knowledge of chemistry, to improve the process of manufacturing sugar; in surveying the coasts of the island; and in making astronomical obvervations.

CHAP. XVIII.

HUMBOLDT'S TRAVELS CONTINUED.

Arrival of Humboldt at Carthagena.-Volcanitos of Turbaco.-Santa Fé de Bogota.-The Falls of Tequendama.-Native Traditions.-View from the Table Land.-Natural Bridges of Icononzo.-Pass of Quindiu.-Mode of travelling on Men's Backs.-Visit to the Volcano Purace.-Arrival at Quito.-Volcano of Pichincha.-Humboldt's Ascent of Chimborazo.-He passes by Riobamba.Destruction of Earthquakes.-Causeway of Yega.-Humboldt descends the River of Amazons.-Observes the Magnetic Equator.-Repasses the Andes.Truxillo.-Arrives at Lima.-Observes the Transit of Mercury.-Proceeds to Guayaquil.-Sails to Acapulco.-Mexico.-Mines of Moran and Real del Monte -Guanaxuato.-Account of Jorullo.-The Volcanoes of Puebla.-The Coffer of Perote.-Vera Cruz.-Philadelphia.-Return to Europe.-Bonpland goes to Buenos Ayres.-Is captured and detained by the Ruler of Paraguay.

M. VON HUMBOLDT had promised Baudin, that, if ever the projected expedition destined for the southern hemisphere were put into execution, he would join it: accordingly, when a report reached him that the ships had sailed from France, with instructions to double Cape Horn and touch on the coasts of Chili and Peru, he immediately left Cuba to cross South America, in order to meet the French navigator. And it was not till he reached Quito, that he learned that captain, Baudin's expedition had taken a different course, and was to circumnavigate the globe from west to east."

In March, 1801, Humboldt and his friend Bonpland arrived from Cuba at Carthagena, with the intention of ascending to Santa Fé de Bogota, the capital of New Granada, and to cross from thence to the elevated plains of Quito. But preparatory to this long journey, and to avoid the heats of Carthagena, they resided at the beautiful village of Turbaco, which is situated among the hills, at the height of 1200 feet above the ocean. The Indians who attended our travellers in their herbalisations often told them of a marshy country, situated amidst a forest of palm trees, and called the Little Volcanoes. They related that, according to traditions still existing among them, this country had been formerly in flames; but that a very pious man had succeeded in extinguishing the subterraneous fire, by sprinkling it with holy water. From that time the fiery volcano had be

come a volcan de agua, or water volcano. Humboldt, well aware that the stories which the natives eagerly related, in order to draw the attention of strangers to the phenomena of nature, had more in them of superstition and exaggeration than of positive invention, suffered himself to be conducted by them to the Little Volcanoes, and was repaid by a spectacle more important than he could have expected.

The Volcanitos, or Little Volcanoes, are situated about two miles to the east of Turbaco, in a thick forest abounding with balsam of tolu trees. In the centre of a vast plain are eighteen or twenty small cones, in height from twenty to twenty-five feet: they are formed of a blackish-grey clay, and have an opening at their summits filled with water. On approaching these small craters, a hollow but very distinct sound is heard at intervals, a few seconds previous to the disengagement of a great quantity of air. The Indians assert that the forms of the cones undergo no visible change in a great number of years. The air disengaged was found to be azotic gas, much more pure than that which is generally procured in the laboratories of the chemist.

Át Santa Fé de Bogota, which stands in a valley more elevated than the summit of St. Bernard, our travellers employed some months in studying the botanical riches of the country, its mineralogical structure, and its curiosities. The plain in which the city stands, though 8700 feet above the level of the sea, is surrounded by lofty mountains, and has the appearance of having been at one time the bed of a great lake. The river of Funzha, commonly called the Rio Bogota, which collects all the waters of the valley, seems to have forced its way through the mountains to the south-west of Santa Fé. Near the farm of Tequendama this river rushes from the plains by a narrow outlet, which descends towards the basin of the river Magdalena, and were this passage closed, the whole plain of Bogota would be immediately converted into a sheet of water. The Indians, ready to ascribe a miraculous origin to whatever seems to be the work of contrivance, relate that Bochica, a hero of their race, broke asunder the rocks that enclose the valley, and thus drained the waters of the lake of Bogota. He then retired to the holy valley of Eraca, where he lived in the exercise of austere penitence for the space of 2000 years.

Although the cataract of Tequendama is not, as is commonly believed in Europe, the loftiest cataract on the globe, it yet forms an assemblage of every thing that is sublimely picturesque in beautiful scenery. There hardly exists a cataract which from so lofty a height precipitates so voluminous a mass of waters. A little above the fall the river is still 170 feet in breadth; but near the crevice, which appears to have been formed by an earthquake, it is not above forty feet wide. From this crevice

the whole mass of waters collected in the valley of Bogota falls, in a double bound, to a depth of 600 feet. The column of vapour that rises from the fall is visible from Santa Fé, a distance of five leagues. The enormous mass of vapours which continually rises from the cataract, and which is precipitated by its contact with the cold air, contributes much, it is believed, to the fertility of this part of the plain of Bogota. As the river falls into the basin of the Magdalena, which flows through a warmer country, the vegetation at the foot of the cataract wears an appearance totally different from that of the plain above. The spectator on the heights, leaving behind him a plain rich in corn, and finding himself surrounded with oaks, elms, and other plants which recall to his mind the vegetation of Europe, looks down, as from a terrace, on a country producing the palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. A few palm trees have sprung up even at the very foot of the cataract.

On his journey from Santa Fé de Bogota, in September, 1801, Humboldt and Bonpland passed the natural bridges of IcononZO. The valley in which these are situated is one of the deep and narrow crevices, which are almost peculiar to the Cordilleras, and which, from their magnitude and abruptnses, fill the soul with astonishment and terror. These narrow valleys are in many parts so deep, 'that were Vesuvius placed in their abysses, its summit would hardly exceed the ridge of the nearest mountains. A small torrent, called Rio de la Suma Paz, rushes from the eastern chain of the Andes, which in the kingdom of New Granada divides the basin of the Magdalena from the vast plains of the Meta, the Guaviare, and the Oroonoko. This torrent working its way through a crevice in the centre of the valley of Icononzo, or Pandi, could not, from the inaccessible nature of its bed, have been crossed without extreme difficulty, if nature had not provided two bridges of rock, which are justly considered in the country as among the objects most worthy the attention of travellers. The road, however, which conducts to these natural bridges, is one of the most dangerous and least frequented in the Cordilleras; and nothing but an enthusiastic love for the beauties of nature can induce travellers to give it a preference.

The torrent of the Suma Paz, after falling down two beautiful cataracts, enters a crevice, which was probably formed by an earthquake. A portion of the sandstone rock seems to have resisted the shock which rent the mountains, and now serves as a bridge to cross from one side of the valley to the other. This natural arch is nearly fifty feet long and about forty wide: its thickness in the centre exceeds eight feet; its height above the waters of the torrent is 400 feet. The Indians of Pandi have formed, for the safety of travellers, who, however, rarely visit 18

VOL. III.