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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-28-neu> [abgerufen am 13.10.2024].
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| Titel | Cargueroes, or man-carriers of Quindiu | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1837 | ||||||
| Ort | New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio | ||||||
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Nachweis in: The family magazine; or, monthly abstract of general knowledge 4 (1837), S. 259–261.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||||
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Statistiken
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|259|
|Spaltenumbruch|The mountain of Quindiu is considered as themost difficult passage in the Cordilleras of the An-des. It is a thick uninhabited forest, which, in thefinest season, cannot be traversed in less than ten ortwelve days. Not even a hut is to be seen, nor canany means of subsistence be found.
Travellers, at all times of the year, furnish them-selves with a month’s provision, since it often hap-pens, that by the melting of the snows, and the sud-den swell of the torrents, they find themselves socircumstanced, that they can descend neither onthe side of Carthago, nor on that of Ibague. Thehighest point of the road, the Garito del Paramo, isthree thousand five hundred and five metres (eleventhousand, and five hundred feet) above the level ofthe sea. As the foot of the mountain, towards thebanks of the Cauca, is only nine hundred and sixtymetres, (three thousand, one hundred and fifty feethigh,) the climate there is in general mild and tem-perate. The pathway, which forms the passage ofthe Cordilleras, is only three or four decimetres inbreadth, (from a foot, to a foot and a half;) and hasthe appearance, in several places, of a gallery dug,and left open to the sky. In this part of the Andes,as almost in every other, the rock is covered with athick stratum of clay. The streamlets, which flow
|260| |Spaltenumbruch|down the mountains, have hollowed out gullies, sixor seven metres deep, (from twenty, to twenty-threefeet.) Along these crevices, which are full of mud,the traveller is forced to grope his passage, thedarkness of which is increased by the thick vegeta-tion that covers the opening above. The oxen,which are the beasts of burden commonly madeuse of in this country, can scarcely force their waythrough these galleries, some of which are twothousand metres (two thousand, two hundred yards)in length; and if, perchance, the traveller meetsthem in one of these passages, he finds no meansof avoiding them but by turning back, and climbingthe earthen wall which borders the crevice, andkeeping himself suspended, by laying hold of theroots which penetrate to this depth from the surfaceof the ground.
We traversed the mountain of Quindiu, in themonth of October, 1801, on foot, followed by twelveoxen, which carried our collections and instruments,midst a deluge of rain, to which we were exposed,during the last three or four days, in our descent onthe western side of the Cordilleras. The roadpasses through a country full of bogs, and coveredwith bamboos. Our shoes were so torn by theprickles, which shoot out from the roots of thesegigantick gramina, that we were forced, like all othertravellers who dislike being carried on men’s backs,to go barefooted. This circumstance, the continualhumidity, the length of the passage, the muscularforce required to tread in a thick and muddy clay,the necessity of fording deep torrents of icy water,render this journey extremely fatiguing; but how-ever painful, it is accompanied, by none of thosedangers with which the credulity of the people alarmtravellers. The road is narrow, but the placeswhere it skirts precipices, are very rare. As theoxen are accustomed to put their feet in the sametracks, they form small furrows, across the road,separated from each other, by narrow ridges of earth.In very rainy seasons, these ridges are covered withwater, which renders the traveller’s step doubly un-certain, since he knows not whether he places hisfoot on the ridge, or in the furrow. As few persons,in easy circumstances, travel on foot in these climates,through roads so difficult, during fifteen or twentydays together, they are carried by men in a chair tiedto their back; for, in the present state of the passageof Quindiu, it would be impossible to go on mules.They talk in this country, of going on a man’sback, (andar en carguero,) as we mention going onhorseback; no humiliating idea is annexed to thetrade of the cargueroes; and the men who followthis occupation, are not Indians, but Mulattoes, andsometimes even whites. It is often curious to hearthese men, with scarcely any covering, and followinga profession which we should consider so disgrace-ful, quarrelling in the midst of the forest, becauseone has refused the other, who pretends to have awhiter skin, the pompous title of don, or of su merced.
The usual load of a carguero, is six or seven arro-bas, (about one hundred and eighty pounds;) thosewho are very strong, carry as much as nine arrobas,(about two hundred and fifty pounds.) When wereflect on the enormous fatigue to which these miser-able men are exposed, journeying eight or nine hoursa day, over a mountainous country; when we knowthat their backs are sometimes as raw as those of|Spaltenumbruch|beasts of burden, and that travellers have often thecruelty to leave them in the forest, when they aresick; that they earn by a journey from Ibague toCarthago, only twelve or fourteen piastres, (a sumequal in amount to as many dollars,) in a spaceof fifteen, and sometimes even twenty-five or thirtydays; we are at a loss, to conceive how this employ-ment of a carguero, one of the most painful whichcan be undertaken by man, is eagerly embraced byall the robust young men, who live at the foot of themountains. The taste for a wandering and vagabondlife, the idea of a certain independence amidstforests, leads them to prefer this employment to thesedentary and monotonous labour of cities.
The passage of the mountain of Quindiu is notthe only part of South America, which is traversedon the backs of men. The whole of the provinceof Antioquia is surrounded by mountains so difficultto pass, that they who dislike intrusting themselvesto the skill of a carrier, and who are not strongenough to travel on foot from Santa Fé de Antioquiato Bocca de Nares or Rio Samana, must relinquishall thoughts of leaving the country. I was acquaint-ed with an inhabitant of this province, so immense-ly bulky, that he had not met with more than twoMulattoes capable of carrying him; and it wouldhave been impossible for him to return home, if thesetwo carriers had died, while he was on the banks ofthe Magdalena, at Mompox or Honda. The numberof young men who undertake the employment ofbeasts of burden at Chaco, Ibague, and Medellin, isso considerable, that we sometimes met a file offifty or sixty. A few years ago, when a project wasformed to make the passage from Nares to Antiquiapassable for mules, the cargueroes presented formalremonstrances against mending the road, and thegovernment was weak enough to yield to theirclamours. We may here observe, that a class ofmen near the mines of Mexico, have no other em-ployment than that of carrying other men on theirbacks. In these climates, the indolence of the whitesis so great, that every director of a mine, has one ortwo Indians at his service, who are called his horses,(cavallitoes,) because, they are saddled every morn-ing, and supported by a small cane, and bending for-ward, they carry their master from one part of themine to another. Among the cavallitoes or car-gueroes, those who have a sure foot and step easy,are known and recommended to travellers. It isdistressing, to hear the qualities of man spoken ofin terms, by which we are accustomed to denotethe gait of mules and horses. The persons who arecarried in a chair by a carguero, must remain severalhours motionless, and leaning backward; the leastmotion is sufficient to throw down the carrier; andhis fall would be so much the more dangerous, as thecarguero, too confident in his skill, chooses the mostrapid declivities, or crosses a torrent on a narrowand slippery trunk of a tree. These accidents are,however, rare, and those which happen, must be at-tributed to the imprudence of travellers, who fright-ened at a false step of the carguero, leap down fromtheir chairs.
When the cargueroes reach Ibague, and preparefor their journey, they pluck in the neighbouringmountains, several hundred leaves of the vijao, aplant of the family of the bananas, which forms agenus approaching the thalia, and which must not
|261| |Spaltenumbruch|be confounded with the heliconia bihai. Theseleaves, which are membraneous and silky, like thoseof the Musa, are of an oval form, fifty-four centime-tres (twenty inches) in length. Their lower sur-face is a silvery white, and covered with a farinace-ous substance, which falls off in scales. This pe-culiar varnish enables them to resist the rain, du-ring a long time. In gathering these leaves, an in-cision is made in the middle rib, which is the con-tinuation of the footstalk, and this serves as a hook,to suspend them when the moveable roof is formed.On taking it down, they are spread out, and carefullyrolled up in a cylindrical bundle. It requires abouta hundred weight of leaves (fifty killogrammes) tocover a hut, large enough to hold six or eight per-sons. When the travellers reach a spot in the midstof the forest, where the ground is dry, and wherethey propose to pass the night, the cargueroes lop afew branches from the trees, with which they makea tent. In a few minutes, the slight timber-work isdivided by the stalks of some climbing plant, orthreads of the agave, placed in parallel lines, threeor four decimetres from each other. The vijaoleaves meanwhile have been unrolled, and are nowspread over the above work, so as to cover eachother, like tiles of a house. These huts thushastily built, are cool and commodious. If, duringthe night the traveller feels the rain, he points outthe spot where it enters, and a single leaf is suffi-cient to obviate the inconvenience. We passedseveral days in the valley of Boquia under one ofthese leafy tents, which was perfectly dry amidstviolent and incessant rains. The mountain ofQuindiu, is one of the richest spots in useful andinteresting plants. Here we found the palm-tree,(Ceroxylon andicola,) the trunk of which is coveredwith a vegetable wax, the Passiflora in trees, andthe majestick Mutisia grandiflora, with flowers of ascarlet colour, sixteen centimetres, or six incheslong.
CARGUEROES, OR MAN-CARRIERS OF QUINDIU.
Humboldt.