90 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AKD ACHIEVEMENTS 



negro and the Indian, who aimed a mortal blow 

 at Humboldt with a heavy club, which he 

 fortunately evaded; whilst a second stroke 

 aimed at Bonpland felled him to the ground. 

 He arose with the assistance of Humboldt, and 

 the very moment the Zambo attempted to meet 

 the united self-defence of the friends with a large 

 knife, Biscayan merchants appeared upon the 

 scene, rescued the travellers, and captured the 

 Zambo. Humboldt noticed, from the 10th 

 October, a red vapour which covered the sky 

 for some minutes each evening, and was 

 soon succeeded by other remarkable pheno- 

 mena of the air ; the fog became more dense, 

 the hot night-air smelled offensive, the usual 

 sea-winds were absent, the sky assumed the 

 colour of fire, violent eruptions of the ground 

 occurred in divers places. These preparatory 

 phenomena culminated, on the 4th November^ 

 in an earthquake, a memorable afternoon for 

 Humboldt, who, for the first time, witnessed 

 this great phenomenon and shared its dangers. 

 The impression which this event produced, and 

 the manner in which he acquainted himself 

 with its dangers, he records in these words : 

 " From our earliest childhood we acquire a 

 notion that the water is the movable, and the 

 earth the immovable element. This early con- 



