Travels in South AmericaJ. Sharpe, 1820 - 346 pages |
Common terms and phrases
abundance adjacent afterwards Amazon America animals appearance Araucans arrived banks Baron de Humboldt Brasil Buenos Ayres called Captain Stedman Caraccas Caripe cassava chiefly climate coast colony colour Condamine considerable covered cultivated Cumana Cusco Day's Instruction Demerara diamond distance district earthquake eight European extends extremely feet fertile fish forests formed fruit gold ground Guayaquil Guiana harbour heat horses houses hundred miles Indians inhabitants island journey kind la Condamine land leagues length Lima Mawe Minas Novas mines mountains mouth mules musquitoes navigable nearly negroes Oronoko Paraguay Paramaribo passed Patagonia persons Peru plains plantations Plata Porto Seguro Potosi produce province Quito rain rebels Rio de Janeiro river river Amazon rocks savannas season shore silver situated slaves soil Spaniards Spanish Stabroek stone sugar summit Surinam tains thousand town travellers trees tribes troops valleys vegetation vessels Villa Rica village voyagers whole wood
Popular passages
Page 327 - A shed is erected in the form of a parallelogram, twenty-five or thirty yards long and about fifteen wide, consisting of upright posts which support a roof thatched with long grass. Down the middle of the area of this shed a current of water is conveyed through a canal covered with strong planks, on which the cascalhao is laid two or three feet thick.
Page 327 - This operation is performed for the space of a quarter of an hour, the water then begins to run clearer. Having washed the earthy particles away, the gravel-like matter is raked up to the end of the trough ; after the current flows...
Page 141 - Towards the morning of the 13th of November, 1799, we witnessed a most extraordinary scene of shooting meteors. Thousands of bodies and falling stars succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very regular from north to south. From the beginning of the phenomenon there was not a space in the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon which was not filled every instant with bodies or falling stars. All the meteors left luminous traces or phosphorescent bands behind them,...
Page 103 - These are so many voices proclaiming to us, that all nature breathes ; and that, under a thousand different forms, life is diffused throughout the cracked and dusty soil, as well as in the bosom of the waters, and in the air that circulates around us.
Page 149 - ... assembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to presage the calamities of the day. At seven minutes after four in the afternoon the first shock was felt; it was sufficiently powerful to make the bells of the churches toll; it lasted five or six seconds, during which time, the ground was in a continual undulating movement, and seemed to heave up like a boiling liquid. The danger was thought to be past, when a tremendous...
Page 150 - ... ear. Implements for digging, and clearing away the ruins were entirely wanting; and the people were obliged to use their bare hands, to disinter the living. The wounded, as well as the sick who had escaped from the hospitals, were laid on the banks of the small river Guayra.
Page 150 - The moon, nearly full, illumined the rounded domes of the Silla, and the aspect of the sky formed a perfect contrast to that of the earth, covered with the dead and heaped with ruins. Mothers were seen bearing in their arms their children, whom they hoped to recall to life.
Page 327 - Having washed the earthy particles away, the gravel-like matter is raked up to the end of the trough ; after the current flows away quite clear, the largest stones are thrown out, and afterwards those of inferior size ; then the whole is examined with great care for diamonds. When a negro finds one, he immediately stands upright and...
Page 149 - Carlos, situate farther north of the church of the Trinity, on the road from the customhouse de la Pastora, almost entirely disappeared. A regiment of troops of the line, that was assembled under arms, ready to join the procession, was, with the exception of a few men, buried under the ruins of this great edifice.
Page 328 - ... work are taken out, and delivered to the principal officer, who, after they have been weighed, registers the particulars in a book kept for that purpose. When a negro is so fortunate as to find a diamond of the weight of...