Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, During the Years 1799-1804

by Alexander von Humboldt, and Aimé Bonpland; with Maps, Plans &c. Written in French by Alexander von Humboldt, and Translated into English by Helen Maria Williams. Vol. IV. – London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown 1819.

[419] March the 31st. A contrary wind obliged us to remain on shore till noon. we saw a part of some canefields laid waste by the effect of a conflagration, which had spread from a neighbouring forest. The wandering Indians every where set fire to the forest where they have encamped at night; an during the season of drought, vast provinces would be the prey of these conflagrations, if the extreme hardness of the wood did not prevent the trees from being entirely consumed. We found trunks of desmanthus, and mahogany (cahoba), that were scarcely charred two inches deep.

Having passed the Diamante, we entered a [420] land inhabited only by tigers, crocodiles, and chiguires, a large species of the genus cavia of Linneus. We saw flocks of birds, crowded so close together, as to appear against the sky like a dark cloud, that every instant changed it's form. The river widens by degrees. One of it's banks is generally barren and sandy from the effect of inundations: the other is higher, and covered with lofty trees. Sometimes the river is bordered by forests on each side, and forms a straight canal a hundred and fifty toises broad. The manner in which the trees are disposed is very remarkable. We first find bushes of sauso[1], forming a kind of hedge four feet high; and appearing as if they had been clipped by the hand of man. A copse of cedars, brazilettoes, and lingum vitae, rises behind this hedge. Palm-trees are rare; we saw only a few scattered trunks of the thorny piritu and corozo. The large quadrupeds of those regions, the tigers, tapirs, and pecaris, have made openings in the hedge of sausos which we have just described. Through these the wild animals pass, when they come to drink at the river. As they fear but little the approach of a boat, we had the pleasure of viewing them pace slowly along the shore, [421] till they disappeared in the forest, which they entered by one of the narrow passes left here and there between the bushes. I confess that these scenes, which were often repeated, had ever for me a peculiar attraction. The pleasure they excite is not owing solely to the interest, which the naturalist takes in the objects of his study; it is connected with a feeling common to all men, who have been brought up in the habits of civilization. You find yourself in a new world, in the midst of untamed and savage nature. Now it is the jaguar, the beautiful panther of America, that appears upon the shore; and now the hocco[2] with it's black plumage and it's tufted head, that moves slowly along the sausoes. Animals of the most different classes succeed each other. “Esse como en el Paraiso+[3],” said our pilot, an old Indian of the missions. Every thing indeed here recalls to mind that state of the primitive world, the innocence and felicity of which ancient and venerable traditions have transmitted to all nations: but, in carefully observing the manners of animals between themselves, we see that they mutually avoid and fear each other. The golden age has ceased; and in this Paradise of the American forests, as well as every where else, [422] sad and long experience has taught all beings, that benignity is seldom found in alliance with strength.

When the shore is of considerable breadth, teh hedge of sauso remains at a distance from the river. In this intermediate ground we see crocodiles, sometimes to the number of eight or ten, stretched on the sand. motionless the jaws opend at right angles, they repose by each other without displaying any of those marks of affection, observed in other animals that live in society. The troop separates as soon as they quit the shore. It is, however, probably composed of one male only, and many females; for, as Mr. Descourtiles, who has so much studied the crocodiles of Saint Domingo, observed beforme me, the males are rare, because they kill one another in fighting during the season of their loves. These monstrous reptiles are so numerous, that throughout the whole course of the river we had almost at every instant five or six in view. Yet at this period the swelling of the Rio Apure was scarcely perceived; and consequently hundreds of crocodiles were still buried in the mud of the savannahs. about four in the afternoon we stopped to measure a dead crocodile, that the waters had thrown on the shore. it was sixteen feet eight inches long; some days after Mr. Bonpland found another, a male, twenty-two feet three inches long. In every [423] zone, in America as in Egypt, this animal attains the same size. The species so abundant in the Apure, the Oroonoko[4], and the Rio de la Magdalena, is not a cayman, or alligator, but a real crocodile, with feet dentated at the external edges, analogous to that of the Nile. When it is recollected, that the male enters the age of puberty only at ten years, and that it's length is then eight feet, we may presume, that the crocodile measured by Mr. Bonpland was at least twenty-eight years old. The Indians told us, that at San Fernando scarcely a year passes, without two or three grown up persons, particularly women who fetch water from the river, being drowned by theses carnivorous lizards. They related to us the history of a young girl of Uritucu, who by singular intrepidity and presence of mind, saved herself from the jaws of a crocodile. When she felt herself seized, she sought the eyes of the animal, and plunged her fingers into them with such violence, that the pain forced the crocodile to let her loose, after having bitten off the lower part of her left arm. The girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of blood she lost, happily reached the shore, swimming with the hand she had still left. In those desert countries, where man is ever wrestling [424] with nature, discourse daily turns on the means, that ma be employed to escape from an tiger, a boa or traga venado, or a crocodile; every one prepares himself in some sort of dangers that await him. I knew, said the young girl of Uritucu coolly, “that the cayman lets go his hold, if you push your fingers into his eyes.” Long after my return to Europe I learned, that in the interior of Africa the Negroes know an practise the same means. Who does not recollect with a lively interest Isaaco, the guide of the unfortunate Mungo Park, seized twice, near Boulinkombou[5], by a crocodile, and twice escaping from jaws of the monster, having succeeded in placing his fingers under water in both his eyes? The African Isaaco, and the young American, owed their safety to the same presence of mind, and the same combination of ideas.

The movements of the crocodile of the Apure are abrupt and rapid when it attacks any object; but it moves with the slowness of a salamander, when it is not excited by rage or hunger. The animal in running makes a rustling noise, that seems to proceed from the rubbing of the scales of it's skin against one another. In this movement it bends it's back, and appears higher on it's legs than when at rest. We often heard this [425] noise of the scales very near us on the shore; but it is not true, as the Indians pretend, that, like the pangolins, the old crocodiles “can erect their scales, and every part of their armour.” The motion of these animals is no doubt generally in a straight line, or rather like that of an arrow which changes it's direction at certain distances. Hoever, notwithstanding the little apparatus of false ribs, that connects the vetebraeof the neck, and seems to impede the lateral movement, crocodiles can turn easily when they please. I often saw young ones biting their tails; and other observers have seen the same action in crocodiles at their full growth. If their movements almost always appear to be straight forward, it ist because, like our small lizards, they execute them by starts. Crocodiles are excellent swimmers; they go with facility against the most rapid current. It appeared to me, however, that in descending the river they had some difficulty in turning quickly about. A large dog, that had accompanied us in our journey from Caraccas to the Rio Negro, was one day pursued in swimming by an enormous crocodile, which had nearly reached him, when the dog escaped it's enemy by turning round suddenly and swimming against the current. The crocdile oerformed the same movement, but much more slowly than the dog, which happily gained the shore. [426]

The crocodiles of the apure find abundant nourishment in the chiguires[6] (the thick-nosed tapir of naturalists), which live fifty or sixty together in troops on the banks of the river. These unfortunate animals, as large as our pigs, have no weapons of defence; they swim somewhat better than they run: yet they become the prey of the crocodiles in the water, as of the tigers on land. It is difficult to conceive, how, persecuted by two powerful enemies, they can become so numerous; but they breed with the same rapidity as the cobayas, or little guinea-pigs, which come to us from Brazil.

We stopped below the mouth of the Cano de la Tigrera, in a sinuosity called la Vuelta del Joval, to measure the velocity of the water at it's surface. It was not more than 3.2 feet[7] in a second; which gives 2.56 feet for the mean [427] velocity. The barometrical heights, attending to the effects of the little horary variations, indicated scarcely a slope of seventeen inches in a mile of nine hundred and fifty toises. The velocity is the simultaneous effect of the slope of the ground, and the accumulation of the waters by swelling of the upper parts of th river. We were again surrounded by chiguires, which swim like dogs, raising the head and neck above the water. We asw with surprise a large crocodile on the opposite shore, motionless, and sleeping in the midst of these nibbling animals. It awoke at the approach of our canoe, and went into the water slowly, without affrighting the chiguires. Our Indians accounted for this indifference by the stupidity of the animal; but it is more probable, that the chiguires know by long experience, that the crocodile of the Apure and the Oroonoko does not attack upon land, unless he finds the object he would seize immediately in his way, at the instant when he throws himself into the water.

Near the Joval nature assumes an awful and savage aspect. We there saw the largest tiger we had ever met with. The natives themselves were astonished at it's prodigious length, which surpassed that of all the tigers of India I had seen the collections of Europe. The animal lay stretched beneath the shade of a large zamang[8]. [428] It had just killed a chiguire, but had not yet touched it's prey, on which it kept one of it's paws. The zamuroes, a species of vlture which we have compared above to the percnopterus of Lower-Egypt, were assembled in flocks to devour the remains of the jaguar's repast. They afforded the most curioius spectacle, by a singular mixture of boldness and timidity. They advance within the distance of two feet from the jaguar, but at the least movement the beast made they drew back. In order to observe more nearly the manners of these animals, we went into the little boat, that accompanied our canoe. Tigers very rarely attack boats by swimming to them; and never but when their ferocity is heightened by a long privation of food. The noise of our oars led the animal to rise slowly, and hide itself behind the sauso bushes, that bordered the shore. The vultures tried to profit by this moment of absence to devour the chiguire: but the tiger, notwithstanding the proximity of our boat, leaped into the midst of them; and in a fit of rage, expressed by his gait and the movement of his tail, carried off his prey to the forest. The Indians regretted, that they were not provided with their lances, in order to go on shore, and attack the tiger. They are accustomed to this weapon, and were right in not trusting to our musquets, which, in an air so excessively humid, often miss fire. [429]

Continuing to descend the river, we met with the great herd of chiguires, which the tiger had put to flight, and from which he had selected his prey. These animals saw us land with great tranquillity; some of them were seated, and gazed upon us, moving the upper lip like rabbits. They seemed not to be afraid of men, but the sight of our great dog put them to flight. Their hind legs being longer than their fore legs, their pace is a slight gallop, but with so little swiftness, that we succeeded in catching thwo of them. The chiguire, which swims with the greatest agility, utters a short moan in running, as if it's respiration were impeded. It is the largest of the family of gnawing animals. It defends itself only at the last extremity, when it is surrounded and wounded. Having great strength in it's grinding teeth[9], particularly the hinder ones, which are pretty long, it can tear the paw of a tiger, or the leg of a horse, with it's bite. It's flesh has a smell of musk somewhat disagreeable; yet hams are made of it in this country, which almost justifies the name of [430] water dog, given to the chiguire by some of the older naturalists. The missionary monks do not hesitate to eat these hams during Lent. According to their zoological classification, they place the armadillo, the thick-nosed tapir, and the manatee, near the tortoises; the first, because it is covered with a hard armour, like a sort of shell; and the others because they are amphibious. The chiguires are found in such numbers on the banks of the rivers Santo Domingo, Apure, and Arauca, in the marshes and the inundated savannahs[10] of the Llanos, that the pasturages suffer from them. They browze the grass which fattens the horses best, and which bears the name of chiguirero, “chiguire grass”. They feed also upon fish; and we saw with surprise, that, affrighted by the approach of a boat, the animal in diving remains eight or ten minutes under water.

We passed the night as usual, in the open air, though in a plantation, the proprietor of which employed himself in hunting tigers. He was almost naked, and of a dark brown complexion like a Zambo. This did not prevent his thinking himself of the cast of Whites. He called his wife and his daughter, who were as naked as himself, donna Isabella, and donna Manuela Without [430] having ever quittted the banks of the Apure, he took a lively interest “in the news of Madrid, in those wars which never ended, and in every thing down yonder; todas las casas de alla.” He knew, that the king was soon to come and visit “the grandees of the country of Caraccas,” but, added he with som pleasantry, “as the people of the court can eat only wheaten bread, they will never pass beyond the town of Victoria, and we shall not see them here.” I had brought with me a chiguire, which I had intended to have roasted; but our host assured us, that such “Indian game” was not food fit for nos otros cavalleros blancos, “white gentlemen like him or me.” Accordingly he offered us some venison, which he had killed the day before with an arrow, for he had neither powder nor firearms.

We supposed, that a small wood of plantain trees concealed from us the hut of the farm: but this man, so proud of his nobility and the colour of his skin, had not taken the trouble of constructing an ajoupa of palm-leaves. He invited us to have our hammocks hung near his own, between two trees; and he assured us with an air of complacency, that, if we came up the river in the rainy season, we should find him beneath a roof[11]. We soon had reason to com- [432] plain of a philosophy, which, indulgent to indolence, renders a man indifferent to the conveniences of life. A furious wind arose after midnight, lightnings ploughed the horizon, the thunder rolled, and we were wet to the skin. During this storm a whimsical incident served to amuse us for a moment. Donna Isabella's cat had perched upon the tamarind-tree, at the foot of which we lay. It fell into the hammock of one of our companions, who, wounded by the claws of the cat, and awakened from a profound sleep, thought he was attacked by some wild beast of the forest. We ran to him on hearing his cries, and had some trouble to convince him of his error. While it rained in torrents on our hammocks, and the instruments we had landed, don Ignacio congratulated us to our good fortune in not sleeping on the strand, but finding ourselves in his domain, among Whites and persons of rank; entre gente blanca y de trato. Wet as we were, we could not easily persuade ourselves of the advantage of our situation, and listened with some impatience to the long narrative our host gave us of his pretended expedition to Rio Meta, of the valour he had displayed in a bloody combat with the Guahibo Indians, and “the services that he had rendered to God and his king, in carrying away children (los Indiecitos) from their parents, to distribute them in the missions.” How singular a spectacle, to [433] find that vast solitude a man, who believes himself of european race, and knows no other shelter thn the shade of a tree, with all the vain pretensions, all the hereditary prejudices, all the errors, of long civilisation!

April the 1st. At sunrise we quitted signior don Ignacio and signora donna Isabella his wife. The weather was cooler, for the thermometer, which generally kept up in the clay to 30° or 35° had sunk to 24°. The temperature of the river was little changed it continued constantly at 26° or 27°. The current carried with it an enormous quantity of trunks of trees. We might imagine that on ground entirely smooth, and where the eye cannot distinguish the least hill the river would have formed by the force of it's current a channel in a straight line. A glance at the map, which I traced by the compass, will prove the contrary. The two banks, worn by the waters, do not furnish an equal resistance; and almost imperceptible inequalities of the level suffice to produce great sinuosities. Yet below the Joval where the bed of the river enlarges a little, it forms a channel that appears perfectly straight, and is shaded on each side by very tall trees. This part of the river is called Cano Ricco. I found it to be one hundred and thirty-six toises broad. We passed a low island inhabited by thousands of flamingoes, rose-coloured spoonbills [434] herons, and moorhens, which display a mixture of the most various colours. These birds were so close together, that they seemed to be unable to stir. The island they inhabit is called Isla de Aves. Lower down we passed the point, where the Rio Arichuna, an arm of the Apure, branches off to the Cabulare, carrying off a considerable body of it's waters. We stopped on the right bank, at a little Indian mission, inhabited by the tribe of the Guamoes. There yet only sixteen or eighteen huts constructed with the leaves of the palm-tree; yet, in the statistical tables presented annually by the mis­sionaries to the Court, this assemblage of huts is marked with name of the village of Santa Barbara de Arichuna.

The Guamoes[12] are a race of Indians very difficult to fix on a settled spot. They have great similarity of manners with the Achaguas, the Guajiboes+[13], and the Otomacoes, partaking their disregard of cleanliness, their spirit of vengeance, and their taste for wandering; but their language differs essentially. The greater part of these four tribes live by fishing and hunting, in plains often inundated, and situate[d] between the Apure, the Meta, and the Guaviare. The nature of these regions seems to invite the [435] nations to a wandering life. On entering the mountains of the Cataracts of the Oroonoko, we shall soon find among the Piraoas, the Macoes, and the Maquiritares, milder manners the love of agriculture and great cleanliness in the interior of their huts. On the backs of mountains, in the midst of impenetrable forests man is compelled to fix himself; and cultivate a small spot of land. This cultivation requires little care; while in a country where there are no other roads than rivers the life of the hunter is laborious and difficult. The Guamoes of the mission of Santa Barbara could not furnish us with the provision we wanted. They cultivate only a little cassava. They appeared hospitable; and when we entered their huts offered us dried fish and water (in their tongue cub). This water was cooled in porous vessels.

Beyond the Vuelta del Cochino roto, in a spot where the river has scooped itself a new bed, we passed the night on a bare and very extensive strand. The forest being impenetrable, we had the greatest difficulty to find dry wood to light fires, near which the Indians believe themselves in safety from the nocturnal attacks of a tiger. Our own experience seems to depose in favour of this opinion; but M. d'Azzara asserts, that in his time a tiger in Paraguay carried off a man, who was seated near a fire lighted in the savannah. [436]

The night was calm and serene, and there was a beautiful moonlight. The crocodiles were stretched along the shore. They placed themselves in such a manner as to be able to see the fire. We thought we observed, that it's splendour attracted them, as it attracts fishes, crayfish, and other inhabitants of the water. The Indians showed us the traces of three tigers in the sand, two of which were very young. A female had no doubt conducted her little ones drink at the river. Finding no tree on the strand, we stuck our oars in the ground, and to these we fastened our hammocks. Every thing passed tranquilly till eleven at night; and then a noise so teriffic arose in the neighbouring forest, that it was almost impossible to close eyes. Amid the cries of so many wild beasts howling at once, the Indians discriminated such only as were heard separately. These were the little soft cries of the sapajous, the moans of the alouates, the howlings of the tiger, the couguar, or American lion without mane, the pecari, and the sloth, and the voices of the curassoa, the parraka, and some other gallinaceous birds. When the jaguars approached the skirt of the forest, our dog, which till then had never ceased barking, began to howl and seek for a shelter beneath our hammocks. Sometimes, after a long silence, the cry of the tiger came from the tops of the trees; and in this case it was followed by the sharp and [437] long whistling of the monkeys, which appeared to flee from the danger that threatened them.

I notice every circumstance of these nocturnal scenes, because, being recently embarked on the Rio Apure, we were not yet accustomed to them. We heard the same noises repeated, during the course of whole months, whenever the forest approached the bed of the rivers. The security displayed by the Indians inspires travellers with confidence. You persuade yourself with them, that the tigers are afraid of fire, and do not attack a man lying in his hammock. These attacks are in fact extremely; and, during a long abode in South America, I remember only oneexample of a Llanero, wo was found torn in his hammock, opposite the island of Achaguas.

When the natives are interrogated on the causes of this tremendous noise made by the beasts of the forest at certain hours of the night, they reply gaily, “they are keeping the feast of the full moon.”

I believe this agitation is most frequently the effect of some contest, that has arisen in the depths of the forest. The jaguars, for instance, pursue the pecaris and the tapirs, which, having no defence but in their numbers, flee in close troops, and break down buhes they find in their way. Affrighted at this struggle, the timid and mistrustful monkies answerfrom the tops of the trees the cries of the large ani- [438] mals . they awaken the birds that live in society, and by degrees the whole assembly is in movement. we shall soon find, that it is not always in a fine moonlight, but more particularly at the time of a storm and violent showers, that this tumult takes place among the wild beasts. “May Heaven grant them a quiet night and repose, and us also!” said the monk who accompanied us to the Rio Negro, when, sinking with fatigue, he assisted in arranging our accomodations for the night. It was indeed a strange situation, to find no silence in the solitude of woods. In the inns of Spain we dread the sharp sounds of guitars from the next apartment; in those of the Oroonoko, which are an open beach, or the shelter of a solitary tree, we are afraid of being disturbed in our sleep by voices issuing from the forest.

April the 2d. We set sail before sunrise. The morning was beautiful and cool, according to the feelings of those who are accustomed to the heats of these climates. The thermometer rose to 28° only in the air; but the dry and white sand of the beach notwithstanding it's radiation toward a sky without a cloud, retained a temperature of 36°. The porpoises (toninas) ploughed the river in long files. The shore was covered with fishing birds. Some of these embarked on the floating wood, that passed down the river, and surprised the fish that preferred [439] the middle of the stream. Our canoe touched several times during the morning. These shocks, when violent, are capable of splitting a light bark. We struck on the points of several large trees, which remain for years in an oblique position, sunk in the mud. These trees descend from Sarare, at the period of great inundations. These so fill the bed of the river, that canoes in going up find it difficult sometimes to make their way over shoals, or wherever there are eddies. We reached a spot near the island of Carizales, where we saw trunks of the locust-tree of an enormous size above the surface of the water. They were covered with a species of plotus, nearly approaching the anhinga, or white bellied darter. These birds perch in files, like pheasants and parrakas. They remain for hours entirely motionless, with the beak raised toward the sky, which gives them a singular air of stupidity.

Below the island of Carizales we observed a diminution of the waters of the river, at which we were so much the more surprised, as, after the bifurcation at la Boca de Arichuna, there is no branch, no natural drain, that takes away water from the Apure. The loss is solely the effect of evaporation, and of filtration on a sandy and wet shore. We may form an idea of the magnitude of these effects, when we recollect, that we found the heat of the dry sands, at dif- [440] ferent hours of the day, from 36° to 52°, and that of sands covered with three or four inches of water 32°. The beds of rivers are heated as far as the depth, to which the solar rays can penetrate without having undergone too great an extinction in their passage through the superincumbent strata of water. Besides, the effect of filtration extends far beyond the bed of the river; it may be said to be lateral. The shore, which appears dry to us, imbides water as far as the level of the surface o the river. We saw water gush out at the distance of fifty toises from the shore, every time that the Indians stuck their oars into the ground; now these sands, wet underneath, but dry above, and above, and exposed to the solar rays, act like a sponge. They are losing the infiltrated water every instant by evaporation. The vapour, that is emitted, traverses the upper stratum of sand strongly heated, and becomes sensible to the eye, when the air cools toward the evening. As the beach dries, it draws from the rivers new portions of water; and it may be considered, that this continual alternation of vporization and lateral imhibition must cause an immense loss, difficult to submit to exact calculation. The increase of these losses would be in proportion to the length of the course of the rivers, if from their source to their mouth they were equally surrounded by a flat shore; but these shores being formed by depo- [441] sitions from the water, and the water having velocity in proportion as it is more remote from it's source, deposing necessarily more in the lower than in the upper part of it's course, many rivers of hot climates undergo a diminution in the quantity of their water, as they approach their mouth. Mr. Barrow has observed these curious effects of sands in the southern part of africa, on the banks of Orange river. They are even become the subject of a very important discussion, in the various hypotheses that hav been fomed on the course of the Niger.

Near the Vuelta de Basilio, where we landed to collect plants, we saw on the top of a tree two beautiful little monkies, black as jet, of the size of the sad, with prehensile tails. Their physiognomy and their movements sufficiently showed, that they were neither the quato [simia beelzebub, L.], nor the chamek, nor any of the ateles. Our Indians themselves had never seen any that resembled them. These forests abound in sapajous unknown to the naturalists of Europe; and as monkeys, especially those that live in troops, and for this reason are more enterprising, make long emigrations at certain periods, it happens, that at the beginning of the rainy season the natives discover round their huts different kinds, which they had never before observed. On this same bank, our guides showed [442] us a nest of young iguanas, that were only four inches long. It was difficult to distinguish them from a common lizard. There was nothing yet formed but the dewlap below the throat. The dorsal spines, the large erect scales, all those appendages, that render the iguana so monstrous when it attains the length of three or four feet, were scarcely traced.

The flesh of this animal of the saurien family appeared to us to have an agreeable taste in every country, where the climate is very dry; we even found it so at periods when we were not in want of other food. lt is extremely white, and next to the flesh of the armadillo, here called cachicamo, one of the best eatables to be found in the huts of the natives.

It rained toward the evening. Before the rain fell, swallows, exactly resembling our own, skimmed over the surface of the water. We saw also a flock of paroquets pursued by little goshawks without crests. The piercing cries of these paroquets contrasted singularly with the whistling of the birds of prey. We passed the night in the open air, upon the beach, near the island of Carizales. There were several Indian huts in the neighbourhood, surrounded with plantations. Our pilots assured us beforehand that we should not hear the cries of the jaguar, which, when not extremely pressed by hunger, withdraws from places where he does not rule [443] alone. “Men put him out of humour,” los hombres lo enfandan, say the people in the missions. A pleasant, and simple expression, that marks a well-observed fact.

April the 3d. Since our departure from San Fernando we have not met a single boat on this fine river. Everything denotes the most profound solitude. In the morning our Indians caught with a hook the fish known in the country by the name of caribe, or caribito, because no other fish has such a thirst for blood. lt attacks bathers and swimmers, from whom it often carries away considerable pieces 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, which the Maypures call umati. They live at the bottom of rivers; but if a few drops of blood be shed on the water, they arrive by thousands at the surface. When we reflect on the number of these fish, the most voracious and cruel of which are only four or five inches long; on the triangular form of their sharp and cutting teeth, and on the amplitude of their retractile mouth, we need not be surprised at the fear which the caribe excites in the inhabitants of the banks of the [444] Apure and the Oroonoco. In places where the river was very limpid, and where not a fish appeared, we threw into the water little morsels of flesh covered with blood. In a few minutes a cloud of caribes came to dispute the prey. The belly of this fish has a cutting edge, indented like a saw; a character that may be traced in several kinds, the serra-salmes, the myletes, and the pristigastres. The presence of a second adipous dorsal fin; and the form of the teeth, covered by lips distant from each other, and largest in the lower jaw; place the caribe among the serra-salmes. It's mouth is much wider than that of the myletes of Mr. Cuvier. It's body toward the back is ash-coloured, with a tint of green; but the belly, the gill-covers, and the pectoral, anal, and ventral fins, are of a fine orange. Three species (or varieties) are known in the Oroonoko, and are distinguished by their size. The mean, or intermediate, appears to be identical with the mean species of the piraya, or piranha, of Marcgrav[14]. I described and drew+[15] it on the spot. The caribito has a very agreeable taste. As no one dates to bathe where it is found, it may be considered as one of the greatest scourges of [445] those climates, in which the sting of the moschettoes, and the irritation of the skin, render the use of baths so necessary.

We stopped at noon in a desert, spot called Algodonal. I left my companions, while they drew the boat to land, and were occupied in preparing our dinner. I went along the beach to observe nearer a group of crocodiles sleeping in the Sun, and placed in such a manner, as to have their tails, furnished with broad plates, resting on one another. Some little herons[16], white as snow, walked along their backs, and even upon their heads, as if they were passing over trunks of trees. The crocodiles were of a greenish-gray, half covered with dried mud; from their colour and immobility they might have been taken for statues of bronze. This excursion had nearly proved fatal to me. I had kept my eyes constantly turned toward the river; but, on picking up some spangles of mica agglomerated together in the sand, I discovered the recent footsteps of a tiger, easily distinguishable from their form and size. The animal had [446] gone toward the forest; and turning my eyes on that side, I found myself within eighty steps of a jaguar, lying under the thick foliage of ceiba. No tiger had ever appeared to me so large.

There are accidents in life, against which we might seek in vain to fortify our reason. I was extremely frightened, yet sufficiently master of myself, and of my motions, to enable me to follow the advice which the Indians had so often given us, how to act in such cases. I continued to walk on without running; avoided moving my arms; and thought I observed that the jaguar's attention was fixed on a herd of capybaras, which were crossing the river. I then began to return, making a large circuit toward the edge of the water. As the distance increased, I thought I might accelerate my pace. How often was I tempted to look back, in order to assure myself that I was not pursued! Happily I yielded very tardily to this desire. The jaguar had remained motionless. These enormous cats with spotted robes are so well fed in countries abounding in capybaras, pecaris, and deer, that they rarely attack man. I arrived at the boat out of breath, and related my adventure to the Indians. They appeared very little moved by it; yet, after having loaded our firelocks, they accompanied us to the ceiba, beneath which the jaguar had lain. He was there no longer, and it would have benn [447] imprudent to have pursued him into the forest, where we must have dispersed, or marched in file, amid intertwining lianas.

In the evening we passed the mouth of the Cano del Manati, thus named on account of the immense quantity of manatees caught there every year. This herbivorous animal of the cetaceous family, called by the Indians apcia and avia[17], attains here generally ten or twelve feet in length. It weighs from five hundred to eight hundred pounds+[18]. We saw the water covered with it's excrements, which are very fetid, but perfectly resembling those of an ox. It abounds in the Oroonoko, below the cataracts, in the Rio Meta, and in the Apure, between the two islands of Carrizales and Conserva. We found no ves­tiges of nails on the external surface or the edge of the fins, which are quite smooth; but little rudiments of nails appear at the third phalanx, when the skin of the fins is taken off++[19]. We dissected [448] one of these animals, which was nine feet long, at Carichana, a mission of the Oroonoko. The upper lip was four inches longer than the lower. It is covered with a very fine skin, and serves as a proboscis or probe to distinguish surrounding objects. The inside of the mouth, which has a sensible warmth in an animal newly killed, presents a very singular conformation. The tongue is almost motionless; but before the tongue there is a fleshy excrescence in each jaw, and a concavity, lined with a very hard skin, into which the excrescence fits. The manatee eats such quantities of grass, that we have found it's stomach, which is divided into several cavities, and it's intestines, which are a hundred and eight feet long, alike filled with it. On opening the animal at the back, we were struck with the magnitude, form, and situation of it's lungs. They have very large cells, and resemble immense swimming bladders. They are three feet long. Filled with air, they have a bulk of more than a thousand cubic inches. I was surprised to see, that, possessing such considerable receptacles for air, the manatee comes so often to the surface of the water to breathe. It's flesh, which [449] from what. prejudice I know not, is considered unwholesome and calenturiosa[20], is very savoury. It appeared to me to resemble pork rather than beef. It is most esteemed by the Guanoes and the Otomacks; and these two nations addict themselves particularly to the catching of the manatee. It's flesh salted and dried in the Sun can be preserved a whole year; and, as the clergy regard this mammiferous animal as a fish, it is much sought for during Lent. The vital principal is singularly strong in the manatee; it is tied after being harpooned, but is not killed till it has been taken into the canoe. This is effected, when the animal is very large, in the middle of the river, by filling the canoe two-thirds with water sliding it under the animal, and then baling out the water by means of a calebash. This fishery is the easiest after great inundations, when the manatee has passed from the great rivers into the lakes and surrounding marshes, and the waters diminish rapidly. At the period when the Jesuits governed the missions of the lower Oroonoko, they assembled every year at Cabruta, below the mouth of the Apure, to have a grand fishing for manatees, with the Indians of their missions, at the foot of the mountain now called El Capuchino. The fat of the animal, known by the name of man- [450] teca de manati, is used for lamps in the churches; and is also employed in preparing food. It has not the fetid smell of whale oil, or that of other cetaceous animals that spout water. The hide of the manatee, which is more than an inch and half thick, is cut into slips, and serves, like thongs of ox leather, to supply the place of cordage in the Llanos. When immersed in water, it has the defect of undergoing an incipient degree of putrefaction. Whips are made of it in the Spanish colonies. Hence the words latigo and manati are synonimous. These whips of manatee leather are a cruel instrument of punishment for the unhappy slaves, and even for the Indians of the missions, who according to the laws, ought to be treated like free men.

We passed the night opposite the island of Conserva. In skirting the forest we were struck at the view of an enormous trunk of a tree se­venty feet high, and thickly set with branching thorns. It is called by the natives barba de tigre. It was perhaps a tree of the berberideous family[21]. The Indians had kindled fires at the [451] edge of water. We again perceived, that their light attracted the crocodiles, and even the porpoises (toninas), the noise of which interrupted our sleep, till the fire was extinguished. We had two persons on the watch this night; which I mention only because it serves to paint the savage character of these places. A female jaguar approached our sttion in taking her young one to drink at the river. The Indians succeeded in chasing her away, but we heard for a long time the cries of the little jaguar, which mewed like a young cat. soon after our great dog was bitten, or, as the Indians say, pricked at the point of the nose by some enormous bats, that hovered around our hammocks. They were furnished with a long tail, like the molosses: I believe however, that they were phyllostomes, the tongue of which, furnished with papillae, is an organ of suction, and is capable of being considerably elongated. The wound was very small and round. Though the dog uttered a plaintive cry, when he felt himself bitten, it was not from pain, but because he was affrighted at the sight of the bats, that came out from beneath our hammocks. These accidents are much more rare than is believed even in the country itself. In the course of several years, notwithstanding we slept so often in the open air, in climates where vampires[22] and other ana- [452] logous species are so common, we were never wounded. Besides, the puncture is no way dangerous, and in general causes so little pain, that it often does not awaken the person, till after the bat has withdrawn.

April the 4th. This was the last day we passed on the Rio Apure. The vegetation of it's banks becomes more and more uniform. We had begun for sonic days past, particularly since we had left the mission of Arichuna, to suffer cruelly from the stings of insects, that covered our faces and hands. They were not moschettoes, which have the appearance of little flies, or of the genus, simulium, but zancudoes, which are real gnats, very different from our culex pipiens[23]. These tipulariae appear only after sunset. Their proboscis is so long, that, when they fix on the lower surface of a hammock, they pierce the hammock and the thickest garments with their sting.

We had intended to pass the night at the Vuelta del Palmito; but the number of jaguars at this part of the Apure is so great, that our Indians found two hidden behind the trunk of a locust-tree, at the moment when they were going to sling our hammocks. We were advised to re- [453] embark, and take our station in the island of Apurito, near it's junction with the Oroonoko. That Portion of the island belongs to the province of Caraccas, while the right banks of the pro-apure and the Oroonoko make part, one of the province of Varinas, the other of spanish Guayana. We found no trees to which we could suspend our hammocks, and were obliged to sleep on ox hides spread on the ground. The boats are too narrow, and too full of zancudoes, to pass the night in them.

In the place where we had landed our instruments, the banks being steep, we saw new proofs of what I have elsewhere called the indolence of the gallinaceous birds[24] have the habit of going down several times a day to the river to allay their thirst. They drink a great deal, and at short intervals. A great number of these birds had joined themselves near our station to a flock of parraka pheasants. They had great difficulty in climbing up the steep banks; they attempted idt serveral times without using their wings. we drove them before us, as you would drive sheep. The zamuro vultures also raise themselves from the ground with great reluctance.

I had a good observation after midnight of the [454] meridian height of α in the Southern Cross. the latitude of the mouth of the Apure is 7° 36´ 23´´. Father Gumilla fixes it at 5° 5´; D'Anville at 7° 3´; and Caulin at 7° 26´. The longitude of the Boca of the Apure, calculate from the altitudes of the Sun, which I took on the 5 th of April in the morning, is 69° 7´29´´, or 1° 12´41´´ east of the meridian of San Fernando.

April the 5th. We were singularly struck at the small quantity of water, which the Rio Apure, furnishes at. this season to the Oroonoko. The Apure, which, according to my measurements, was still one hundred and thirty-six toises broad at Cano Ricco, was only sixty or eighty at it's mouth[25]. It's depth here was only three or four toises. It loses no doubt a part of it's waters by the Rio Arichuna, and the Cano del Manati, two branches of the Apure, that flow into the Payara and the Guarico; but it's greatest loss appears to be caused by filtrations on the beach, of which we have spoken above. The velocity of the Apure near it's mouth was only 32 feet a second; so that I could easily have calculated the whole quantity of the water, if I had taken by a series of proximate soundings the whole dimensions of the tranverse section. The barometer, which at San Fernando, twenty-eight [455] feet above the mean height of the Apure, had kept, at. half after nine in the morning, at 335.6 lines, was, at eleven in the morning, at the entrance of the Apure into the Oroonoko, 337.3 lines[26]. in estimating the total length, including the sinuosities+[27], at ninety-four miles, or eighty-nine thousand three hundred toises, and attending to the little correction arising from the horary movement of the barometer, we find a mean fall of thirteen inches (exactly 1.15 foot) in a mile of nine hundred and fifty toises. La Condamine and the learned Major Rennel suppose, that the mean fall of the Amazon and the Ganges does not amount even to four or five inches in a mile++[28].

We touched several times on shoals before we entered the Oroonoko. The lands gained from the water are immense toward the confluence of the two rivers. we were obliged to be towed along by the bank. What a contrast between this state of the river, immediately before the entrnce of the rainy season, when all the effects of the dryness of the air and of evaporation have attained their maximum, and that autumnal [456] state, when the Apure, like an arm of the sea, covers the savannahs as far as the eye can reach! We discerned toward the South the lonely hills of Coruato; while to the East the granitic rocks of Curiquima, the sugarloaf of Caycara, and the mountains of the Tyrant[29] (Cerros del Tirano) began to rise on the horizon. It is not without emotion, that we behold for the first time, after long expectation, the waters of the Oroonoko, at a point so distant from the coast.

BOOK VII.

Chapter XIX.

Junction of the Apure and the Oroonoko. – Mountains of Encaramada. – Uruana. – Baraguan. – Carichana. – Mouth of the Meta. – Island of Panumana.

On leaving the Rio Apure, we found ourselves in a country of a totally different aspect. An immense plain of water stretched before us like a lake, as far as we could see. White-topped waves rose to the hight of several feet, from the conflict of the breeze and the current. The air resounded no longer with the piercing cries of the herons, the flamingoes, and the spoonbills, crossing in long files from one shore to the other. Our eyes sought in vain those water fowls, in the inventive snares of which vary in each tribe. Allnature appears less animated. Scarcely could we discover in the hollows of the waves a few large crocodiles, cutting obliquely, by the [458] help of their long tails, the surface of the agitated waters. The horizon was bounded by a zone of forests, but these forests no where reached so far as the bed of the river. A vast beach constantly parched by the heat of the Sun, desert and bare as the shores of the sea, resembled at a distance, from the effect of the mirage, pools of stagnannt water. These sandy shores, far from fixing the limits of the river, rendered them uncertain, by approaching or withdrawing them alternately, according to the variable action of the inflected rays.

In these scattered features of the landscape, in this character of solitude and of greatness, we recognize the course of the Oroonoko, one of the most majestic rivers of the New World. The water, like the land, displays every where a characteristic and peculiar aspect. The bed of the Oroonoko resembles not the bed of the Meta, the Guaviare, the Rio Negro, or the Amazon. These differences do not depend altogether on the breadth or the velocity of the current: they are connected with a multitude of impressions, which it is easier to perceive upon spot, than to define with precision. Thus the mere form of the waves, the tint of the waters, the aspect of the sky and the clouds, would lead an experienced navigator to guess, whether he were in the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, or in the equinoctial part of the Great Ocean. [459]

The wind blew fresh from East-North-East. It's direction was favourable for our sailing up the Oroonoko, toward the mission of Encaramada; but our canoes were so ill calculated to resist the shocks of the waves, that, from the violence of the motion, those who suffered habitually at sea were incommoded on the river. The short, broken waves are caused by the conflict of the waters at the junction of the two rivers. This conflict is very violent, but far from being so dangerous as Father Gumilla asserts[30]. We passed the Punta Curiquima, which is an isolated mass of quartzose granite, a small promontory composed of rounded blocks. There, on the right bank of the Oroonoko, Father Rotella founded, in the time of the jesuits, a misson of Palenka and Viriviri or Guire Indians. At the period of inundations, the rock Curiquima and the village placed at it's foot were surrounded every where by water. This serious inconvenience, and the sufferings of the missionaries and Indians from the innumerable quantity of moschettoes and niguas+[31], led them to forsake this humid spot. It is now entirely desert, while opposite to it, on the right bank of the river, the little mountains of Coruato are [460] the retreat of wandering Indians, expelled either from the missions, or from tribes that are not subjected to the government of the monks.

Struck with the extreme breadth of the Oroonoko, between the mouth of the Apure and the rock Curiquima, I ascertained it by means of a base measured twice on the western beach. The bed of the Oroonoko in it's present state of low water, was 1906[32] toises broad; but this breadh attains 5517+[33] toises, when, in the rainy season, the rock Curiquima, and the farm of Capuchino near the hill of pocopocori, become islands. The swelling of the Oroonoko is augmented by the impulse of the waters of the Apure, which far from forming, like other rivers, an acute angle with the upper part of thatinto which it flows, meets it at right angles. The temoerature of the waters of the Oroonko, measured in several parts of it's bed, was in the channel, where the current has the most swiftness, 28.3°, and toward the banks, 29.2°.

We went up first toward the South-West, as far as the shore of the Guaricot Indians, on the  left bank of th Oroonoko, and then toward the South. The river is so broad, that the moun- [461] tains of Encaramada appear to rise from the water, as if they were seen above the horizon of the sea. They form a continued chain from East to West. As you approach them , the aspect of the country becomes more picturesque. These mountains are composed of enormous blocks of granite, cleft and piled one upon another. Their division into blocks is the effect of decomposition. What contributes above all to embellish the scene at Encaramada is the force of vegetation, that covers the sides of rocks, leaving bare only their rounded summits. they look like ancient ruins rising in the midst of a forest. the mountain immediately at the back of the mission, the Tepupano[34] of the Tamanack Indians, is covered by three enormous granitic cylinders, two of which are inclined, while the third, worn away at it's basis, and more than eighty feet high, has preserved a vertical position. This rocks, which calls to mind the form of the Schnarcher in the Hartz, or that of the Organs of Acropan in Mexico+[35], composed [462] formerly a part of the rounded summit of the mountain. In every zone it is the property of unstratified granite, to separate by decomposition into blocks of prismatic, cylindric, or columnar figures.

Opposite the shore of the Guaricotoes, we drew near another heap of rocks, which is very low, and three or four toises long. It rises in the midst of the plain, and has less resemblance to a tumulus than to those masses of granitic stones, which in the North of Holland and of Germany bear the name of Huenenbette, beds (or tombs) of heroes. The shore at this part of the Oroonoko is no longer of pure and quartzose sand; but is composed of clay and spangles of mica, deposited in very thin strata, and most frequently with a dip of forty or fifty degrees. It looks like decomposed mica-slate. This change in the geological constitution of the shore extends far beyond the mouth of the Apure. We had begun to observe it in this latter river as far off as Algodonal and Cano del Manati. The spangles of mica come no doubt from the granite mountains of Curiquima and Encaramada; since farther to the North and to the East we find only quartzose sand, sandstone, compact limestone, and gypsum. Alluvial earth carried suc- [463] cessively from the South to the North need not surprise us in the Oroonoko; but to what shall we attribute the same phenomenon in the bed of the Apure, seven leagues West of it's mouth? In the present state of things, notwithstanding the swellings of the Oroonoko, the waters of the Apure never retrograde so far; and, to explain this phenomenon, we are forced to admit, that the micaceous strata were deposited at a time, when the whole of the very low country, that lies between Caycara, Algodonal, and the mountains of Encaramada, formed the basin of an inland lake.

We stopped some time at the port of Encaramada; it is a sort of embarcadere, a place where boats assemble. A rock of forty or fifty feet high forms the shore. It is composed of the same blocks of granite, heaped one upon another, as the Schneeberg in Franconia and in almost all the granitic mountains of Europe. Some of these detached masses have a spheroidal form; they are not balls however, with concentric layers, as we have elsewhere described; but merely rounded blocks, nuclei separated from their envelopes by the effect of decomposition. This granite is of a grayish lead-colour, often black, as if covered with oxide of manganese; but this colour does not penetrate one fifth of a line into the rock, which is of a reddish white [464] within, coarse grained, and destitute of horn-blende.

The Indian names of the mission of San Luis del Encaramada, are Guaja and Caramana[36]. This small village was founded in 1749 by Father Gili, the Jesuit, author of the Storia dell Orinoco, published at Rome. This missionary learned in the Indian tongues, lived in this solitude during eighteen years, till the expulsion of the Jesuits. To form a precise idea of the savage state of these countries, we must recollect, [465] that Father Gili speaks of Carichana[37], which is forty leagues from Encaramada, as of a spot far distant; and that he never advanced so far as the first cataract of the river, of which he ventured to undertake the description.

In the port of Encaramada we met with some Caribbees of Panapana. A Cacique was going up the Oroonoko in his canoe, to join in the famous fishing of turtles' eggs. His canoe was rounded toward the bottom like a bongo, and followed by a smaller boat called curiara. He was seated beneath a sort of tent, toldo, constructed, as well as the sail, of palm-leaves. His cold and silent gravity, the respect with which he was treated by his attendants, every thing denoted him to be a person of importance. He was equipped, however, in the same manner as his Indians. They were all equally naked, armend with bows and arrows, and covered with onoto, which is the colouring fecula of the bixa orellana. The chief, the domestics, the furniture, the boat, and the sail, were all painted red. These Caribbees are men of an almost athletic stature; they appeared to us much taller than the Indians we had hitherto seen. Their smooth and thick hair, cut upon their forehead like that of choristers, their eyebrows painted black, their look at once gloomy and animated, give their [466] physiognomy a singular hardness of expression. Having till then seen only the skulls of some Caribbees of the West India islands preserved in the collections of Europe, we were surprised to find, that these Indians, who were of pure race, had the forehead much more rounded than it has been described. The woman, very tall, but disgusting from their want of cleanliness, carried their infants on their backs, having their thighs and legs bound at certain distances by broad strips of cotton cloth. The flesh, strongly compresed beneath the ligatures, was swelled in the interstices. It is generally to be observed, that the Caribbees are as attentive to their exterior, and their ornanments, as it is possible for men to be, who are naked and painted red. They attach great importance to certain forms of the body; and a mother would be accused of culpable indifference toward her children, if she did not employ artificial means, to shape the calf of the leg after the fashion of the country. As none of our Indians of apure understood the Caribbee language, we could obtain no information from the Cacique of Panama respecting the encampments, that are made at this season in several islands of the Oroonoko for collecting turtles' eggs.

Near Encaramada a very long island divides the river into two branches. We passed the night in a rocky creek, opposite the mouth of [467] the Rio Cabullare, which is formed by the Payara and the Atamaica, and is sometimes considered as one of the branches of the Apure, because it communicates with this river by the Rio Arichuna. The evening was beautiful. The moon illumined the tops of the granitic rocks. The heat was so uniformly distributed, that, notwithstanding the humidity of the air, no twinkling of the stars was remarked, even at four or five degrees above the horizon. The light of the planets was singularly dimmed; and if, on account of the smallness of the apparent diameter of Jupiter, I did not suspect some error in the observation, I should say, that here, for the first time, we thought we distinguished the disk of Jupiter with the naked eye. Toward mdnight, the North-East wind became extremely violent. It brought no clouds, but the vault of the sky was covered more and more with vapours. Strong gusts were felt, and made us in fear for the safety of our canoe. During this whole day we had seen very few crocodiles, but all of an extraordinary size, from twenty to twenty-four feet. The Indians assured us, that the young crocodiles prefer the marshes, and the rivers that are less broad, and less deep. They crowd together particularly in the Canos, and we might be tempted to say of them, what Abd-Allatif says of the Crocodiles of the Nile[38], [468] “that they swarm like worms in the shallow waters of the river, and in the shelter of uninhabited islands.”

April the 6th. Continuing to ascend the Oroonoko, first toward the South, and then toward the South-West, we perceived the southern side of the Serrania, or chain of the mountains of Encaramada. The part nearest the river is only a hundred and forty or a hundred and sixty toises high; but from it's abrupt declivities, it's situation in the midst of a savannah, and it's rocky summits, cut into shapeless prisms, the Serrania appears singularly elevated. It's greatest breadth is only three leagues. According to informations given me by the Indians of the Pareka nation, it is considerably wider toward the East. The summits of Encaramada form the northermost link of a group of mountains, that border the right bank of the Orinooko, between the latitudes of 5° and 7°30´ from the mouth of the Rio Zama to that of the Cabullare. The different links, into which this group is divided, are separated by little plains covered with gramina. They do not preserve a direction perfectly parallel to each other; for the northernmost stretch from West to East, and the southernmost from North-West to South-East. This change of direction sufficiently explains the increase of breadth observed in the Cordillera of Parime toward the East, between the sources of [469] the Oroonoko and of the Rio Paruspa. On penetrating beyond the great cataracts of Atures and of Maypures, we shall see seven principal links, those of Encaramada or Sacuina, of Chaviripa, of Baraguan, of Carichana, of Uniama, of Calitamini, and of Sipapo, successively appear. This sketch may serve to give a general idea of the geological constitution of the ground. We recognize every where on the globe a tendency toward regular forms in those mountains, that appear the most irregularly grouped. Every link appears, in a transverse section, like a distinct summit, to those who navigate the Oroonoko; but this division is merely in appearance. The regularity in the direction and separation of the links seems to diminish in proportion as we advance toward the East. The mountains of Encaramada join those of Mato, which give birth to the Rio Asiveru or Cuchivero; those of Chaviripe are prolonged by the granitic mountains of Corosal, of Amoco, and of Murcielago, toward the sources of the Erevato and the Ventuari.

It was across these mountains, which are inhabited by Indians of a gentle character, and addicted to agriculture[39], that, at the time of the [470] expedition for settling boundaries, General Iturriaga took some homed cattle, to supply with provision the New Town of San Fernando de Atabapo. The inhabitants of Encaramada, then showed the Spanish soldiers the way by the Rio Manapiari[40], which falls into the Ventuari. By descending these two rivers, the Oroonoko and the Atabapo may be reached without passing the great cataracts, which present almost insurmountable obstacles to the conveyance of cattle. The spirit of enterprise, which had so eminently distinguished the Castillians at the period of the discovery of America, appeared again for some time in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Ferdinand VI was desirous of knowing the real limits of his vast possessions, and in the forests of Guyana, that classic land of falsehood and fabulous traditions, the wily Indians revived the chimerical idea of the wealth of Dorado, which had so much occupied the imagination of the first conquerors.

Amid these mountains of Encaramada, which like most coarse-grained granitic rocks, are destitute of metallic veins, we cannot help in- [471] quiring whence came those grains of gold, which Juan Martinez[41] and Raleigh profess to have seen in such abundance in the hands of the Indians of the Oroonoko. From what I observed in that part of America, I am led to think, that gold, like tin+[42], is sometimes disseminated in an almost imperceptible manner in the mass itself of granite rocks, without our being able to admit that there is a ramification and an intertwining of small veins. Not long ago the Indians of Encaramada found in the Quebrada del Tigre++[43] a piece of native gold two lines in diameter. It was rounded, and appeared to have been washed along by the waters. This discovery excited the attention of the missionaries much more than of the natives; it was followed by no other of the same kind.

I cannot quit this first link of the mountains of Encaramada, without recalling to mind a fact, that did not remain unknown to Father Gili; and which was often mentioned to me during our abode in the missions of the Oroonoko. The [472] natives of those countries have retained the belief, that “at the time of the great waters, when their fathers were forced to have recourse to boats, to escape the general inundation, the waves of the sea beat against the rocks of Encaramada.” Thsi belief is not confined to one nation singly, the Tamanacks; it makes part of a system of historical traditions, of which we find scattered notions among the Maypures of the great cataracts; among the Indians of Rio Erevato[44], which runs into the Caura; and among almost all the tribes of the Upper Oroonoko. When the Tamanacks are asked how the human race survived this great deluge, the age of water of the Mexicans, they say, “a man and a woman saved themselves on a high mountain, called Tamanacu, situate on the banks of the Asiveru; and, casting behind them, over their heads, the fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, they saw the seeds contained in those fruits produce men and women, who repeopled the Earth.” Thus we find in all it's simplicity, among nations now savage, a tradition, which the Greeks have embellished with all the charms of imagination! A few leagues from Enacaramada, a rock, called Tepu-mereme, or “the painted rock,” rises in the [473] midst of the savannah. It displays resemblances of animals, and symbolic figures, resembling those we saw in going down the Oroonoko, at a small distance below Encaramada, near the town Caycara. Similar rocks in Africa are called by travellers Fetish Stones. I shall not make use of this term, because fetishism does not prevail among the natives of the Oroonoko; and the figures of stars, of the Sun, of tigers, and of crocodiles, which we found traced upon the rocks in spots now uninhabited, appeared to me in no way to denote the objects of worship of those nations. Between the banks of the Cassiquiare and the Oroonoko; between Encaramada, the Capuchino, and Caycara, these hieroglyphic figures are often placed at great heights on the walls of rock, that could be accessible only by constructing very lofty scaffolds. When the natives are asked how those figures could have been sculptured, they answer with a smile, as relating a fact of which a stranger, a white man only, could be ignorant, that “at the period of the great waters, their fathers went to that height in boats.”

These ancient traditions of the human race, which we find dispersed over the whole surface of the Globe, like the relics of a vast shipwreck, are highly interesting in the philosophical study of our own species. Like certain families of the vegetable kingdom, which, notwithstanding the [474] diversity of climates and the influence of heights, retain the impression of a common type, the cosmogonic traditions of nations display every where the same physiognomy, and preserve features of resemblance, that fill us with astonishment. How many different tongues, belonging to branches that appear completely distinct, transmit to us the same facts! The basis of the traditions concerning races that are destroyed, and the renewal of nature, scarcely vary[45]; though every nation gives them a local colouring. In the great continents, as is always on the loftiest and nearest mountain, that the remains of the of the human race have been saved; and this event appears the more recent, in proportion as the nations are uncultivated, and as the knowledge they have of their own existence has not a very remote date. After having studied with attention the Mexican monuments anterior to the discovery of the New World; after having penetrated into the forests of the Oroonoko, and observed the diminutiveness of the European establishments, their solitude, and the state of the tribes that have remained independent; we cannot permit ourselves to attribute the analogies we have just cited to the influence of the [475] missionaries, and that of Christianity, on the national traditions. Nor is it more probable, that the aspect of marine bodies found on the nations of the Oroonoko to the idea of those great inundations, which have extinguished for a time the germes of organic life on our Globe. The country, that extends from the right bank of the Oroonoko to the Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro, is a country of primitive rocks. I saw there one small formation of sandstone, or conglomerate; but no secondary limestone, no trace of petrifactions.

A fresh North-East wind carried us full sail toward the boca de la Tortuga. We landed at eleven in the morning in an island, which the Indians of the missions of Uruana considered as their property, and which is placed in the middle of the river. This island is celebrated for the turtle fishery; or, as they say here, the cosecha, the harvest of eggs, that takes place annually. We here found an assemblage of Indians, encamped under huts constructed with palm-leaves. This encampment contained more than three hundred persons. Accustomed since we had left San Fernando de Apure, to see only desert shores, we were singularly struck by the movement that prevailed here. We found, beside the Guamoes and the Ottomacks of Uruana, who are both considered as savage races not to [476] be tamed, Caribbees and other Indians of the Lower Oroonoko. Every tribe was separately encamped, and distinguished by the pigments, with which their skin was painted. Some white men were seen amid this tumultuous assemblage, chiefly pulperos, or little traders of Angostura, who had come up the river to purchase oil of turtles' eggs from the natives. The missionary of Uruana, a native of Alcala de Henarez, came to meet us. He was extremely astonished at seeing us. After having admired our instruments, he gave us an exaggerated picture of the sufferings to which we should be necessarily exposed in ascending the Oroonoko beyond the cataracts. The object of our voyage appeared to him very mysterious. “How is it possible to believe,” said he, “that you have left your country, to come and be devoured by moschettoes on this river, and measure lands that are not yours?” We were happily furnished with recommendations from the Father guardian of the missions of Saint Francis; and the brother-in-law of the governor of Varinas, who accompanied us, soon dissipated the doubts, to which our dress, our accent, and our arrival in this sandy island, had given rise among the Whites. The missionary invited us to partake a frugal repast of fish and plantains. He told us, that he was come to encamp with the Indians during the time of the harvest of egg, “to celebrate mass [477] every morning in the open air, to procure the oil necessary for the lamp of the Church, and especially to govern this republica de indios y Castel1anos, in which every one wished to profit singly by what God had granted to all.”

We made the tour of the island, accompanied by the missionary and by a pulpero, who boasted of having visited ten years successively the camp of the Indians, and the pesca de tortugas. This part of the banks of the Oroonoko is frequented here, as the fairs of Frankfort and Beaucaire are with us. We were on a plain of sand perfectly smooth; and were told, that, as far as we could see along the beach, turtles' eggs were concealed under a layer of earth. The missionary carried a long pole in his hand. He showed us, that by means of this pole (vara) the extent of the stratum of eggs could be determined, as the miner determines the limits of a bed of marl, of bog iron-ore, or of coal. On thrusting the vara perpendicularly into the ground, you feel by the sudden want of resistance, that you have penetrated into the cavity, or layer of loose earth, containing the eggs. We saw, that the stratum is generally spread with so much uniformity, that the pole finds it every where in a radius of ten toises around any given mark. Here they talk continually of square perches of eggs; it is like a mine country, that is divided into lots, and worked with the greatest regu- [478] larity. The stratum of eggs, however, is far from covering the whole island: they are not found wherever the ground rises abruptly, because the turtle cannot mount these little heights. I related to my guides the emphatic description of Father Gumilla[46] who asserts, that the shores of the Oroonoko contain fewer grains of sand, than the river contains turtles; and that these animals would prevent vessels from advancing, if men and tigers did not annually destroy so great a number. “Son cuentos de frailes,” said tbe pulpero of Angostura in a low voice; for the only travellers in this country being poor missionaries, they here call tales of monks, what we call tales of travellers in Europe.

The Indians assured us, that in going up the Oroonoko from it's mouth to the junction of the Apure, not one island, or one beach is to be found, where eggs can be collected in abundance. The great turtle, arrau+[47], dreads places [479] inhabited by men, or much frequented by boats. It is a timid and mistrustful animal, that raises it's head above the water, and hides itself at the least noise. The shores, where almost all the turtles of the Oroonoko appear to assemble annually, are situate between the junction of the Oroonoko with the Apure, and the great cataracts, or Raudales; that is to say, between Cabruta and the mission of Atures. There are found the three famous fisheries; those of Encaramada, or Boca del Cabullare; of Cucuruparu, or Boca de la Tortuga; and of Pararuma, a little below Carichana. It seems, that the arrau does not pass beyond the cataracts; and we were assured, that only the turtles called terekay[48] are found above Atures and Maypures. This is the place to say a few words on the difference between these two species, and on their connection with the various families of the chelonian order.

We shall begin with the arrau, which the Spaniards of the missions call simply tortuga, and the existence of which is of so great importance to the nations on the Lower Oroonoko. It is a large fresh-water tortoise, with palmate [480] and membranous feet; the head very flat, with two fleshy and acutely-pointed appendages under the chin; five claws to the fore-feet, and four to the hind feet, which are furrowed underneath. The upper shell has five scutels in the centre, eight lateral, and twenty-four marginal. The colour is darkish gray above, and orange beneath. The feet are also yellow, and very long. There is a deep furrow between the eyes. The claws are very strong and very crooked. The anus is placed at the distance of one fifth from the extremity of the tail. The full-grown animal weighs from forty to fifty pounds. It's eggs, much larger than those of pigeons, are less elongated than the eggs of the terekay. They are covered with a calcareous crust, and, it is said, have sufficient firmness for the children of the Otomack Indians, who are great players at ball, to throw them up into the air from one to another to catch. If the arrau inhabited the bed of the river above the cataracts, the Indians of the Upper Oroonoko would not travel so far, to procure the flesh and the eggs of this tortoise. Yet formerly whole tribes from the Atabapo and the Cassiquiare have been known to pass the Raudales, in order to take part in the fishery at Uruana.

The terekay is less than the arrau. It is in general only fourteen inches in diameter. The number of scutels in the upper shell is the same, [481] but they are somewhat differently arranged. I counted three in the centre of the disk, and five hexagonal on each side. The margins contain twenty-four, all quadrangular, and much curved. The upper shell is of a black colour inclining to green; the feet and claws are like those of the arrau. The whole animal is of an olive-green, but it has two spots of red mixed with yellow on the top of the head. The throat is also yellow, and furnished with a prickly appendage. The terekays do not assemble in numerous societies like the arraus, or tortugas, to lay their eggs in common, and deposit them upon the same shore. The eggs of the terekay have an agreeable taste, and are much sought after by the inhabitants of Spanish Guyana. They are found in the Upper Oroonoko, as well as below the cataracts, and even in the Apure, the Uritucu, the Guarico, and the small rivers that traverse the Llanos of Caraccas. The form of the feet and head, the appendages of the chin and throat, and the position of the anus, seem to indicate, that the arrau, and probably the terekay also, belong to a new subdivision of the tortoises, that may be separated from the emydes. From their cirri, and the position of the anus, they approximate the emys nasuta of Mr. Schweigger and the matamata of French Guyana; but differ from the latter in the form of the scutels, which are not [482] rough with pyramidal eminences[49]. The period at which the large arrau tortoise lays it's eggs [483] coincides with the period of the lowest waters. The Oroonoko beginning to increase from the vernal equinox, the lowest shores are found uncovered from the end of January till the 20th or 25th of March. The arrau tortoises collected in troops from the month of January, issue then from the water, and warm themselves in the Sun, reposing on the sands. The Indians believe, that a great heat is indispensable to the [484] health of the animal, and that it's exposure to the Sun favours the laying of the eggs.' The arraus are found on the beach a great part of the day during the whole month of February. At the beginning of March the straggling troops assemble, and swim toward the small number of islands, where they habitually deposit their eggs. It is probable, that the same tortoise visits every year the same shores. At this period, a few days before they lay their eggs, thousands of these animals appear ranged in long files on the borders of the islands of Cucuruparu, Uruana, and Pararuma, stretching out their necks and holding their heads above water, to see whether they have nothing to dread from tigers or men. The Indians, much interested that the bands already assembled should remain complete, that the tortoises should not disperse, and that the laying of the eggs should be performed tranquilly, place centinels at certain distances along the shore. The people who pass in boats are told to keep in the middle of the river, and not frighten the tortoises by cries. The laying of the eggs takes place always during the night. It begins soon after sunset. With it's hind feet, which are very long, and furnished with crooked claws, the animal digs a hole of three feet in diameter and two feet in depth. The Indians assert, that the tortoise, to harden the sand of the beach, moistens it with its urine. This they think they perceive [485] by the smell, when they open a hole, or, as they say here, a nest of eggs[50], recently made. These animals feel so pressing a desire to lay their eggs, that some of them descend into holes, that have been dug by others, and are not yet covered with earth. There they deposit a new layer of eggs on that which has been recently laid. In this tumultuous movement an immense number of eggs are broken. The missionary showed us, by removing the sand in several places, that this loss may amount to one fifth of the whole gathering. The yolk of the broken eggs contributes in drying to cement the sand; and we found very large concretions of grains of quartz and broken shells. The number of animals that dig the beach during the night is so considerable, that day surprises many of them before the laying of their eggs is terminated. They are then urged on by the double necessity of depositing their eggs, and closing the holes they have dug, that they may not be perceived by the tigers. The tortoises that thus remain too late are insensible to their own danger. They work in the presence of the Indians, who visit the beach at a very early hour, and who call them mad tortoises. Notwithstanding the impetuosity of their movements, they are easily caught with the hand. [486]

The three encampments formed by the Indians in the places indicated above begin about the end of March or commencement of April. The gathering of the eggs is conducted in a uniform manner, and with that regularity, which characterizes all monastic institutions. Before the arrival of the missionaries on the banks of the river, the Indians profited much less from a production, which nature has there deposited in such abundance. Every tribe searched the beach in it's own way; and an immense number of eggs were uselessly broken, because they were not dug with precaution, and more eggs were uncovered than could be carried away. It was like a mine worked by unskilful hands. The Jesuits have the merit of having reduced this operation to regularity; and though the monks of St. Francis, who have succeeded the Jesuits in the missions of the Oroonoko, boast of having followed the example of their predecessors, they unhappily do not effect all that prudence requires. The Jesuits did not suffer the whole beach to be searched; they left a part intact, from the fear of seeing the breed of arrau tortoises, if not destroyed, at least considerably diminished. The whole beach is now dug up without reserve; and accordingly it seems to be perceived that the gathering is less productive from year to year.

When the camp is formed, the missionary of [487] Uruana names his lieutenant, or commissary, who divides the ground where the eggs are found into different portions, according to the number of the Indian tribes who take part in the gathering. They are all Indians of missions, as naked and rude as the Indians of the woods; though they are called reducidos and neofitos, because they go to church at the sound of the bell, and have learned to kneel down during the consecration of the host.

The lieutenant or commissionado del Padre begins his operations by sounding. He examines by means of a long wooden pole or a cane of bamboo, as we have said above, how far the stratum of eggs extends. This stratum, according to our measurements, reached from the shore as far as one hundred and twenty feet distant. It's mean depth is three feet. The comissionado places marks, to indicate the point, where each tribe should stop in it's labours. We were surprised to hear this harvest of eggs estimated like the produce of a well cultivated acre. An area accurately measured of one hundred and twenty feet long, and thirty feet wide, has been known to yield one hundred jars of oil, or to the value of a thousand francs. The Indians remove the earth with their own hands; they place the eggs they have collected in small baskets, called mappiri, carry them to the camp, and throw them into long troughs of wood filled [488] with water. In these troughs the eggs, broken and stirred with shovels, remain exposed to the Sun, till the yolk, the oily part, which swims on the surface, has time to inspissate. As fast as this oily part is collected on the surface of the water, it is taken off, and boiled over a quick fire. This animal oil, called manteca de tortugas[51], keeps the better, it is said, in proportion as it has undergone a stronger ebullition. When well prepared, it is limpid, inodorous, and scarcely yellow. The missionaries compare it to the best oil of olives; and it is used not merely to burn in lamps, but in dressing victuals, to which it imparts no disagreeable taste. It is not easy, however, to procure oil of turtles' eggs quite pure. It has generally a putrid smell owing to the mixture of eggs, in which, from the prolonged action of the Sun, little tortoises, los tortuguillos, are already formed. We felt this very disagreeably at our return from the Rio Negro, on employing a fluid fat, which had become brown and fetid. Fibrous matter was found collected at the bottom of the vessel; a sign of the impurity of the tortoise-oil.

I acquired some general statistical notions on the spot, by consulting the missionary of Uruana, his lieutenant, and the traders of An- [489] gostura. The shore of Uruana furnishes one thousand botijas[52] or jars of oil (manteca) annually. The price of each jar at the capital of Guiana, vulgarly called Angostura, is from two piastres to two and a half. We may admit, that the total produce of the three shores, where the cosecha or gathering of eggs is annually made, is five thousand botijas. Now as two hundred eggs yield oil enough to fill a bottle, or limeta, it requires five thousand eggs for a jar or botija of oil. Estimating at one hundred, or one hundred and sixteen, the number of eggs, that one tortoise produces; and reckoning that one third of these is broken at the time of laying, particularly by the mad tortoises; we may presume, that, to obtain annually five thousand jars of oil, three hundred and thirty thousand arrau tortoises, the weight of which amounts to one hundred and sixty-five thousand quintals, must come and lay thirty-three millions of eggs on the three shores appropriated to this harvest. The results of these calculations are much below the truth. Many tortoises lay only sixty or seventy eggs; and a great number of these animals are devoured by jaguars at the moment they get out of the water. The Indians bring away a great number of eggs to eat them dried [490] in the Sun; and they break a considerable number through carelessness during the gathering. The number of eggs that are hatched before the people can dig them up is so prodigious, that near the encampment of Uruana I saw the whole shore of the Oroonoko swarming with little tortoises an inch in diameter, escaping with difficulty from the pursuits of the Indian children. If to these considerations be added, that all the arraus do not assemble on the three shores of the encampments; and that there are many that lay their eggs in solitude, and some weeks later[53], between the mouth of the Oroonoko, and the confluence of the Apure; we must admit, that the number of turtles, which annually deposit their eggs on the banks of the Lower Oroonoko, is near a million. This number is very considerable for so large an animal, [491] weighing half a quintal, and of which the greater part is destroyed by men. In general nature multiplies less the great species of animals than the small.

The labours of collecting the eggs, and preparing the oil, last three weeks. It is at this period only, that the missionaries have any communication with the coast, and the civilized neighbouring countries. The monks of St. Francis, who live South of the cataracts, come to the harvest of eggs less to procure oil, than to see, us they say, “white faces;“ and to learn, “whether the king inhabits the Escurial or Saint Ildefonso, whether the convents remain suppressed in France, and above all whether the Turks continue to keep quiet.” These are the only subjects, that are interesting to a monk of the Oroonoko, and on which the little traders of Angostura, who visit the encampments, can give no very exact notions. In those distant countries no doubt is ever entertained of the news brought by a white man from the capital. To doubt is almost to reason; and how can it be otherwise than irksome to exercise the understanding, where people pass their lives in complaining of the heat of the climate, and the stinging of moschettoes? The profit of the traders in oil amounts to seventy or eighty per cent; for the Indians sell it them at the price of a piastre a jar or botija, and the expense of ear- [492] riage is not more than two fifths of a piastre per jar[54]. The Indians, when they go to the cosecha de huevos, bring away also a considerable quantity of eggs dried in the Sun, or exposed to slight ebullition. Our rowers had baskets or little bags of cotton cloth filled with these eggs. Their taste is not disagreeable, when well preserved. We were shown large shells of turtles, emptied by the jaguar-tigers. These animals follow the arraus toward the beaches, where the laying of the eggs is to take place. They surprise them on the sand; and, in order to devour them at their ease, turn them in such a manner that the under shell is uppermost. In this situation the turtles cannot rise; and as the jaguar turns many more than he can eat in one night, the Indians often avail themselves of his cunning and malignant avidity.

When we reflect on the difficulty that the naturalist finds in getting out the body of the turtle without separating the upper and under shells, we cannot enough admire the suppleness of the tiger's paw, which empties the double. armour of the arrau, as if the adhering parts of [493] the muscles had been cut by means of a surgical instrument. The jaguar pursues the turtle quite into the water, when it is not very deep. It even digs up the eggs; and together with the crocodile, the herons, and the gallinazo vulture, is the most cruel enemy of the little turtles recently hatched. The island of Pararuma had been so much infested with crocodiles the preceding year, during the harvest of eggs, that the Indians in one night caught eighteen, of twelve or fifteen feet long, by means of curved pieces of iron, baited with the flesh of the manatee. Beside the beasts of the forest we have just named, the wild Indians also do much damage to the fabrication of the oil. Warned by the first slight rains, which they call turtle rains (peje canepori[55]), they hasten to the banks of the Oroonoko, and kill with poisoned arrows the turtles, as with the head raised, and the paws extended, they warm themselves in the Sun.

Though the little turtles (tortuguillos) may have burst the shell of their egg during the day, they are never seen to come out of the ground but at night. The Indians assert, that the young animal fears the heat of the Sun. They tried also to show us, that when the tortuguillo is carried in a bag to a distance from the shore, and [494] placed in such a manner, that its tail is turned to the river, it takes without hesitation the shortest way to the water. I confess, that this experiment, of which Father Gumilla speaks, does not always succeed equally well: yet in general it appears, that at great distances from the shore, and even in an island, these little animals feel with extreme delicacy on what side the most humid air blows.

Reflecting on this almost continued layer of eggs, that extends along the beach, and on the thousands of little turtles, that seek the water as soon as they are hatched, it is difficult to admit;, that so many turtles, which have made their nests in the same spot, can distinguish their own young, and lead them like the crocodiles to the pools in the vicinity of the Oroonoko. It is certain, however, that the animal passes the first years of its life in the pools where the water is less deep, and does not return to the bed of the great river, till it is full grown. How then do the tortugillos find these pools? Are they led thither by female turtles, which adopt the young as by chance? The crocodiles, less numerous, deposite their eggs in separate holes; and we shall soon find, that, in this family of sauriens, the female returns about the time when the incubation is terminated; calls her young, which answer to her voice; and often assists them to get out of the ground. The arrau tortoise no [495] doubt like the crocodile knows the spot, where she has made her nest; but, not daring to return to the beach, where the Indians have formed their encampment, how can she distinguish her own young from the tortuguillos that do not belong to her. On the other hand, the Otomack Indians declare, that, at the period of the inundations, they have met with female turtles followed by a great number of young ones. These were perhaps arraus, that laid eggs on a desert beach, to which they could return. Males are extremely rare among these animals. Scarcely is one male found among several hundred females. The cause of this scarcity cannot be the same as with the crocodiles, which fight in the season of their loves.

Our pilot had anchored at the Playa de huevos to purchase some provision, which began to run short with us. We found there fresh meat, Angostura rice, and even biscuit made of wheaten flour. Our Indians filled the boat with little live turtles, and eggs dried in the Sun, for their own use. Having taken leave of the missionary of Uruana, who had treated us with great cordiality, we set sail about four in the afternoon. The wind was fresh, and blew in squalls. Since we had entered the mointainous part of the country, we had discovered, that our canoe carried sail very badly; but the master was desirous of showing the Indians, who were assembled [495] on the beach, that, in going as near the wind as possible, he should reach at on single tack the middle of the river. At the very moment when he was boasting of his dexterity, and the boldness of his manoeuvre, the force of the wind upon sail became so great, that we were on the point of going down. Our side of the boat was under water, which entered with such violence, that is was up to our knees. It passed over a little table, at which I was writing in the after part of the boat. I had some difficulty to save my journal, and in an instant we saw our books, papers, and dried plants, all swimming. Mr. Bonplands was lying asleep in the middle of the canoe. Awakened by the entrance of the water, and the cries of the Indians, he judged of our situation with that coolness, which he always displayed in the most difficult circumstances. The lee side righting itself from time to time during the squall, he did not consider the boat as lost. He thought, that, were we even forced to abandon it, we should save ourselves by swimming, since there was no crocodile in sight. Amid this uncertainty, we saw the cordage of the sail suddenly give way. The same gust of wind, that had thrown us on our beam, served also to right us. We instantly laboured to bale the boat with calebashes; the sail was set afresh; and in less than half an hour we were again in a state to proceed. The wind had abated a [497] little. Squalls alternating with dead calms are very common in that part of the Oroonoko, which is bordered by mountains. They become very dangerous for boats deeply laden, and without decks. We had escaped as by miracle. To the reproaches that were heaped on our pilot for having kept too near the wind he opposed his Indian phlegm; and answered coldly, “that the Wind would not want Sun enough on those banks to dry their papers.” We lost only one book; the first volume of the Genera Plantarum of Schreber, which had fallen into the water. Such losses are felt by those who are reduced to a small number of works of sciene.

At the beginning of the night we landed on a barren island in the middle of the river, near the mission of Uruana. We supped by a beautiful moonlight, and were seated on large shells of turtle, that were found scattered on the beach. What delightful satisfaction did we feel at finding ourselves thus assembled! We figured to ourselves the situation of a man, who had been saved alone from shipwreck, wandering on these desert shores, meeting at every step with other rivers, that fall into the Oroonoko, and which it is dangerous to pass by swimming, on account of the multitude of crocodiles, and caribe fishes. We represented to ourselves such a man, awake to the most tender affections of the soul, igno- [498] rant of the fate of the companions of his misfortune, and thinking more of them than of himself. If we love to indulge such melancholy meditations, it is because, when just escaped from danger, we seem to feel something like a want of strong emotions. The minds of each of us were full of what we had just witnessed. There are periods in life, when, without being discouraged, the future appears more uncertain. It was only three days since we had entered the Oroonoko; and there yet remained three months for us to navigate rivers incumbered with rocks, and in smaller boats than that in which we had nearly perished.

The night was intensely hot. We lay upon skins spread on the ground, not finding any trees to which we could fasten our hammocks. The torments of the moschettoes increased every day; and we were surprised to find, that on this spot our fires did not prevent the approach of the jaguars. They swam across the arm of the river that seperated us from the main laind. Toward morning we heard their cries very near. They had come to the island where we passed the night. The Indians told us, that, during the collecting of the turtles' eggs, tigers are always more frequent in those regions, and display at that period the greatest intrepidity.

April the 7th. We passed, on our right, the mouth of the great Rio Arauca, celebrated on [499] account of the immense number of birds that frequent it, and on our left, the mission of Uruana, vulgarly called the Concepcion de Urbana. This small village, which counts five hundred souls, was founded by the Jesuits about the year 1748, by the union of the Otomack and Caveres or Cabre Indians. It is placed at the foot of a mountain, composed of detached blocks of granite. This mountain I believe bears the name of Saraguaca. Heaps of stones, separated one from the other by the effect of decomposition, form caverns, in which we find indubitable proofs of the ancient cultivation of the natives. Hieroglyphic figures, and even characters in regular lines, are seen sculptured there. I doubt whether these characters bear any analogy to alphabetic writing[56]. We visited the mission of Uruana at our return from the Rio Negro, and saw with our own eyes those heaps of earth which the Otomacks eat, and which are become an object of such lively discussion in Europe.

On measuring the breadth of the Oroonoko between the islands called Isla de Uruana and Isla de la Manteca, we found it, during the high waters, 2674+[57] toises, which make nearly four [500] nautical miles. This is eight times the breadth of the Nile at Manfalout and Syout[58], yet we were at the distance of a hundred and ninety-four leagues from the mouth of the Oroonoko.

The temperature of the water at it's surface was 27.8º of the centigrade thermometer, near Uruana. That of the river Zara, or Congo, in Africa, at an equal distance from the equator+[59], was found by Captain Tuckey, in the months of July and August, to be only from 23.9º to 25.6º. [...]

[1] Hermesia castaneifolia. This is a new genus, approaching the alchornea of Swartz. (See our Plantes Equinox., vol. i, p. 163, pl. xlvi.

[2] Craix alector, the peacock pheasant; c. pauxi, the cashew bird.

[3] + “It is just as it was in Paradise.”

[4] It is the arua of the Tamanack Indians, the amana of the Maypure Indians, the crocodilus acutus of Mr. Cuvier.

[5] Mungo Park's last Travels in Africa, 1815, p. 89.

[6] Cavia capybara Lin. The word chiguire belongs to the language of the Palenkas an the Cumanagotes. (See chap. ix, vol. iii, p. 283.) The Spaniards call this animal guardatinaja; the Caribbees, capigua; the Tamanacks, cappiva; the Maypures, chiato. According to Azzara, it is known at Buenos Ayres by the Indian names of capiygua and capiguara. These various denomination display a striking analogy between the languages of the Oroonoko, and those of the Rio de la Plata.

[7] In order to measure the velocity of the surface of rivers, I generally measured on the beach a basis of 250 feet, and observed with the chronometer the time, that a floating body abandoned to the current required, to reach this distance.

[8] A species of mimosa.

[9] We reckoned eighteen on each side. On the hind feet, at the upper end of the metatarsus, there os a callosity three inches long and three quarters of an inch broad, destitute of hair. The animal when seated rests upon this part. no tail is visible externally; but on putting aside the hair we discover a tubercle, a mass of najed and wrinkled flesh, of a conical figure, and half an inch long.

[10] Near Uritucu, in the Cano del Ravanal, we saw a drove of 80 or 100 of these animals.

[11] Baxo techo.

[12] Father Gili asserts, that their Indian name is Uamu and Pau, and that they originally dwelt on the Upper Apure.

[13] + Their Indian name is Guaiva, pronounced Guahiva.

[14] Salmo rhombeus, Lin.

[15] + See the memoir on fishes of equinoctial America which I published conjointly with Mr. Valenciennes, in the Observ. De Zoologie, vol. ii, p. 145.

[16] Garzon chico. It is believed in Upper Egypt, that the herons have an affection for the crocodile, because they take advantage in fishing of the terror, that this monstrous animal causes among the fishes, which he drives from the bottom to the surface of the water; but on the banks of the Nile, the heron keeps prudently at some distance from the crocodile. (Geoffroy de St. Hilaire, in the Ann. du Musée, vol. ix, p. 384.)

[17] The first of these words belongs to tbe Tamanack language, and the second to thc Otomac. Father Gili proves, in opposition to Oviedo, that the manati (fish with hands) is not Spanish, but belongs to the languages of Haiti (St. Domingo) and the Maypures. Storia del Orinoco, vol. i, p. 84; vol. iii, 225. I believe also, that, according to the genius of the Spanish tongue, the animal would have been called manudo or manon, but never manati.

[18] + It is asserted, that one has been seen of eight thousand pounds weight.

[19] ++ See on the manatee of the Oroonoko, and that of the West India islands, my Rec. d'Observations de Zool., vol. ii, p. 170. Father Caulin has already said of the manatee, “Tiene dos brazuelos sin division de dedos y sin unas.” (Hist. de Nueva Andalousia, p. 49).

[20] Causing fever.

[21] We found, on the banks of the Apure, ammania apurensis, cordia cordifolia, c. grandiflora, mollugo sperguloides, myosotis lithospermoides, spermacocce diffusa, coronilla occidentalis bignonia apurensis, pisonia pubesce, ruellia viscosa. Some new species of jussieua, and a new genus of the composite family, approximating to rolandra, the trichospira menthoides of Mr. Kunth.

[22] Verspertilio spectrum.

[23] Mr. Latreille has discovered, that the rnoschettoes of South Carolina are of the genus simulium (atractocera meigen).

[24] The later (crax pauxi) is less common than the former.

[25] Not quite so broad as the Seine at the Pont Royal, opposite the p1ace of the Tuileries.

[26] The temperature of the air in these two places being 31.2° and 32.4°.

[27] + I estimated them at a quarter of the distance.

[28] ++ Tuckey, Exped. to the Congo, 1818; Introduction, p. 17.

[29] This name alludes no doubt to the expedition of Antonio Sedeno: thus the port of Caycara, opposite Cabruta, still bears the name of this Conquistador.

[30] Orinoco illustrado, vol. i, p. 47.

[31] + The chego, pulex penetrans, whch penetrates under the nails of the toes in men and monkeys, and there deposits it's eggs.

[32] 3714 metres, or 4441 varas, supposing 1 metre = 0.51307 of a toise = 1.19546 vara.

[33] + 10753 metres, or 12855 varas.

[34] Tepu-pano, “place of stones,” in which we recognize tepu, “stone, rock,” as in tepu-iri, mountain. We here again perceive that Lesgian Oigour-tatar root tep (stone), found in America among Mexicans, in tepetl; among Carribees, in tebou; among the Tamanacks, in tepuriri; a striking analogy between the languages of Caucasus and Upper-Asia and those of the banks of the Oroonoko.

[35] + In Captain Tuckey' Voyage on the River Congo, we [462] find represented a granitic rock, the Taddi Enzazi, which bears a striking resemblance to the mountain of Encara mada.

[36] All the missions of South America have names composed of two words, the first ofwhich is necessarily the name of a saint, the patron of the church, and the second an Indian name, that of the nation, or the spot where the esablishment is placed. Thus we say, San Jose de Maypures, Santa Cruz de Cachipo, San Juan Nepomuceno de los Atures, &c. These compound names appear only in the official documents; the inhabitants adopt but one of the two names, and generally, provided it be sonorous, the Indian. As the names of saints are several times repeated in neighbouring places, great confusion in geography arises from these repetitions. The names of San Juan, San Diego, and San Pedro, are scattered in our maps as if by chance. It is pretended, that the mission of Guaji affords a very rare example of the composition of two Spanish words. The word Encaramada means things raised one upon another, from encaramar, attollere. It is derived from the figur of Tepupano and the neighbouring rocks: perhaps it is only an Indian word, caramana, in which, as in manati, from a love for etymology, a Spanish signification was believed to be discovered.

[37] Saggio di Storia Americana, vol. i, p. 122.

[38] Descript. de l'Egypte, translated by Mr. Silvestre de Sacy.

[39] The Maypoyes, Parecas, Javaranas, and Curacicanas, who possess fine plantations, conucos, in the savannahs, by which these forests are bounded.

[40] Between Encaramada and the Rio Manapiare, Don Miguel Sanchez, chief of this little expedition, crossed the Rio Guainaima, which flows into the Cuchivero. Sanches died, from the fatigues of this journey, on the borders of the Ventuari.

[41] The companion of Diego de Ordaz.

[42] + Thus tin is found in granit of recent formation, at Geyer; in hyalomicte, or graisen, at Zinnwald; and in syenitic porphyry, at Altenberg, in Saxony, as well as near Naila, in the Fichtelgebirge. I have also seen, in the Upper Palatinate, micaceous iron, and black earthy cobalt, far from any kind of vein, disseminated in a granit destitute of mica, as magnetic iron sand is in volcanic rocks.

[43] ++ Ravine of the tiger.

[44] For the Indians of the Erevato, I can cite the testimony of our unfortunate friend, Fray Juan Gonzales, who lived for a long time in the missions of the Caura. See above, vol. iii, p. 351.

[45] See my Monumens des Peuples indigènes de l'Amerique, p. 204, 206, 223, and 227.

[46] Tam difficultoso es contarlas arenas de las dilatadas playas del Orinoco como contar el immenso numero de tortogas, que alimenta eu sus margenes y corrientes. Se no ubiesse tan exorbitante consumo de tortugas, de tortuguillos, y de huevos, el Rio Orinoco, aun de primera magnitud, se bolberia innavegable, sirviendo de embarazo a las embarcaciones la multitud imponderable de tortugas. Orinoco illustr., vol. i, p. 331-336.

[47] + Pronounce ara-ou. This word belongs to the Maypure language, and must not be confounded with arua, which [479] means a crocodile among the Tamanacks, neighbours or the Maypures. The Otomacks call the turtle of Uruana, achea; the Tamanacks, peje.

[48] In Spanish terecayas.

[49] I would propose to place them provisionally near the matamata of Bruguières, or testudo fimbriata of Gmeliu (Schoepf, tab. 21), which Mr. Dumeril has taken to form his genus chelys.

   Tesudo arrau, testa ovali sobconvexa, ex griseo nigrescenti, subtus lutea, scutellis disci 5, lateralibus 8, marginalibus 24, omnibus planis (nec mucronato-conicis), pedibus luteis, mento et gutture subtus biappendiculatis.

   Testudo terekay, testa ovali, atro-viridi, scutellis disci 3, lateralibus 10, marginalibus 24, capitis vertice maculis duabus ex rubro flavescentibus notato, gutture lustescenti, appendiculo spinoso.

   These descriptions are far from being complete, but are the first which have been attempted of two chelonians, so long celebrated from the narratives of' tbe missionaries, and so remarkable for the advantages derived from them by the natives. Among the animals contained in the collection of the Jardin du Roi, it is observable, that in the testudo fimbriata (with twenty-five marginal scales) the aperture of the anus is placed nearly in the same manner as in the two tortoises of the Oroonoko, of which I have here given the description. and in the tryonix aegyptiac, that is to say, at one fourth from the extremity of the tail. This position of the anus deserves to fix the attention of zoologists: it, as well as the existence of an elongated proboscis in the matamata, approximates the chelides to the tryonix; but these genera differ in the number of their claws, and the consistence of their shell. Mr. Geoffroy, guided by other considerations, had already supposed the existence of these relations. (Ann. du Muséum, vol. xiv, p. 19.) The anus in the chelonians, the land-tortoises, and the real emydes, is placed at the base of the tail. I find described in my journal only very young arraus. I [483] have made no mention of a proboscis; and, if I dared to trust my memory, I should say, that the adult arrau is not furnished with one like the matamata. We must not forget, however, that the genus chelys has been formed from the knowledge of one species only, and what belongs to the genus, and what belongs to the species, may have been confounded. The true characteristics of the new genus chelys are the form of the mouth, and the membranous appendages of the chin and neck. I never found in America the real testudo fimbriata of Cayenne, the scales of which have a conic and pyramidal form; and I was the more surprised to see, that Father Gili, missionary at Encaramada, three hundred and twenty leagues from Cayenne, in a work published in 1788, already distinguished the arraus and the terekay from a much smaller tortoise, which he calls matamata. He gives it in his Italian description, il guscio no convesso come nelle altre tartarughe, ma piano, scabroso e deforme. These last characters very well agree with the testudo fimbriata; and, as Father Gili was acquainted neither with zoology, nor with the books that treat of this science, we may suppose, that he described the matamata of the Oroonoko as he saw it. From these researches it results, that three neighbouring species, the arrau, the terekay, and the testudo fimbriata, inhabit one and the same region of the New Continent.

[50] Nidada de huevos

[51] Tortoise grease. The Tamanack Indians call it by the name of carapa; the Maypures, by the name of timi.

[52] Each botija contains twenty-five bottles: its capacity is from 1000 to 1200 cubic inches.

[53] The arraus, which lay their eggs before the beginning of March; for in the same species the more or less frequent basking in the Sun, the food, and die peculiar organization of each individual, occasion differences; come out of the water with the terekays, which lay in January and February. Father Gumilla believes them to be arraus, that were not able to lay their eggs the preceding year! All that Father Gili relates of the terekay (vol. i, p. 90, 101, and 297) agrees entirely with what I learned from the governor of the Otomacks of Uruana, who understood Spanish, and with whom I could converse. It is difficult to find the eggs of the terekays, because these animals, far from collecting in thousands on the same bcach, deposit their eggs as they are scattered about.

[54] First cost of 300 botijas, 300 piastres. Expenses of conveyance: a boat, lancha, with four rowers, and a master. 60 p.: two cows, for the food of the rowers during two months, 10 p.: cassava, 10 p.: petty expenses in the camp, 30 p.: total, 420 p. The 300 botijas fetch at Angostura from 600 to 760 piastres, according to the mean price of ten years.

[55] In the Tamanack language, from peje, a tortoise, and canepo, rain.

[56] See my Monuments of the ancient Inhabitants of America, vol. i, (or vol. xiii, of the present work,) Eng. edit. p. 153.

[57] + Or 5211 metres, or 6230 varas.

[58] Girard, sur la Vallée d'Egypt, p. 12.

[59] + In the southern hemisphere