CHAPTER in. 



TOWARDS THE ORINOCO. 



Humboldt and Bonpland remained a month at Cu«. 

 mana, employing themselves in preparing for a visit to 

 the Orinoco and the Rio Negro. They had to choose 

 such instruments as could be most easily transported in 

 narrow boats ; and to engage guides for an inland jour- 

 ney of ten months, across a country without communica- 

 tion with the coasts. The astronomical determination of 

 places being the most important object of this undertaking, 

 Humboldt felt desirous not to miss the observation of an 

 eclipse of the sun, which was to be visible at the end 

 of October : and in consequence preferred remaining till 

 that period at Cumana, where the sky was generally clear 

 and serene. It was now too late to reach the banks of 

 the Orinoco before October; and the high valleys of 

 Caracas promised less favourable opportunities on ac- 

 count of the vapours which accumulated round the neigh- 

 bouring mountains. 



He was, however, near being compelled by a deploi- 

 able occurrence, to renounce,' or at least delay for a long 

 time, his journey to the Orinoco. On the 27th of Octo- 

 ber, the day before the eclipse, he and Bonpland went as 

 usual to take the' air on the shore of the gulf, and to 

 observe the instant of high water, which in those parts 



