We sailed from Nueva Barcelona on the 24th of November at nine o’clock in the evening; and we doubled the small rocky island of Borachita. The night was marked by coolness which characterizes the nights of the tropics, and the agreeable effect of which can only be conceived by comparing the nocturnal temperature, from 23 to 24° centigrade, with the mean temperature of the day, which in those latitudes2 is generally, even on the coast, from 28 to 29°. Next day, soon after the observation of noon, we reached the meridian3 of the island of Tortugas. It is destitute4 of vegetation; and like the little islands of Coche and Cabagua is remarkable5 for its small elevation6 above the level of the sea.
In the forenoon of the 26th we began to lose sight of the island of Marguerita and I endeavoured to verify the height of the rocky group of Macanao. It appeared under an angle of 0° 16′ 35″; which in a distance estimated at sixty miles would give the mica-slate group of Macanao the elevation of about 660 toises, a result which, in a zone where the terrestrial refractions are so unchanging, leads me to think that the island was less distant than we supposed. The dome7 of the Silla of Caracas, lying 62° to the south-west, long fixed8 our attention. At those times when the coast is not loaded with vapours the Silla must be visible at sea, without reckoning the effects of refraction, at thirty-three leagues distance. During the 26th, and the three following days, the sea was covered with a bluish film which, when examined by a compound microscope, appeared formed of an innumerable quantity of filaments9. We frequently find these filaments in the Gulf-stream, and the Channel of Bahama, as well as near the coast of Buenos Ayres. Some naturalists10 are of opinion that they are vestiges11 of the eggs of mollusca: but they appear to be more like fragments of fuci. The phosphorescence of sea-water seems however to be augmented12 by their presence, especially between 28 and 30° of north latitude1, which indicates an origin of some sort of animal nature.
On the 27th we slowly approached the island of Orchila. Like all the small islands in the vicinity of the fertile coast of the continent it has never been inhabited. I found the latitude of the northern cape13 11° 51′ 44″ and the longitude14 of the eastern cape 68° 26′ 5″ (supposing Nueva Barcelona to be 67° 4′ 48″). Opposite the western cape there is a small rock against which the waves beat turbulently. Some angles taken with the sextant gave, for the length of the island from east to west, 8.4 miles (950 toises); and for the breadth scarcely three miles. The island of Orchila which, from its name, I figured to myself as a bare rock covered with lichens15, was at that period beautifully verdant16. The hills of gneiss were covered with grasses. It appears that the geological constitution of Orchila resembles, on a small scale, that of Marguerita. It consists of two groups of rocks joined by a neck of land; it is an isthmus17 covered with sand which seems to have issued from the floods by the successive lowering of the level of the sea. The rocks, like all those which are perpendicular18 and insulated in the middle of the sea, appear much more elevated than they really are, for they scarcely exceed from 80 to 90 toises. The Punta rasa stretches to the north-west and is lost, like a sandbank, below the waters. It is dangerous for navigators, and so is likewise the Mogote which, at the distance of two miles from the western cape, is surrounded by breakers. On a very near examination of these rocks we saw the strata19 of gneiss inclined towards the north-west and crossed by thick layers of quartz20. The destruction of these layers has doubtless created the sands of the surrounding beach. Some clumps21 of trees shade the valleys, the summits of the hills are crowned with fan-leaved palm-trees; probably the palma de sombrero of the Llanos (Corypha tectorum). Rain is not abundant in these countries; but probably some springs might be found on the island of Orchila if sought for with the same care as in the mica-slate rocks of Punta Araya. When we recollect22 how many bare and rocky islands are inhabited and cultivated between the 17th and 26th degrees of latitude in the archipelago of the Lesser23 Antilles and Bahama islands, we are surprised to find those islands desert which are near to the coast of Cumana, Barcelona and Caracas. They would long have ceased to be so had they been under the dominion24 of any other government than that to which they belong. Nothing can engage men to circumscribe25 their industry within the narrow limits of a small island when a neighbouring continent offers them greater advantages.
We perceived at sunset the two points of the Roca de afuera, rising like towers in the midst of the ocean. A survey taken with the compass placed the most easterly of the points or roques at 0° 19′ west of the western cape of Orchila. The clouds continued long accumulated over that island and showed its position from afar. The influence of a small tract26 of land in condensing the vapours suspended at an elevation of 800 toises is a very extraordinary phenomenon, although familiar to all mariners27. From this accumulation of clouds the position of the lowest island may be recognized at a great distance.
On the 29th November we still saw very distinctly, at sunrise, the summit of the Silla of Caracas just rising above the horizon of the sea. At noon everything denoted a change of weather in the direction of the north: the atmosphere suddenly cooled to 12.6°, while the sea maintained a temperature of 25.6° at its surface. At the moment of the observation of noon the oscillations of the horizon, crossed by streaks29 or black bands of very variable size, produced changes of refraction from 3 to 4°. The sea became rough in very calm weather and everything announced a stormy passage between Cayman Island and Cape St. Antonio. On the 30th the wind veered30 suddenly to north-north-east and the surge rose to a considerable height. Northward31 a darkish blue tint32 was observable on the sky, the rolling of our small vessel33 was violent and we perceived amidst the dashing of the waves two seas crossing each other, one the from north and the other from north-north-east. Waterspouts were formed at the distance of a mile and were carried rapidly from north-north-east to north-north-west. Whenever the waterspout drew near us we felt the wind grow sensibly cooler. Towards evening, owing to the carelessness of our American cook, our deck took fire; but fortunately it was soon extinguished. On the morning of the 1st of December the sea slowly calmed and the breeze became steady from north-east. On the 2nd of December we descried34 Cape Beata, in a spot where we had long observed the clouds gathered together. According to the observations of Acherner, which I obtained in the night, we were sixty-four miles distant. During the night there was a very curious optical phenomenon, which I shall not undertake to account for. At half-past midnight the wind blew feebly from the east; the thermometer rose to 23.2°, the whalebone hygrometer was at 57°. I had remained upon the deck to observe the culmination35 of some stars. The full-moon was high in the heavens. Suddenly, in the direction of the moon, 45° before its passage over the meridian, a great arch was formed tinged36 with the prismatic colours, though not of a bright hue37. The arch appeared higher than the moon; this iris-band was near 2° broad, and its summit seemed to rise nearly from 80 to 85° above the horizon of the sea. The sky was singularly pure; there was no appearance of rain; and what struck me most was that this phenomenon, which perfectly38 resembled a lunar rainbow, was not in the direction opposite to the moon. The arch remained stationary39, or at least appeared to do so, during eight or ten minutes; and at the moment when I tried if it were possible to see it by reflection in the mirror of the sextant, it began to move and descend40, crossing successively the Moon and Jupiter. It was 12 hours 54 minutes (mean time) when the summit of the arch sank below the horizon. This movement of an arch, coloured like the rainbow, filled with astonishment41 the sailors who were on watch on the deck. They alleged42, as they do on the appearance of every extraordinary meteor, that it denoted wind. M. Arago examined the sketch44 of this arch in my journal; and he is of opinion that the image of the moon reflected in the waters could not have given a halo of such great dimensions. The rapidity of the movement is no small obstacle in the way of explanation of a phenomenon well worthy45 of attention.
On the 3rd of December we felt some uneasiness on account of the proximity46 of a small vessel supposed to be a pirate but which, as it drew near, we recognized to be the Balandra del Frayle (the sloop47 of the Monk). I was at a loss to conceive what so strange a denomination48 meant. The bark belonged to a Franciscan missionary49, a rich priest of am Indian village in the savannahs (Llanos) of Barcelona, who had for several years carried on a very lucrative50 contraband51 trade with the Danish islands. M. Bonpland and several passengers saw in the night at the distance of a quarter of a mile, with the wind, a small flame on the surface of the ocean; it ran in the direction of south-west and lighted up the atmosphere. No shock of earthquake was felt and there was no change in the direction of the waves. Was it a phosphoric gleam produced by a great accumulation of mollusca in a state of putrefaction52; or did this flame issue from the depth of the sea, as is said to have been sometimes observable in latitudes agitated53 by volcanoes? The latter supposition appears to me devoid54 of all probability. The volcanic55 flame can only issue from the deep when the rocky bed of the ocean is already heaved up so that the flames and incandescent56 scoriae escape from the swelled57 and creviced part without traversing the waters.
At half-past ten in the morning of the 4th of December we were in the meridian of Cape Bacco (Punta Abacou) which I found in 76° 7′ 50″, or 9° 3′ 2″ west of Nueva Barcelona. Having attained58 the parallel of 17°, the fear of pirates made us prefer the direct passage across the bank of Vibora, better known by the name of the Pedro Shoals. This bank occupies more than two hundred and eighty square sea leagues and its configuration59 strikes the eye of the geologist60 by its resemblance to that of Jamaica, which is in its neighbourhood. It forms an island almost as large as Porto Rico.
From the 5th of December, the pilots believed they took successively the measurement at a distance of the island of Ranas (Morant Keys), Cape Portland and Pedro Keys. They may probably have been deceived in several of these distances, which were taken from the mast-head. I have elsewhere noted28 these measurements, not with the view of opposing them to those which have been made by able English navigators in these frequented latitudes, but merely to connect, in the same system of observations, the points I determined61 in the forests of the Orinoco and in the archipelago of the West Indies. The milky62 colour of the waters warned us that we were on the eastern part of the bank; the centigrade thermometer which at a distance from the bank and on the surface of the sea had for several days kept at 27 and 27.3° (the air being at 21.2°) sank suddenly to 25.7°. The weather was bad from the 4th to the 6th of December: it rained fast; thunder rolled at a distance, and the gusts63 of wind from the north-north-east became more and more violent. We were during some part of the night in a critical position; we heard before us the noise of the breakers over which we had to pass, and we could ascertain64 their direction by the phosphoric gleam reflected from the foam65 of the sea. The scene resembled the Raudal of Garzita and other rapids which we had seen in the bed of the Orinoco. We succeeded in changing our course and in less than a quarter of an hour were out of danger. While we traversed the bank of the Vibora from south-south-east to north-north-west I repeatedly tried to ascertain the temperature of the water on the surface of the sea. The cooling was less sensible on the middle of the bank than on its edge, a circumstance which we attributed to the currents that there mingle66 waters from different latitudes. On the south of Pedro Keys the surface of the sea, at twenty-five fathoms67 deep, was 26.4 and at fifteen fathoms deep 26.2°. The temperature of the sea on the east of the bank had been 26.8°. Some American pilots affirm that among the Bahama Islands they often know, when seated in the cabin, that they are passing over sand-banks; they allege43 that the lights are surrounded with small coloured halos and that the air exhaled68 from the lungs is visibly condensed. The latter circumstance appears very doubtful; below 30° of latitude the cooling produced by the waters of the bank is not sufficiently69 considerable to cause this phenomenon. During the time we passed on the bank of the Vibora the constitution of the air was quite different from what it had been when we quitted it. The rain was circumscribed70 by the limits of the bank of which we could distinguish the form from afar by the mass of vapour with which it was covered.
On the 9th of December, as we advanced towards the Cayman Islands,* the north-east wind again blew with violence. I nevertheless obtained some altitudes of the sun at the moment when we believed ourselves, though twelve miles distant, in the meridian of the centre of the Great Cayman, which is covered with cocoa-trees.
[* Christopher Columbus in 1503 named the Cayman Islands Penascales de las Tortugas on account of the sea-tortoises which he saw swimming in those latitudes.]
The weather continued bad and the sea extremely rough. The wind at length fell as we neared Cape St. Antonio. I found the northern extremity71 of the cape 87° 17′ 22″, or 2° 34′ 14″ eastward72 of the Morro of the Havannah: this is the longitude now marked on the best charts. We were at the distance of three miles from land but we were made aware of the proximity of the island of Cuba by a delicious aromatic73 odour. The sailors affirm that this odour is not perceived when they approach from Cape Catoche on the barren coast of Mexico. As the weather grew clearer the thermometer rose gradually in the shade to 27°: we advanced rapidly northward, carried on by a current from south-south-east, the temperature of which rose at the surface of the water to 26.7°; while out of the current it was 24.6°. We anchored in the port of the Havannah on the 19th December after a passage of twenty-five days in continuous bad weather.
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1
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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filaments
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| n.（电灯泡的）灯丝( filament的名词复数 )；丝极；细丝；丝状物 | |
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naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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lichens
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| n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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isthmus
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| n.地峡 | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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circumscribe
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| v.在...周围划线，限制，约束 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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culmination
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| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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allege
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| vt.宣称，申述，主张，断言 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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sloop
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| n.单桅帆船 | |
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48
denomination
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| n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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contraband
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| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
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putrefaction
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| n.腐坏，腐败 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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configuration
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| n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置 | |
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geologist
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| n.地质学家 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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milky
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| adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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