Digitale Ausgabe
Download
| TEI-XML (Ansicht) | |
| Text (Ansicht) | |
| Text normalisiert (Ansicht) |
Ansicht
| Textgröße | |
| Originalzeilenfall ein/aus | |
| Zeichen original/normiert | |
Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „Savages on the Oronoko“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1821-Personal_Narrative_of-12-neu> [abgerufen am 26.04.2024].
URL und Versionierung
|
Permalink: https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1821-Personal_Narrative_of-12-neu |
| Die Versionsgeschichte zu diesem Text finden Sie auf github. |
| Titel | Savages on the Oronoko | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jahr | 1821 | ||||||
| Ort | Woodstock, Vermont | ||||||
|
Nachweis in: Woodstock Observer 2:48 (30. Oktober 1821), S. [1].
|
|||||||
| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung. | ||||||
|
Identifikation |
|||||||
Statistiken
|
|||||||
|1|
From the Personal Narrative of Baron Humboldt.
“The river Atabapo displays every wherea peculiar aspect;
you see nothing of its realbanks formed by flat lands, eight or
ten feethigh; they are concealed by a row of palms,and small trees with slender trunks, the rootsof which are bathed by the waters. Thereare many crocodiles
from the point whereyou quit the Oronoko to the mission of
SanFernando, and their presence indicates, as wehave said above, that this part of the river be-longs to the Rio Guaviare and not to the Ata-bapo. In the real
bed of the latter river abovethe mission of San Fernando, there
are nolonger any crocodiles: we find there are somebavas, a great many fresh-water
dolphins, butno manatees. We also seek in vain on thosebanks the thick-nosed tapir, the araguates, orgreat howling monkeys, the zamuro, or vulturaura, and the
crested pheasant, known by thename of guacharaca. Enormous water-snakes,in shape resembling
the boa, are unfortunatelyvery numerous, and are dangerous to
the In-dians who bathe. We saw them almost fromthe first day, swimming by the side of the ca-noe; they were
at the most from 12 to 14 feetlong. The jaguars of the banks of
the Ataha-po and the Temi are large and well fed: theyare said, however, to be less daring than thejaguars of the Oronoko.”
“Before we reached its confluence, a grani-tic hummock,
that rises on the western bank,near the mouth of the Guasacavi,
fixed our at-tention; it is called the Rock
of the Guahibawoman, or the Rock of the Mother, Piedra de|Spaltenumbruch|la Madre. We inquired the
cause of so singu-lar a denomination. Father Zea could notsatisfy our curiosity; but some weeks after,another missionary, one of the predecessors ofthis
ecclesiastic, whom we found settled at SanFernando as president
of the missions; relatedto us an event, which I recorded in my
journaland which excited in our minds the most pain-ful feelings. If, in these solitary scenes, manscarcely leaves behind him any trace of hisexistence, it is
doubly humiliating for a Euro-pean to see perpetuated by the
name of a rock,by one of those imperishable monuments ofnature, the remembrance of the moral degra-dation of our species, and the contrast betweenthe virtue of
a savage, and the barbarism ofcivilized man!
“In 1797 the missionary of San Fernandohad led his
Indians to the banks of the RioGuaviara, on one of those
hostile incursions,which are prohibited alike by religion and
theSpanish laws. They found an
Indian
hut, aGuahiba mother with three children, two ofwhom were still infants. They were occupledin preparing the
flour of Cassava. Resistancewas impossible; the father was gone
to fish,and the mother tried in vain to flee with herchildren. Scarcely had she reached the sa-vannah, when she was seized by the Indians ofthe mission, who
go to hunt men, like thewhites and the negroes in Africa. The
motherand her children were bound, and dragged tothe bank of the river. The monk, seated inhis
boat, waited the issue of the expedition, ofwhich be partook
not the danger. Had themother made too violent a resistance,
the In-dians would have killed her, for every thingis permitted when they go to the conquest ofsouls (a la conquista espiritula,) and it is chil-dren in particular they seek to capture, in or-der to treat them, in the mission, as poitos, orslaves of the Christians. The prisoners werecarried to San Fernando in the hope, that themother would not
find her way back to herhome, by land. Far from those children
whohad accompanied their father on the day inwhich she had been carried off, this unhappywoman showed signs of the deepest despair.She attempted to
take back to her family thechildren who had been snatched away
by themissionary, and fled with them repeatedly fromthe village of San Fernando, but the Indiansnever failed to seize her anew; and the mis-sionary, after
having caused her to be merci-lessly beaten, look the cruel
resolution of sepa-rating the mother from the two children,
whohad been carried off with her. She was con-veyed alone toward the mission of the RioNegro,
going up the Atabapo. Slightly bound,she was seated at the bow
of the boat, ignorantof the fate that awaited her; but she
judged,by the direction of the sun, that she was remo-ved farther and farther from her hut and fromher native country. She succeeded in break-ing her bonds,
threw herself into the water, andswam to the left bank of the
Atabapo. Thecurrent carried her to a shelf of rock, whichbears her name to this day. She landed, andtook shelter in the woods, but the president ofthe missions
ordered the Indians to row to theshore, and follow the traces
of the Guahibi.In the evening she was brought back.
Stretchedupon the rock (la Piedra de la
Madre) a cruelpunishment was inflicted on her with
thosestraps of manatee leather, which serve forwhips in that country, and with which the al-cades are always furnished. This unhappywoman, her hands tied
behind her back withstrong stalks of mavacure, was then dragged tothe mission of
Javita.
“She was there thrown into one of the car-ravanceras that
are called Casa del Rey. Itwas the
rainy season, and the night was pro-foundly dark. Forests, till
then believed to beimpenetrable, separated the mission of
Javitafrom that of San Fernando, which was twenty-five leagues distant in a straight line. Noother part is known than that of the rivers;no man ever
attempted to go by land fromone village to another, were they
only a fewleagues apart. But such difficulties do notstop a mother, who is separated from her chil-dren. Her children are at San Fernando deAtabapo; and she
must find them again, shemust execute her project of delivering
themfrom the hands of Christians, of bringing themback to their father on the banks of the Gua-viare. The Guahibi was carelessly guardedin the caravansera.
Her arms, being woun-ded, the Indians of Javita had loosened
herbonds, unknown to the missionary and thealcades. She succeeded by the help of herteeth in breaking
them entirely; disappearedduring the night; and at the fourth
rising sunwas seen at the mission of San Fernando, ho-vering around the hut where her children wereconfined. “What that woman performed,”added the
missionary who gave us this sadnarrative, “the most
robust Indian would nothave ventured to undertake. She
traversedthe woods at a season when the sky is cons-tantly covered with clouds, and the sun du-ring
whole days appears but for a few minutes.Did the course of the
waters direct her way?|Spaltenumbruch|The inundations of the rivers forced
her to gofar from the banks of the main stream, throughthe midst of woods where the movement ofthe
waters is almost imperceptible. How of-ten must she have been
stopped by the thornylianas, that form a net-work around the
trunksthey entwine? How often must she haveswam across the rivulets that run into theAtabapo! This
unfortunate woman was as-ked how she had sustained herself
during thefour days! She said, that, exhausted withfatigue, she could find no other nourishmentthan those great black, ants called vachacos,which climb the trees in long bands, to sus-pend on them their resinous nests.” Wepressed the
missionary to tell us, whether theGuahibi had peacefully
enjoyed the happinessof remaining with her children; and if any
re-pentance had followed this excess of cruelty.He would not satisfy our curiosity; but at ourreturn from the Rio Negro we learnt, that theIndian mother
was not allowed time to cureher wounds, but was again separated
from herchildren, and sent to one of the missions of theUpper Oronoko. There she died, refusing allkinds of nourishment, as the savages do ingreat
calamities.
“Such is the remembrance annexed to thisfatal rock, to Piedra de la Madre.”
SAVAGES ON THE ORONOKO.