OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 105 



existence. Indians, man-hunters, inhabited 

 these deserts, and caused frequent annoyance 

 to the missionary stations. In these wild re- 

 gions of America, Humboldt believed himself 

 translated to that period when the earth became 

 gradually inhabited. He appeared in these 

 primitive regions a witness to the first forma- 

 tion of human society. The human beings 

 with whom he here became acquainted knew 

 no other object of worship than the forces of 

 nature. 



On the 6th of May Baron Humboldt reached 

 the Rio Negro, noted on account of its serpen- 

 tine course, after he had spent thirty-six days 

 in a narrow boat, on a most perilous voyage. 

 The rise of a single person from his seat, without 

 giving due notice to the pilot, would have 

 caused the boat to overturn. Although Hum- 

 boldt suffered much from the sting of insects, 

 the unhealthy climate and other inevitable 

 difficulties had not injured him ; and therefore, 

 on his arrival at the isthmus of the Orinoco and 

 the Amazon, he reviewed with satisfaction his 

 past dangers and difficulties, supported by the 

 assurance of having accomplished the most 

 important object of this voyage, viz., that of 

 determining astronomically the course of that 

 arm of the Orinoco which flows into the Rio 



