Quae genuit; coelo tegitur qui non hubet urnam.”[12]
[1] Historia de las Indias, Dec. 1, Cap. V. [↑]
[2] “Certainly it is a marvelous fact in the history of the Mammalia,” says Charles Darwin, “that in South America a native horse should have lived and disappeared, to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds descended from the few introduced with the Spanish colonists!”—Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of H. M. S. “Beagle” round the World, Chap. VII. [↑]
[3] According to the Chibchas, the fossil remains found here were the bones of a race of giants, hence the name given the locality. Humboldt and Cuvier, at the beginning of the last century, showed that the larger bones found were the remains of the Mastodon angustidens. Similar fossils found in other parts of South America have given rise to like fables. Cieza de Leon devotes an interesting chapter to a race of giants whose remains were found at Point Santa Helena, near Guayaquil. And on the tradition of a race of giants, that at one time landed at this place, a certain Mr. Ranking, in 1827, published a fantastic book entitled Researches on the Conquest of Peru and Mexico by the Mongols, accompanied with Elephants. See La Cronica del Peru, Cap. LII, of Cieza de Leon. [↑]
[4] Campaigns and Cruises in Venezuela and New Granada from 1817–1830. [↑]
[5] “According to what the inhabitants told me,” wrote Mollien, in the early part of the last century, “when the paramo se pone bravo is out of humor, then the greatest dangers threaten the traveler; a wind laden with icy vapors blows with tremendous violence; thick darkness covers the earth and conceals every trace of a road. The birds which, on the appearance of a fine day, had attempted the passage, fall motionless. The traveler seeks to shelter himself under the stunted shrubs which here and there grow in these deserts; but their wet foliage obliges him to find another covert. Worn out with fatigue and hunger, in vain urging on his mules, benumbed with cold, he sits down to recover his exhausted strength. Fatal repose! His stomach soon becomes affected as when at sea, his blood freezes in his veins; his muscles grow stiff, his lips open as if to smile, and he expires with the expression of joy upon his features. The mules, no longer hearing their master’s voice, remain standing, till at length tired, they lie down to die.”—Travels in the Republic of Colombia, pp. 96, 97, London, 1824. [↑]
[6] Signifying a large hole, or a wide opening. [↑]
[7] The author of Campaigns and Cruises, already quoted, writing of the pass where Bolivar’s army crossed the Cordillera describes it as “strewed with the bones of men and animals, that have perished in attempting to cross the paramo in unfavorable weather. Multitudes of small crosses are fixed in the rocks by pious hands, in memory of former travelers, who have died here; and along the path are strewed fragments of saddlery, trunks and various articles that have been abandoned, and resemble the traces of a routed army.” Vol. III, p. 165. [↑]