After every deduction has been made he yet stands before us as a
colossal figure not unworthy to take his place beside Goethe as
the representative of the scientific side of the culture of his
country.—_Encyclopædia Britannica._
The Cataracts of the Orinoco.
The impression which a scene makes upon us is not so deeply fixed by the
peculiarities of the country as by the light, the clear azure or the deep
shade of low lying clouds, under which hill and river lie. In the same
way descriptions of scenes impress us with more or less force according
as they harmonize with our emotions. In our inner susceptible soul the
physical world is reflected true and life-like. What gives its peculiar
character to a landscape, to the outline of the mountain range which
borders the dimly distant horizon, to the darkness of the pine forest, to
the mountain stream which rushes madly between overhanging cliffs? They
all stand in strange mysterious relations with the inner life of man,
and on these relations rest the nobler share of enjoyment which nature
affords. Nowhere does she impress us more strongly with consciousness of
her greatness; nowhere does she speak more powerfully to us than under
the Indian heavens. If I venture here to describe that country may I hope
that its peculiar charm will not remain unfelt? The memory of a distant
richly-endowed land, the glimpse of a luxuriant, vigorous plant-life
refreshes and strengthens the mind as the restless worn spirit finds
pleasure in youth and its strength.
Western currents and tropical winds favor the voyage over the peaceful
straits which fill up the wide valley between America and western Africa.
Before the coast appears one notices that the waves foam and dash
over each other. Sailors who were unacquainted with the region would
suspect shallows to be near, or fresh water springs, such as are in
mid ocean among the Antilles. As the garnet coast of Guiana draws near
there appears the wide mouth of a mighty stream. It bursts forth like a
shoreless sea and covers the surrounding ocean with fresh water. The name
Orinoco which the first discoverers gave to the river, and which owes
its origin to a confusion of language, is unknown in the interior of the
country, for the uncivilized inhabitants give names to only those objects
which might easily be mistaken for others. The Orinoco, the Amazon, the
Magdalena are called simply the river, in some cases perhaps, the great
river, the great water, when the inhabitants wish to distinguish them
from a small stream.
The current which the Orinoco causes between the continent of South
America and the island of Trinidad is so powerful that ships which
attempt to struggle against it with outspread sails are scarcely able to
make any headway. This desolate and dangerous place is called the Gulf
of Sorrow; the entrance is the Dragon’s Head. Here lonely cliffs rise
tower-like in the raging flood. They mark the old, rocky isthmus which,
cut off by the current, once joined the island of Trinidad and the coast
of Venezuela.
The appearance of this country first convinced the hardy discoverer,
Colon, of the existence of the American continent. Acquainted with
nature as he was he concluded that so monstrous a body of fresh water
could only be collected by a great number of streams, and that the land
which supplied this water must be a continent and not an island. As the
followers of Alexander believed the Indus, filled with crocodiles, was a
branch of the Nile, so Colon concluded that this new continent was the
easterly coast of the far away Asia. The coolness of the evening air, the
clearness of the starry firmament, the perfume of the flowers borne on
the breeze, all led him to believe that he had approached the garden of
Eden, the sacred home of the first human beings. The Orinoco seemed to
him one of the four streams which are said to flow from Paradise, and to
water the plants of the newly-planted earth.
This poetical passage taken from Colon’s diary has a peculiar interest.
It shows anew how the fancies of the poet are in the discoverer as in
every great human character.