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DANGER FROM MAROON NEGROES. 313 
Humboldt insisted that the captain should allow one 
of the sailors to accompany him by land to the Boca 
Chica, the distance being only six miles; but the 
_ latter refused, on account of the savage state of the 
country, in which there was neither path nor habi- 
tation ; and an incident which occurred justified his 
prudence. The travellers were going ashore to ga- 
ther plants by moonlight, when there issued from 
the thicket a young negro loaded with fetters, and 
armed with a cutlass. He urged them to disem- 
bark on a beach covered with large Rhizophoree 
among which the sea did not break, and offered to 
conduct them to the interior of the island of Baru 
if they would give him some clothes ; but his cun- 
ning and savage air, his repeated inquiries as to 
their being Spaniards, and the unintelligible words 
addressed to his companions who were concealed 
among the trees, excited their suspicions, and in- 
duced them to return on board. These blacks were 
probably Maroon negroes, who had escaped from 
prison. The appearance of a naked man, wan- 
dering on an uninhabited shore, and unable to rid 
himself of the chains fastened round his neck and 
arm, left a painful impression on the travellers ; but 
the sailors felt so little sympathy with these miser- 
able creatures, that they wished to return and seize 
the fugitives, in order to sell them at Carthagena. 
Next morning they doubled the Punta Gigantes, 
and made sail towards the Boca Chica, the entrance 
to the port of Carthagena, which is eight or ten 
miles farther up. On landing, Humboldt learned 
that the expedition appointed to make a survey of 
the coast under the command of M. Fidalgo had 
not yet put to sea, and this circumstance enabled 
