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Alexander von Humboldt: „Cargueroes, or Man-Carriers of Quindiu“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1810-Pittoreske_Ansichten_in-26-neu> [abgerufen am 26.04.2024].
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| Titel | Cargueroes, or Man-Carriers of Quindiu | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1836 | ||||||
| Ort | Edinburgh | ||||||
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Nachweis in: The Edinburgh Journal of Natural History, and of the Physical Sciences 1 (13. März 1836), S. 40.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||||
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Statistiken
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|40|
|Spaltenumbruch|
The mountain of Quindiu is considered as the most difficult passage in the Cordillerasof the Andes. It is a thick uninhabited forest, which, in the finest season, cannot betraversed in less than ten or twelve days. Not even a hut is to be seen, nor can anymeans of subsistence be found.
Travellers, at all times of the year, furnish themselves with a month’s provi-sion, since it often happens, that by the melting of the snows, and the sudden swellof the torrents, they find themselves so circumstanced, that they can descend neitheron the side of Carthago, nor on that of Ibague. The highest point of the road,the Garito del Paramo, is three thousand five hundred and five metres (11,500 feet)above the level of the sea. As the foot of the mountain, towards the banks of theCauca, is only nine hundred and sixty metres (3,150 feet high), the climate there isin general mild and temperate. The pathway which forms the passage of theCordilleras is only three or four decimetres in breadth (from a foot to a foot and ahalf), and has the appearance, in several places, of a gallery dug, and left open to thesky. In this part of the Andes, as almost in every other, the rock is covered with athick stratum of clay. The streamlets, which flow down the mountains, have hollowedout gullies, six or seven metres deep (from 20 to 23 feet). Along these crevices,which are full of mud, the traveller is forced to grope his passage, the darkness ofwhich is increased by the thick vegetation that covers the opening above. The oxen,which are the beasts of burden commonly made use of in this country, can scarcelyforce their way through these galleries, some of which are two thousand metres (2,200yards) in length; and if, perchance, the traveller meets them in one of these passages,he finds no means of avoiding them but by turning back, and climbing the earthenwall which borders the crevice, and keeping himself suspended, by laying hold of theroots which penetrate to this depth from the surface of the ground.
We traversed the mountain of Quindiu in the month of October 1801, on foot,followed by twelve oxen, which carried our collections and instruments, amidst adeluge of rain, to which we were exposed during the last three or four days, in ourdescent on the western side of the Cordilleras. The road passes through a countryfull of bogs, and covered with bamboos. Our shoes were so torn by the prickles,which shoot out from the roots of these gigantic Gramina, that we were forced, likeall other travellers who dislike being carried on men’s backs, to go barefooted. Thiscircumstance, the continual humidity, the length of the passage, the muscular forcerequired to tread in a thick and muddy clay, the necessity of fording deep torrents oficy water, render this journey extremely fatiguing; but however painful, it is accom-panied by none of those dangers with which the credulity of the people alarm travel-lers. The road is narrow, but the places where it skirts precipices are very rare.As the oxen are accustomed to put their feet in the same tracks, they form smallfurrows across the road, separated from each other by narrow ridges of earth. Invery rainy seasons these ridges are covered with water, which renders the traveller’sstep doubly uncertain, since he knows not whether he places his foot on the ridge orin the furrow. As few persons in easy circumstances travel on foot in these climates,through roads so difficult, during fifteen or twenty days together, they are carried bymen in a chair tied on their back; for, in the present state of the passage of Quindiu,it would be impossible to go on mules. They talk in this country of going on aman’s back (andar en carguero), as we mention going on horseback, no humiliatingidea is annexed to the trade of cargueroes; and the men who follow this occupationare not Indians but Mulattoes, and sometimes even whites. It is often curious tohear these men, with scarcely any covering, and following a profession which weshould consider so disgraceful, quarrelling in the midst of the forest because one hasrefused the other, who pretends to have a whiter skin, the pompous title of don, orof su merced. The usual load of a carguero is six or seven arrobas (about 180 lbs.);those who are very strong carry as much as nine arrobas (about 250 lbs.) Whenwe reflect on the enormous fatigue to which these miserable men are exposed,journeying eight or nine hours a day over a mountainous country; when we knowthat their backs are sometimes as raw as those of beasts of burden, and thattravellers have often the cruelty to leave them in the forest when they are sick;that they earn by a journey from Ibague to Carthago only twelve or fourteen piastres(from L.2, 10s. to L.3), in a space of fifteen, and sometimes even twenty-five orthirty days, we are at a loss to conceive how this employment of a carguero, oneof the most painful which can be undertaken by man, is eagerly embraced by all the
|Spaltenumbruch| robust young men who live at the foot of the mountains. The taste for a wanderingand vagabond life, the idea of a certain independence amidst forests, leads them toprefer this employment to the sedentary and monotonous labour of cities.
The passage of the mountain of Quindiu is not the only part of South Americawhich is traversed on the backs of men. The whole of the province of Antioquia issurrounded by mountains so difficult to pass, that they who dislike entrusting them-selves to the skill of a carrier, and who are not strong enough to travel on foot fromSanta Fé de Antioquia to Bocca de Nares or Rio Samana, must relinquish allthoughts of lcaving the country. I was acquainted with an inhabitant of this pro-vince, so immensely bulky, that he had not met with more than two Mulattoescapable of carrying him; and it would have been impossible for him to return homeif these two carriers had died, while he was on the banks of the Magdalena, atMompox or Honda. The number of young men who undertake the employment ofbeasts of burden at Choco, Ibague, and Medellin, is so considerable, that we some-times met a file of fifty or sixty. A few years ago, when a project was formed tomake the passage from Nares to Antioquia passable for mules, the cargueroespresented formal remonstrances against mending the road, and the government wasweak enough to yield to their clamours. We may here observe, that a class of mennear the mines of Mexico, have no other employment than that of carrying othermen on their backs. In these climates the indolence of the whites is so great, thatevery director of a mine has one or two Indians at his service, who are called hishorses (cavallitoes), because they are saddled every morning, and supported by asmall cane, and, bending forwards, they carry their master from one part of the mineto another. Among the cavallitoes or cargueroes, those who have a sure foot andeasy step are known and recommended to travellers. It is distressing to hear thequalities of man spoken of in terms by which we are accustomed to denote the gaitof mules and horses. The persons who are carried in a chair by a carguero mustremain several hours motionless and leaning backwards; the least motion is sufficientto throw down the carrier; and his fall would be so much the more dangerous, as thecarguero, too confident in his skill, chooses the most rapid declivities, or crosses atorrent on a narrow and slippery trunk of a tree. These accidents are, however,rare, and those which happen must be attributed to the imprudence of travellers,who, frightened at a false step of the carguero, leap down from their chairs.
When the cargueroes reach Ibague and prepare for their journey, they pluck inthe neighbouring mountains several hundred leaves of the Vijao, a plant of the familyof the Bananas, which forms a genus approaching the Thalia, and which must notbe confounded with the Heliconia bihai. These leaves, which are membraneous andsilky, like those of the Musa, are of an oval form, fifty-four centimetres (twentyinches) long, and thirty-seven centimetres (fourteen inches) in breadth. Their lowersurface is a silvery white, and covered with a farinaccous substance which falls off inscales. This peculiar varnish enables them to resist the rain during a long time.In gathering these leaves, an incision is made in the middle rib, which is the continua-tion of the footstalk, and this serves as a hook to suspend them when the moveableroof is formed. On taking it down, they are spread out and carefully rolled up in acylindrical bundle. It requires about a hundred weight of leaves (50 kilogrammes)to cover a hut large enough to hold six or eight persons. When the travellersreach a spot in the midst of the forest, where the ground is dry, and where theypropose to pass the night, the cargueroes lop a few branches from the trees, withwhich they make a tent. In a few minutes the slight timber work is divided by thestalks of some climbing plant, or threads of the Agave, placed in parallel lines, threeor four decimetres from each other. The Vijao leaves meanwhile have been unrolled,and are now spread over the above work, so as to cover each other like tiles of ahouse. These huts thus hastily built, are cool and commodious. If during thenight the traveller feels the rain, he points out the spot where it enters, and a singleleaf is sufficient to obviate the inconvenience. We passed several days in thevalley of Boquia under one of these leafy tents, which was perfectly dry amidstviolent and incessant rains. The mountain of Quindiu is one of the richest spots inuseful and interesting plants. Here we found the Palm Tree (Ceroxylon andicola),the trunk of which is covered with a vegetable wax, the Passiflora in trees, and themajestic Mutisia grandiflora, with flowers of a scarlet colour, sixteen centimetres,or six inches long. —
cargueroes, or man-carriers of quindiu.
Humboldt.