Term Paper
written for HONR299L, "Exploring the Mystery of Amazonia," 7 December
2000
University of
Maryland - College Park, fall semester 2000. by Christopher Chrzanowski.
"A freak of nature" can best
describe the Casiquiare River, however, it is much more interesting, and much
more important than that. The Casiquiare, also spelled Cassiquiare, is a body
of water located in southern Venezuela. It is approximately 140 miles in
length, meandering southwestward from the Orinoco River, to meet with the Rio
Guain’a at the Venezuela-Colombia border, to form the Rio Negro.
("Casiquiare" Britannica, Rand McNally 247)
What makes the Casiquiare peculiar is its
beginning. Twenty miles downstream of the small Venezuelan town of La
Esmeralda, the Orinoco River splits into left and right braches. However,
unlike other examples where a river may split and rejoin, as in the case of the
Amazon River flowing around Ilha do Careiro just east of Manaus to form a small
island, or also in the case of the Amazon delta, splitting into hundreds of
branches to form Ilha de Maraj—, these two branches of the Orinoco never
rejoin. The left branch, taking with it about one third of the water at that
point, becomes the Casiquiare River; the right branch remains the Orinoco. The
Orinoco continues to flow westward, then northward to the town of Puerto
Ayacucho, and then gradually eastward for a total of about 1000 miles, to its
delta at Venezuela's eastern border with Guyana at the Atlantic Ocean. The
Casiquiare, like stated, flows generally to the southwest to meet with the Rio
Negro. The Rio Negro, in turn, flows to the southeast for about 700 miles to
meet the Amazon River at the Brazilian port city of Manaus. (Rand McNally 247).
In short, this means that the two greatest
river systems of South America are connected. It means that markets in central
Brazil have a "highway" to the Caribbean coast. It means that you
could travel from Iquitos, Peru, to Caracas, Venezuela, without having to cross
the Andes Mountains. The Casiquiare is, in effect, a natural canal. However,
these opportunities wouldn't have been known until the river was discovered and
accurately plotted, and in the middle of the dense Amazonian rainforest, that would
not be an easy task. The credit for first truly discovering and charting the
course of the river goes to Alexander von Humboldt in the year 1800.
o o o
Alexander von Humboldt was born in
September 1769 in Berlin, Germany (Prussia, at the time). His father, an
officer under the army of Frederick the Great, died before Humboldt turned
thirteen. His mother was a member of the French Huguenot family, but was hardly
interested in court life, and after her husband died, was strictly concerned
with her two sons' upbringing and education. Humboldt was therefore very lucky
in terms of education, being able to travel around Europe, specifically to and
from France, even though France and Prussia were at war. (Meyer-Abich 13-14)
Humboldt fist attended the University of
Frankfurt, and then University of Berlin, where he discovered a keen interest
in research science, especially botany. But then he moved on to the School of
Mines in Saxony in 1790, where he was able to conduct mineralogical research on
the Rhine, and in 1792 received an appointment to the Prussian Mining
Department, and did much field work. However, he never fully intended mining to
be his career; this was simply an outlet for scientific discovery, and he
resigned from the post in 1796. ("Humboldt" Britannica)
Humboldt spent the next several years
doing personal research and studies within Europe, but strongly wanted to leave
the continent to make new discoveries elsewhere. He very nearly set off on
several voyages of a Captain Baudin, including cruises to the upper Nile and
around the southern tip of South America, however due to the end of the French
Revolution, and the finicky Napoleon Bonaparte in power, the voyages were
unable to fully materialize. However, while in Paris negotiating these trips,
Humboldt met friend, botanist, and future partner, AimŽe Bonpland, and the two
decided to venture to Spain, to attempt to find any boat that could possibly
take them the Africa, to at least begin some sort of work. But, by chance, they
met an ambassador and friend of King Charles IV, and were able to get the
King's permission to study the Spanish colonies in America. Delighted, Humboldt
and Bonpland began their journey on 5 June 1799, and set sail for Venezuela,
landing on 15 July at the town of Cuman‡, a thriving port of entry within the
Orinocan delta. (Hagen 90-99)
Humboldt and Bonpland's primary first goal
was to discover the natural link between the Orinoco and Amazon. "The
existence of this link was well known to many missionaries and Indians on both
sides of the border and parts of it had been visited by the Spanish expedition
of Iturriaga and Solano in 1756. [Also], La Condamine had placed it on his map
on the strength of conversations with Indians who claimed it to be there."
(Furneaux 100)
Sir Walter Raleigh was also one of the
first early explorers to officially note the existence of the connection, but
the maps of his 1596 voyage up the Orinoco to find the famed El Dorado show
that river parallel to the Amazon, never actually meeting, but with a large
body of water between them, that he named the Lake of Manoa, that in some maps
was labeled as the Orinoco's source. But Raleigh was never able to come to any
conclusion, as the current gradually grew too strong, and his crew too weak, to
proceed on his journey. Arrowsmith, a celebrated English cartographer of
Humboldt's time, had placed that lake on his maps, and that misconception
continued right up to the point of Humboldt's voyage. (Hagen 112-114)
To clarify, Humboldt was not actually
trying to discover much of anything new on this trip, "but to rediscover
what was known only by a few, to subject his findings to a more thorough
scientific analysis that they had received before, and to sift the mass of
facts, theories, and nonsense though his sieve of remorseless logic."
(Furneaux 101)
The journey up the Orinoco would not be an
easy one, and it would take several months. And, of course, it would be unlike
Humboldt to proceed through new territory for him without taking observations
and conducting experiments along the way. Therefore, it can be interesting to
note several of the most important "rediscoveries" he made for
western science, as a prelude to reaching the Casiquiare.
Humboldt and Bonpland admired the botany
of the river system, of which both were highly interested in, but also the
lives and customs of the Indians, of which Humboldt's "biogeographic"
interests played. With one tribe at the village of Barbula, they discovered the
"cow tree," a distant relative of the rubber tree, so called because
it provided a liquid from its bark similar to a cow's milk. One of Humboldt's
servants reported that he drank from it everyday, "and Humboldt, not to be
outdone É filled a calabash with the white thick liquid, raised the gourd to
his eyes in a mock toast, É then took a deep draught." Bonpland just
stared in disbelief. (Hagen 108) However, one other servant, "less
fortunate, vomited up rubber balls for several hours." (Furneaux 102)
The two conversed with Indians about
"curare," a local medicine and poison. "They were aware of the
theory that curare could only kill if taken intravenously," a fact
utilized by the Indians with poison-tipped darts and arrows, and to test that
theory, both drank small bits of it. Humboldt wrote in his narrative, "Its
taste is of an agreeable bitter. The Indians consider the curare, taken
internally, as an excellent stomachic." (Furneaux 102)
Humboldt conducted research on the
piranha, or caribe, and found it to be much less vicious than previous reports,
as well as more recent exaggerations, have indicated. He wrote, "It
attacks bathers and swimmers, from whom it often carries away considerable
portions of flesh. When a person is only slightly wounded, it is difficult for
him to get out of the water without receiving a severer wound. The Indians
dread extremely these caribes, and several of them showed us the scars of deep
wounds in the calf of the leg, and in the thigh, made by these little
animals." (Furneaux 102)
However, possibly the most interesting
experiments the pair conducted were on that of the electric eel. The world of
electricity was still very new and very exciting in the year 1800, only
recently having seen the work of Volta and Galvani prove some important
concepts. In the region of Calabozo, the locals reported that the small streams
overflowed with these eels, and since most people were extremely afraid of
them, the gathering of the eels for experimentation proved to be a somewhat
difficult process. The solution, at a price of about one dollar payment per
man, was to run about thirty horses into the river, stirring up the bottom
where the eels lay. Disturbing them, the eels began to discharge, and both
because water is a good conductor, and that the eels would literally swim up to
the horses' undersides, the horses ran wildly about in the water, trying to
avoid the pain. With the Indians forcing them to stay in the water with
harpoons, some horses were knocked unconscious, others lost complete control of
their legs. In all, two of the thirty drowned before the rest were able to
escape, but importantly, the eels had either been trampled upon, or simply got
exhausted to the point where the Indians could easily harpoon them from the
shore. (Hagen 109-111)
Humboldt was then able to conduct his experiments,
noting that most eels ranged from three to five feet long, were cylindrical in
cross-section, devoid of scales, and had one long fin on their backs from head
to tail. But, while observing these on the shore, he inadvertently stepped on
one of them. He wrote, "I do not remember ever having received a more
dreadful shock from the discharge of a large Leyden jar, than which I
experienced. É I was affected the rest of the day with a violent pain in the
knees, and in almost every joint." Humboldt also wrote of continued
experiments,
"[I] often tried, both insulated and
uninsulated, to touch the fish, without feeling the least shock. When M.
Bonpland held it by the head, or by the middle of the body, while I held it by
the tail, and, standing on the moist ground, did not take each other's hand,
one of us received shocks while the other did not. É If two persons touch the
belly of the fish with their fingers, at an inch distance, and press
simultaneously, sometimes one, sometimes the other will receive the
shock." (Furneaux 103)
By this point, Humboldt and Bonpland were
reaching the mountains of southern Venezuela, and things began to get a little
tricky. They decided, instead of continuing upstream the Orinoco towards the
east, to head straight south via a small stream, and then a short trip overland
to the upper reaches of the Rio Negro. This would enable them to see more of
the country. Then, upon sailing down the Negro, with help from Spanish missionaries
along the river, careful avoidance of the Brazilian/Portuguese land of which
they had to right to trespass upon, and some simple trial and error, on 10 May
1800, they were able to find where the Casiquiare reaches the Rio Negro. From
there, they planned to head upstream and reach the Orinoco.
Humboldt and Bonpland were able to make
several other scientific observations specific to the Casiquiare, which include
that the shores were composed of excellent soil of "granitic sand, of a
blackish-brown colour," more fertile than that of the Negro, where rice,
beans, cotton, and sugar could all be grown. (Humboldt 417) However, the
insects and ants were the most prolific problem, of which he wrote, "We
found at Mandavaca the good old missionary, who had already spent '20 years of
mosquitoes in the forests of the Cassiquiare,' and whose legs were so spotted
by the stings of insects, that the colour of the skin could scarcely be
perceived." (411)
He also wrote in his narratives of the
relative loneliness of the river, compared to that of the Orinoco. "The
state of the Christian settlements is in general so miserable, the in the whole
course of the Cassiquiare, on a length of almost 50 leagues [150 miles], not
200 inhabitants are found." (411)
Eleven days later, on 21 May, the
explorers did reach the Orinoco. Along the way, and also by proceeding slightly
upstream of the bifurcation, Humboldt was able to more fully disprove some of
the geographical myth of the region, that El Dorado and its accompanying Lake
of Manoa, or Lago de ParimŽ according to Solano's 1756 voyage, were nowhere to
be found. (Hagen 122) But also by this time, feeling great joy and satisfaction
that he was able to chart the river, began to do some forward thinking. He
wrote that the Casiquiare equaled the Rhine in terms of breadth and
navigability, and he envisioned grain trade from New Grenada to the Rio Negro,
and boats traveling from the Rio Napo to the mouth of the Orinoco. (431) He
also stated, "The phenomenon, which will one day be so important for all
the political connections of nations, unquestionably deserves to be carefully
examined." (432)
Humboldt's final statement on the river
before proceeding back to Caracas, then Cuba, and then down the Pacific coast
of South America, did not come quite to the fruition he envisioned. Today the
Casiquiare is fully charted, and local boats can and do pass through it,
although it has not become the major "highway" Humboldt was
imagining. Simply, the current is slightly too fast, and the bed not quite deep
enough for the large ships of the 21st century. However, as recent as 1995,
there have been talks between the Venezuelan and Brazilian governments about
the future of the Casiquiare, specifically the feasibility of dredging and widening
the river to allow vessels of up to 100 tons. This would undoubtedly open the
region to greater mining, logging, and ranching, and environmentalists have
been vocal in protecting the Amazonian and Orinocan rainforests.
("ThreatÉ" R.A.N.)
For now, it appears as if things will not
change much, especially with the 1993 christening of the "Alto
Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve," an 83,830 km2 park, protecting the
natural flora and fauna of the region. Environmental concerns and regulations
would make it difficult for anyone to attempt such a large project to modify
the Casiquiare River for larger ships to pass through. ("ReservaÉ"
CI-UNESCO)
Alexander von Humboldt, and AimŽe Bonpland
as well, clearly can be likened to a Christopher Columbus team of the Orinoco
basin. "They had been in the Americas a little less than a year, and in
that short space of time they had made known more than had been unearthed in
centuries." (Hagen 126)
At a time of some many other amazing
scientific discoveries, Humboldt isn't often remembered as he should be. In his
time, some claimed him "the greatest man in the world," and "his
massive intellect, his phenomenal memory, and his truly Teutonic industry made
him the master of all branches of science at the last moment in history when
this was possible for a single human being." (Furneaux 97) Future
scientists and explorers are unlikely to surpass Humboldt's determination,
audacity, and utter intelligence.
Bibliography
"Casiquiare."
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2000. Online. http://www.britannica.com.
Furneaux, Robin. The Amazon. 1969:
New York.
Hagen, Victor Wolfgang von. South
America Called Them. 1955: New York.
Humboldt, Alexander von. Personal
Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America. Volume 2. Thomasina
Ross, translation. 1852: London.
"Humboldt, Alexander
von." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2000. Online. http://www.britannica.com.
Meyer-Abich, Adolf. Alexander von
Humboldt. 1969: Bonn.
Rand McNally Atlas of the World.
1993.
"Reserva de Biosfera Alto
Orinoco-Casiquiare." Conservation International-UNESCO Biosphere Reserves
Partnership. 2000. Online.
http://www.conservation.org/science/cptc/capbuild/unesco/s_amer/altoorin/default.htm.
"Threat to the Amazon." Rainforest Action Network. 1996. Online. http://www.ran.org/ran/ran_campaigns/brazil/mega.html.