are confined to the elevated plateaux. We have seen on the Andes the
ruins of palaces and baths at heights between 1600 and 1800 toises
(10230 and 11510 English feet). It can only have been men of a northern
race, who, migrating from the north towards the south, could find
delight in such a climate.
[29] p. 15.--“_The history of the peopling of Japan._”
The probability of the western nations of the New Continent having had
communication with the east of Asia long before the arrival of the
Spaniards, was I think shewn by me in a work on the monuments of the
native inhabitants of America (Vues des Cordillères et Monumens des
peuples indigenes de l’Amérique). I inferred this probability from
a comparison of the Mexican and Thibeto-Japanese calendars,--from
the correct orientation of the steps of the pyramidal elevations
towards the different quarters of the heavens,--and from the ancient
myths and traditions of the four ages or four epochs of destruction
of the world, and the dispersion of mankind after a great flood of
waters. The accounts published since my work, in England, France, and
the United States, describing the wonderful bas reliefs, almost in
the Indian style, in the ruins of Guatimala and Yucatan, have given
to these analogies a still higher value. (Compare Antonio del Rio,
Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City discovered near Palenque,
1822, translated from the original manuscript report by Cabrera (del
Rio’s exploration took place in 1787), p. 9, tab. 12-14; with Stephens,
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, 1843, vol. i. pp. 391 and 429-434;
vol. ii. pp. 21, 54, 56, 317, 323; with the magnificent volume of
Catherwood, “Views of ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas,
and Yucatan,” 1844; and lastly, with Prescott’s “Conquest of Mexico,”
vol. iii. App. p. 360.)
The architectural remains in the peninsula of Yucatan shew, still
more than those of Palenque, a degree of civilisation and art which
excites our astonishment. They are situated between Valladolid,
Merida, and Campeachy, chiefly in the western part of the country.
But the monuments in the island of Cozumel (more properly Cuzamil),
east of Yucatan, were the first which were seen by the Spaniards in
the expedition of Juan de Grijalva, 1518, and that of Cortes in 1519,
and the report of them did much to spread over Europe a high idea of
ancient Mexican civilisation. The most important ruins of the peninsula
of Yucatan, which unfortunately have not yet been thoroughly measured
and drawn by architects, are the Casa del Gobernador of Uxmal, the
Teocallis and vaulted constructions at Kabah, the ruins of Labnah with
domed columns, those of Zayi with columns very nearly of the Doric
order, and those of Chiche with large ornamented pilasters. An old
manuscript written in the Maya language by a Christian Indian, and
which is still in the hands of the Gefe politico of Peto, Don Juan Pio
Perez, gives the different epochs (“Katunes” of 52 years) in which the
Toltecs settled in different parts of the peninsula. From these data
Perez infers that the monuments or buildings of Chiche go back to the
close of the fourth century of our era, while those of Uxmal belong to
the middle of the tenth century. But the accuracy of these conclusions
is subject to much uncertainty. (Stephens, Incidents of Travel in
Yucatan, vol. i. p. 439; and vol. ii. p. 278.)
I regard the existence of ancient connections between the inhabitants
of western America and eastern Asia as more than probable, but by
what routes, or with what Asiatic nations, the communications took
place, cannot at present be decided. A small number of individuals
of the educated priestly caste might perhaps be sufficient to bring
about great alterations in the civil and social state of western
America. The stories formerly narrated of Chinese expeditions to the
New Continent really apply only to voyages to Fusang or Japan. On
the other hand, Japanese and Sian-Pi from the Corea may have been
driven by storms to the American coast, and landed there. We know as
matter of history that Bonzes and other adventurers sailed over the
eastern Chinese seas in search of some medicine which should entirely
prevent death. Under Tschin-schi-kuang-ti, 209 years before our era,
300 young couples, young men and young women, were sent to Japan, and
instead of returning to China they settled at Nipon (Klaproth, Tableaux
historiques de l’Asie, 1824, p. 79; Nouveau Journal Asiatique, T. x.
1832, p. 335; Humboldt, Examen critique, T. ii. p. 62-67). May not
similar expeditions have been driven by storms or other accidents
to the Aleutian islands, to Alashka, or to New California? As the
western coasts of the American continent trend from NW. to SE., and
the eastern coasts of Asia in the opposite direction, or from NE. to
SW., the distance between the two continents in 45° of latitude, or
in the temperate zone which is most favourable to mental development,
is too considerable to admit of the probability of such an accidental
settlement taking place in that latitude. We must, then, assume the
first landing to have been made in the inhospitable climate of from
55° to 65° and that the civilisation thus introduced, like the general
movement of population in America, has proceeded by successive stations
from north to south (Humboldt, Relat. historique, t. iii p. 155-160).
The remains of ships from Cathay, _i. e._, from Japan or China, were
supposed to have been found on the coasts of the northern Dorado,
(called Quivira and Cibora) at the beginning of the 16th century
(Gomara, Hist. general de las Indias, p. 117).
Our knowledge of the languages of America is still too limited,
considering their great variety, for us as yet entirely to relinquish
the hope of some day discovering an idiom which may have been spoken,
with certain modifications, at once in the interior of South America
and in that of Asia; or which may at least indicate an ancient
affinity. Such a discovery would certainly be one of the most brilliant
which can be expected in reference to the history of mankind. But
analogies of language only deserve confidence when the enquirer, not
resting in or dwelling on resemblances of sound in the roots, traces
the analogies into the organic structure, the grammatical forms, and
into all which in languages shews itself as the product of the human
intellect and character.
[30] p. 15.--“_Many other forms of animals._”
Whole herds of the Cervus mexicanus wander over the Caraccas Steppes:
the young stag is spotted, and resembles in appearance the roe-deer of
Europe. We saw among them many entirely white,--a singular circumstance
in the torrid zone. The Cervus mexicanus is not found at greater
elevations on the mountain-slopes of the Andes under the equator than
from 700 to 800 toises (4476 to 5115 Eng. feet); but a larger, and also
often white, stag,--which I could hardly distinguish from the European
by any specific characters,--is met with up to 2000 toises (12789
Eng. feet). The Cavia capybara, called in the province of Caraccas
“chiguire,” is an unfortunate animal; being pursued in the water by the
crocodile, and on the plain by the tiger or jaguar. It runs so badly
that we could often catch it with our hands. Its extremities are smoked
for hams, but their taste is very disagreeable from the smell of musk;
and on the Orinoco we willingly ate monkey hams in preference. The
beautifully marked animals which have so disagreeable an odour are the
Viverra mapurito, Viverra zorilla, and Viverra vittata.
[31] p. 16.--“_The Guaranis, and the fan-palm, Mauritia._”
The small coast tribe or nation of the Guaranis, (called in British
Guiana the Warraws or Guaranos, and by the Caribs U-ara-u), inhabit
not only the marshy Delta and river network of the Orinoco, and
particularly the banks of the Manamo Grande and the Caño Macareo, but
also extend, with little variation in their modes of life, along the
sea coast between the mouths of the Essequibo and the Boca de Navios
of the Orinoco. (Compare my Relation historique, T. i. p. 492, T.
ii. p. 653 and 703, with Richard Schomburgk’s “Reisen in Britisch
Guiana,” Th. i. 1847, S. 62, 120, 173, and 194). According to the
testimony of the last-named excellent explorer and observer, there
are still 1700 Warraus or Guaranis living in the district of Cumaca,
and along the banks of the Barima river, which empties itself into
the gulf of the Boca de Navios. The manners and customs of the tribes
living in the Delta of the Orinoco were already known to the great
historical writer Cardinal Bembo, the contemporary of Columbus, Amerigo
Vespucci, and Alonzo de Hojeda. He says, “quibusdam in locis propter
paludes incolæ domus in arboribus ædificant” (Historiæ Venetæ, 1551,
p. 88). It is more probable that Bembo is alluding to the Guaranis
at the mouth of the Orinoco, than to the natives near the mouth of
the Gulph of Macaraibo, where Alonzo de Hojeda, in August 1499, when
he was accompanied by Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa, also found a
population having their residence “fondata sopra l’ acqua come Venezia”
(Riccardi’s Text in my Examen crit. t. iv. p. 496). In Vespucci’s
account of his voyage (in which we find the first indication of the
etymology of the term Province of Venezuela, Little Venice, for
Province of Caraccas), he only speaks of houses raised upon foundation
pillars, not of habitations in the trees.
Sir Walter Raleigh offers a later evidence of high authority; he says
expressly, in his description of Guiana, that on his second voyage in
1595, when in the mouth of the Orinoco, he saw the “_fires_” of the
Tivitives and the Oua-raa-etes (so he calls the Guaranis) “high up
in the trees” (Raleigh, Discov. of Guiana, 1596, p. 90). The fire is
represented in a drawing in the Latin edition: “brevis et admiranda
descriptio regni Guianæ,” (Norib. 1599) tab. 4. Raleigh was also the
first who brought to England the fruit of the Mauritia-palm, which he
very justly compared, on account of its scales, to a fir cone. The
Padre José Gumilla, who twice visited the Guaranis as a missionary,
says, indeed, that this people had their habitation in the palmares
(palm groves) of the morasses; but he only mentions dwellings raised
upon high pillars, and not scaffoldings attached to trees still in a
growing state; (Gumilla, Historia natural, civil, y geografica de las
Naciones situadas en las riveras del Rio Orinoco, nueva imp. 1791, p.
143, 145, and 163). Hillhouse and Sir Robert Schomburgk, (Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xii. 1842, p. 175; and Description
of the Murichi or Ita Palm, read at the Meeting of the British
Association held at Cambridge, June 1845; printed in Simond’s Colonial
Magazine), are of opinion that both Bembo and Raleigh, (the former
speaking from the reports of others, the latter as an eye-witness),
were deceived by the high tops of the palm-trees being lit up at night
by the flames of fires beneath, so that those who sailed by thought the
habitations themselves were attached to the trees. “We do not deny that
in order to escape the attacks of the musquitos, the Indian sometimes
suspends his hammock from the tops of trees; on such occasions,
however, no fires are made under the hammock.” (Compare also Sir Robert
Schomburgk’s New Edition of Raleigh’s Discovery of Guiana, 1848, p. 50.)
According to Martius, the fine Palm Moriche, Mauritia flexuosa,
Quiteve, or Ita palm, (Bernau, Missionary Labours in British Guiana,
1847, p. 34 and 44), belongs, as well as Calamus, to the group of
Lepidocaryeæ or Coryphineæ. Linnæus has described it very imperfectly,
as he erroneously considers it to be leafless. The trunk grows as
high as 26 feet, but it probably requires from 120 to 150 years to
reach this height. The Mauritia extends high up on the declivity of
the Duida, north of the Esmeralda mission, where I have found it in
great beauty. It forms in moist places fine groups of a fresh shining
verdure, which reminds us of that of our Alder groves. The trees
preserve the moisture of the ground by their shade, and hence the
Indians say that the Mauritia draws the water round its roots by a
mysterious attraction. By a somewhat similar theory they advise that
serpents should not be killed; because the destruction of the serpents
and the drying up of the pools or lagunas accompany each other: thus
the untutored child of nature confounds cause and effect. Gumilla terms
the Mauritia flexuosa of the Guaranis the tree of life, arbol de la
vida. It grows in the mountains of Ronaima, east of the sources of the
Orinoco, as high as 4000 (4263 Eng.) feet. On the unvisited banks of
the Rio Atabapo, in the interior of Guiana, we discovered a new species
of Mauritia with prickly stems, our Mauritia aculeata; (Humboldt,
Bonpland and Kunth, Nova Genera et Species Plantarum, t. i. p. 310).
[32] p. 16.--“_An American Stylites._”
The founder of the sect of the Stylites, the fanatical pillar-saint
Simeon Sisanites, the son of a Syrian herdsman, is said to have passed
thirty-seven years in religious contemplation on the summits of five
successive pillars, each higher than the preceding. The last pillar was
40 ells high. He died in the year 461. For seven hundred years there
continued to be men who imitated this manner of life, and were called
“sancti columnares” (pillar saints). Even in Germany, in the Diocese of
Treves, it was proposed to erect such aerial cloisters, but the Bishops
opposed the undertaking (Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. 1755, p. 215.)
[33] p. 17.--“_Towns on the banks of the streams which flow through the
Steppe._”
Families who live not by agriculture but by the care of cattle, have
congregated in the middle of the Steppe in small towns, which, in the
cultivated parts of Europe, would hardly be regarded as villages.
Such are Calabozo, in 8° 56′ 14″ N. lat. and 67° 42′ long. according
to my observations, Villa del Pao, lat 8° 38′ 1″, long. 66° 57′, S.
Sebastian, and others.
[34] p. 17.--“_Conical-shaped clouds._”
The singular phenomenon of these “sand spouts,”--something analogous
to which may occasionally be seen on a small scale in Europe where
four roads meet,--is particularly characteristic of the Peruvian Sand
Desert between Amotape and Coquimbo. Such a dense cloud of sand or dust
may prove dangerous to the traveller who does not cautiously avoid its
approach. It is also worthy of notice that these partial conflicting
currents of air only arise when the air generally is perfectly calm.
The aerial ocean resembles the sea in this respect, for in the latter
also the small currents which are often heard to ripple audibly,
(filets de courant), are only perceptible in a dead calm (calme plat).
[35] p. 18.--“_Increases the suffocating heat._”
I have observed in the Llanos de Apure, at the Guadalupe cattle farm,
the thermometer rise from 27° to 29° Reaumur (92°.7 to 97°.2 Fahr.)
whenever the hot wind began to blow from the Desert, which at such
times was covered either with sand or with short withered turf. In the
middle of the sand-cloud the temperature was for some minutes 35° R.
(111° F.). The dry sand in the village of San Fernando de Apure had a
temperature of 42° R. (126° Fahr.)
[36] p. 18.--“_The illusive image of a cool rippling watery mirror._”
The well-known phenomenon of the mirage is called in Sanscrit the
“thirst of the gazelle.” (See my Relation historique, T. i. pp. 296 and
625; T. ii. p. 161.) All objects appear to hover in the air, and are
at the same time seen reflected in the lower stratum of air. At such
times the entire desert assumes the aspect of the wave-covered surface
of a wide spread lake. Palm trees, cattle, and camels, sometimes
appear inverted on the horizon. In the French expedition to Egypt,
the soldiers, parched with thirst, were often brought by this optical
illusion into a state of desperation. This phenomenon has been remarked
in all quarters of the globe. The ancients were acquainted with the
remarkable refraction of the rays of light in the Lybian Desert. I find
mention made in Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. 184, Rhod. (p. 219, Wessel),
of extraordinary illusive images, an African Fata Morgana, with
most extravagant explanations of the supposed conglomeration of the
particles of air.
[37] p. 19.--“_The Melon-Cactus._”
The Cactus melo cactus is often 10 to 12 inches in diameter, and has
usually 14 ribs. The natural group of Cactaceæ, the whole family of
Nopaleæ of Jussieu, belong exclusively to the New Continent. The
cactuses assume a great variety of shapes: ribbed and melon-like (Melo
cacti); articulated or jointed (Opuntiæ); forming upright columns or
pillars (Cerei); serpentine and creeping (Rhipsalides); or provided
with leaves (Pereskiæ). Many extend high up the sides of the mountains.
Near the foot of the Chimborazo, in the elevated sandy plain around
Riobamba, I have found a new kind of Pitahaya, the Cactus sepium, even
at a height of 10,000 (10,660 Eng.) feet. (Humboldt, Bonpland, and
Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum æquinoct. Orbis novi, T. iii. p. 370).
[38] p. 19.--“_The scene in the Steppe is suddenly changed._”
I have endeavoured to depict the coming in of the rainy season, and the
signs by which it is announced. The usual deep dark azure of the sky
in the tropics arises from the more complete solution of the vapour
contained in the atmosphere. The cyanometer indicates a paler blue as
soon as the vapours begin to be precipitated. The dark spot or patch in
the constellation of the Southern Cross gradually becomes indistinct
as the transparency of the atmosphere diminishes, and this alteration
announces the near approach of rain. The brightness of the Magellanic
clouds, (Nubecula major and minor), gradually vanishes in a similar
manner. The fixed stars, which before shone like planets with a steady,
tranquil, and not trembling light, now scintillate even in the zenith,
where the vapours are least. (See Arago, in my Relation hist. T. i. p.
623). All these appearances are the results of the increased quantity
of vapour diffused in the atmosphere.
[39] p. 20.--“_Awakened from a torpid state by the first fall of rain._”
Extreme dryness produces in plants and animals the same phenomena as
does the withdrawal of the stimulus of heat. Many tropical trees and
plants shed their leaves during the dry season. The crocodiles and
other amphibious animals hide themselves in the mud, where they lie
apparently dead, like animals in a state of hybernation or plunged into
winter sleep by cold. (See my Relation historique, T. ii. pp. 192 and
626.)
[40] p. 20.--“_The aspect of a vast inland sea._”
Nowhere are these inundations more extensive than in the network
of rivers formed by the Apure, the Arachuna, Pajara, Arauca, and
Cabuliare. Large vessels sail across the country over the Steppe for 40
or 50 miles.
[41] p. 21.--“_To the mountain plateau of Antisana._”
The great mountain plain or plateau surrounding the volcano of Antisana
is 2107 toises (13473 English feet), above the level of the sea. The
atmospheric pressure at this elevation is so small that the wild
cattle, when hunted with dogs, bleed from the nose and mouth.
[42] p. 22.--“_Bera and Rastro._”
I have described the capture of the Gymnoti in detail in another place.
(Observations de Zoologie et d’Anatomie comparée, vol. i. p. 83-87; and
Relation historique, T. ii. p. 173-190). M. Gay Lussac and I found the
experiment without a circuit succeed perfectly with a living Gymnotus,
which was still very vigorous when brought to Paris. The discharge is
solely dependent on the will of the animal. We did not see any spark,
but other physicists have done so on several occasions.
[43] p. 23.--“_Awakened by the contact of moist dissimilar particles._”
In all parts of organic bodies dissimilar substances are in contact
with each other: in all, solids are associated with fluids. Thus,
wherever there is organization and life, there is also electric tension
or the play of the voltaic pile, as the experiments of Nobili and
Matteucci, and especially the latest admirable labours of Emil du
Bois, teach us. The last named physicist has succeeded in “manifesting
the presence of the electric muscular current in living and wholly
uninjured animal bodies:” he shews that “the human body, through the
medium of a copper wire, can cause a magnetic needle at a distance
to be deflected at pleasure, first in one and then in the opposite
direction.” (Untersuchungen über thierische Elektricität, von Emil du
Bois-Reymond, 1848, Bd. i. S. xv.) I have witnessed these movements
produced at pleasure, and have had the gratification of seeing
thereby great and unexpected light thrown on phenomena to which I had
laboriously and hopefully devoted several years of my youth.
[44] p. 23.--“_Osiris and Typhon._”
On the conflict between two races of men, the Arabian pastoral people
in Lower Egypt, and the agricultural race in Upper Egypt who were in a
more advanced state of civilisation, on the fair-haired Prince Baby or
Typhon, who founded Pelusium, and on the dark-complexioned Dionysos or
Osiris, see Zoëga’s ancient, and now for the most part abandoned views,
in his great work “De Origine et Usu Obeliscorum,” p. 577.
[45] p. 24.--“_The boundary of a partial European cultivation._”
In the Capitania general de Caracas, as generally every where on the
eastern shores of America, the cultivation introduced by Europeans, and
their presence and influence, are limited to a narrow strip of country
along the coast. In Mexico, New Granada, and Quito, on the other hand,
European civilisation has penetrated deep into the interior of the
country, and advanced up the ridges of the Cordilleras. There existed
in these last-named regions a considerable degree of settled and
civilised life previous to the arrival of the Spaniards; and they have
followed this civilisation wherever they found it, regardless whether
its seat was near or at a distance from the sea coast. They retained
and enlarged the ancient cities, of which they either mutilated the old
significant Indian names, or gave them new names, as, for example, of
Christian saints.
[46] p. 24.--“_Massive leaden-coloured granite rocks._”
In the Orinoco, and more especially at the Cataracts of Maypures
and Atures, all blocks of granite, and even white pieces of quartz,
whenever they are touched by the water of the river, acquire a
greyish-black coating which scarcely penetrates a hundredth of a
line below the surface of the rock. The appearance produced is that
of basalt, or fossils coloured with graphite. The crust appears to
contain manganese and carbon; I say appears, for the phenomenon has
not yet been thoroughly examined. Something similar was remarked by
Rozier on the syenite rocks of the Nile, near Syene and Philæ; by the
unfortunate Captain Tuckey on the rocky banks of the Congo; and by Sir
Robert Schomburgh on the Berbice. (Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoko, S.
212.) On the Orinoco these leaden-coloured rocks are considered to give
out pernicious exhalations when wet; and their proximity is believed
to produce fevers. (Rel. hist. T. ii. p. 299-304.) In the Rio Negro,
and generally in the South American rivers which have “black waters,”
“aguas negras,” or waters of a coffee-brown or yellow tint, no such
effects take place. No black colour is imparted to the granite rocks
by the waters; that is to say, they do not act upon the stone so as to
form from its constituent particles a black or leaden-coloured crust.
[47] p. 24.--“_The rain-announcing howlings of the bearded apes._”
The melancholy howlings of the small apes, Simia seniculus, Simia
beelzebub, &c., are heard some hours before the rain commences: it is
as if the tempest were heard raging at a distance. The intensity of the
noise produced by such small animals can only be explained by their
number; seventy or eighty being often lodged in a single tree. On the
organs of voice of these animals, see my anatomical treatise in the
first chapter of my Recueil d’Observations de Zoologie, vol. i. p. 18.
[48] p. 24.--“_Often covered with birds._”