The great German traveler Alexander Humboldt was a weak, sickly child as a child, and instead of playing with his peers, he spent hours over books about adventures and travel.
After the death of his father, an officer in the army of Frederick the Great, the mother gave her son an excellent education. He studied mathematics, history, languages, economics. He was fond of botany, and then mineralogy and geology. The influence of these sciences fueled the young man's dreams of long-distance travel, where one can see firsthand the grandiose natural landscapes and rare plants.
For several years, the future researcher worked in the Department of Mineral Resources of the Prussian Government. But in 1797 Alexander left the service to go to South America. He traveled to Spain, where he met Prime Minister Mariano Urquijo, who helped the scientist obtain permission from the government to visit the Spanish colonies in South and Central America.
After the death of his mother, Alexander inherited a significant fortune, which made it possible to finance the expedition. In the summer of 1799, Humboldt, in the company of his friend, the French botanist Bonplain, sailed from Marseilles to the shores of America. The journey, which began in Caracas, lasted about a year. On foot, by horse and canoe, the friends traveled thousands of kilometers, undergoing hardship, enduring searing heat and tropical downpours, overwhelmed by clouds of stinging insects and trapped by bloodthirsty crocodiles.
The goal of Humboldt's first expedition was to prove that the Orinoco River is connected by water to the Amazon, and to find the geographical coordinates of the junction.
On the maps of the famous English cartographer Aaron Arrows-meth, the Orinoco and the Amazon flow in parallel, never connecting anywhere. Between them is a lake about 140 kilometers wide. The legend about the existence of this lake, which no one has ever seen, has survived since the time of Lord Rayleigh, who was looking for the mysterious country of El Dorado in South America. Arrowsmeet believed that this lake was the source of the Orinoco. Humboldt was convinced that the cartographer was wrong, and wanted to prove it.
When the travelers reached the Apure River, a tributary of the Orinoco, the Capuchin monks who lived here gave them guides and a boat. The Capuchin mission leader was well aware of the existence of a "channel" between the Orinoco and the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon. “When you go up the Orinoco and pass the Atabapo mission,” he said, “the force of the flow of the black water will become overwhelming. Then the monks will drag the boat along the shore and you will reach the Rio Negro."
This waterway between two great South American rivers has been used by the Indians since pre-Columbian times. Most of the Spanish missionaries who settled on the continent knew about him. As for the lake, which was reported by Sir Walter Rayleigh, it is only the fruit of his fantasy, inflamed with dreams of El Dorado.
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The geographic mystery awaited Alexander Humboldt and his companion to solve. The boat on which the travelers set sail for Apura was ten meters long and less than a meter wide. The roof provided shelter from the rain, although the legs remained outside. On the sides of the boat, the Capuchins attached grates on which they laid supplies: eggs wrapped in leaves, live chickens with tied legs, flatbreads, oranges, and several bottles of wine. The Capuchins advised taking fishing tackle, firearms and brandy as commodities for exchange with the natives.
Upstream the passengers in the canoe were attacked by blood-thirsty insects: mosquitoes, mosquitoes, termites, tropical sand fleas laying eggs under the skin. The channel narrowed, the current accelerated, and the boat had to be pulled along the bank past the roaring rapids. Finally, the travelers reached the confluence of the Orinoco Meta. A lot of boiling whirlpools, fighting powerful streams of water, literally stopped the boat, so we had to swim close to the shore. Then the path ran through the rapids. The fragile little boat was hurled by a stream, roaring over the huge stones. The monks screamed in fear, the boat shook, only the dexterity of the Indian rowers saved them from death.
When the rapids were overcome, the rocks on the banks were replaced by savannas with low hills overgrown with rare trees. In some places, granite rocks have been exposed. The boat sailed past the confluence of the Kaura and the Orinoco. Padre Cea announced that an amazing tribe of Raias Indians, whose mouths are in the navels, lives in the Caura basin. Humboldt was skeptical about this statement. It turned out that the legend has a simple explanation: the rayas wore wide headdresses that completely covered their heads and shoulders, and painted faces on their chests.
However, Humboldt was not lucky enough to meet with rayas - only dark water, lead clouds, hordes of insects and rains met him by the river. We passed the Atabapo mission and it became impossible to move forward. Humboldt realized that he had reached the desired point. Upstream, the Orinoco branched out into many branches, one of which, Casciare, 410 kilometers long, is a classic example of the division of rivers into two branches, which, without merging, form independent estuaries.
Casiquiare takes place in one of the oldest geological regions on earth. Over the course of millions of years, erosion has destroyed mountain ranges, turning them into bizarre rock massifs, piling up chaotically among the prairies. This amazing country covers an area of about 500 square kilometers. Humboldt and Bonpland unpacked theodolites and sectarians, thermometers and barometers to survey the area and determine astronomically the junction of the two rivers. Alexander wrote in his diary: "Every object here is saturated with the greatness of nature, from a boa-boa that can be swallowed by a horse to a small bird balancing on the petals of a flower." Happy Bonpland has collected thousands of unseen plant specimens. Humboldt determined the coordinates of the junction point of Orinoco and Rio Negru with surprising accuracy.
This whole region was named "the Humboldt country", and the German traveler himself became famous. But this happened later. And then, in May 1800, he was arrested by Brazilian soldiers on suspicion of espionage. Portuguese colonial officials intended to send Humboldt to Lisbon, but Padre Cea stood up for him. The friends started their way back.
Their boat was loaded to the brim with samples of minerals, plants, animal skins and bird feathers. The journey took less than a year, but during this time, scientists surveyed the area and discovered many new species, including manatees, electric eels, and others, so it is impossible to overestimate the importance of the Humboldt expedition.