246 



ARRIVAL AT ANGOSTURA. 



On arriving at the capital, they hastened to present 

 themselves to Don Felipe de Ynciarte, the governor 

 of Guiana, who received them in the most obliging 

 manner. A painful circumstance forced them to 

 remain a whole month in this place. They were 

 both, a few days after their arrival, attacked by a 

 disorder, which in M. Bonpland assumed the char- 

 acter of a typhoid fever. A mulatto servant, who 

 had attended them from Cumana, was similarly 

 affected. His death was announced on the ninth 

 day ; but he had only fallen into a state of insensi- 

 bility, which lasted several hours, and was followed 

 by a salutary crisis. Humboldt escaped with a very 

 violent attack, during which he was made to take a 

 mixture of honey and the extract of Cortex angostura. 

 He recovered on the following day. His fellow- 

 traveller remained in a very alarming state for several 

 weeks, but retained sufficient strength of mind to 

 prescribe for himself. His fever was incessant, and 

 complicated with dysentery ; but, in his case too, the 

 issue was favourable. At this period no epidemic 

 prevailed in the town, and the air was salubrious ; so 

 that the germ of the disease had probably been 

 caught in the damp forests of the Upper Orinoco. 



Angostura, so named from its being placed on a 

 narrow part of the river, stands at the foot of a hill 

 of hornblende-slate destitute of vegetation. The 

 streets are regular, and generally parallel to the 

 course of the stream. The houses are high, agree- 

 able, and built of stone ; although the town is not 

 exempt from earthquakes. At the period of this 

 visit the population was only 6000. There is little 

 variety in the surrounding scenery ; but the view of 

 the river is singularly majestic. When the waters 

 are high they inundate the quays, and it sometimes 

 happens that even in the streets imprudent persons 

 fall a prey to the crocodiles, which are very nume- 

 rous. 



Humboldt relates that, at the time of his stay at 



