The waters of the northern part of the Atlantic between Europe, Northern

Africa, and the New Continent, are agitated by a continually recurring

gyratory movement. Under the tropics the general current to which the

term _rotation-stream_ might appropriately be given in consideration of

the cause from which it arises, moves, as is well known, like the trade

wind from east to west. It accelerates the navigation of vessels sailing

from the Canary Isles to South America; while it is nearly impossible to

pursue a straight course against the current from Carthagena de Indias

to Cumana. This bend to the west, attributed to the trade winds, is

accelerated in the Caribbean Sea by a much stronger movement, which

originates in a very remote cause, discovered as early as 1560 by Sir

Humphrey Gilbert,[FE] and confirmed in 1832 by Rennell. The Mozambique

current, flowing from north to south between Madagascar and the eastern

coast of Africa, sets on the Lagullas Bank, and bends to the north of it

round the southern point of Africa. After advancing with much violence

along the western coast of Africa beyond the equator to the island of

St. Thomas, it gives a north-westerly direction to a portion of the

waters of the South Atlantic, causing them to strike Cape St. Augustin,

and follow the shores of Guiana beyond the mouth of the Orinoco, the

Boca del Drago, and the coast of Paria.[FF] The New Continent from the

Isthmus of Panama to the northern part of Mexico forms a dam or barrier

against the movements of the sea. Owing to this obstruction the current

is necessarily deflected in a northerly direction at Veragua, and made

to follow the sinuosities of the coast-line from Costa Rica, Mosquitos,

Campeche, and Tabasco. The waters which enter the Mexican Gulf between

Cape Catoche of Yucatan, and Cape San Antonio de Cuba, force their way

back into the open ocean north of the Straits of Bahama, after they have

been agitated by a great rotatory movement between Vera Cruz, Tamiagna,

the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte, and the Mississippi. Here they

form a warm, rapid current, known to mariners as the _Gulf Stream_,

which deflects in a diagonal direction further and further from the

shores of North America. Ships bound for this coast from Europe, and

uncertain of their geographical longitude, are enabled by this oblique

direction of the current to regulate their course as soon as they reach

the Gulf Stream by observations of latitude only. The bearings of this

current were first accurately determined by Franklin, Williams, and

Pownall.

From the parallel of 41° north lat. this stream of warm water follows an

easterly direction, gradually diminishing in rapidity as it increases in

breadth. It almost touches the southern edge of the Great Newfoundland

Bank, where I found the greatest amount of difference between the

temperature of the waters of the Gulf Stream and those exposed to the

cooling action of the banks. Before the warm current reaches the Western

Azores it separates into two branches, one of which turns at certain

seasons of the year towards Ireland and Norway, while the other flows in

the direction of the Canary Isles and the western coast of Northern

Africa.

The course of this Atlantic current, which I have described more fully

in the first volume of my travels in the regions of the tropics, affords

an explanation of the manner in which, notwithstanding the action of the

trade winds, stems of the South American and West Indian _dicotyledons_

have been found on the coasts of the Canary Islands. I made many

observations on the temperature of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of

the Newfoundland Bank. This current bears the warmer water of lower

latitudes with great rapidity into more northern regions. The

temperature of the stream is therefore from about 4°½ to 7° Fahr. higher

than that of the contiguous and unmoved water which constitutes the

shore as it were of the warm oceanic current.

The flying-fish of the equinoctial zone (_Exocetus volitans_), is borne

by its predilection for the warmth of the water of the Gulf Stream far

to the north of the temperate zone. Floating sea-weed (_Fucus natans_),

chiefly taken up by the stream in the Mexican Gulf, makes it easy for

the navigator to recognize when he has entered the Gulf Stream, whilst

the position of the branches of the sea-weed indicate the direction of

the current. The mainmast of the English ship of war, the Tilbury, which

was destroyed by fire in the seven years’ war on the coasts of Saint

Domingo, was carried by the Gulf Stream to the northern coasts of

Scotland: and casks filled with palm-oil, the remains of the cargo of an

English ship wrecked on a rock off Cape Lopez in Africa, were in like

manner carried to Scotland, after having twice traversed the Atlantic

Ocean, once from east to west between 2° and 12° north lat., following

the course of the equinoctial current, and once from west to east

between 45° and 55° north lat. by help of the Gulf Stream. Rennell, in

the work already referred to, p. 347, relates the voyage of a bottle

inclosing a written paper which had been thrown from the English ship

Newcastle in 38° 52′ north lat., and 63° 58′ west long., on the 20th of

January, 1819, and which was first seen on the 2nd of June, 1820, at the

Rosses in the north-west of Ireland, near the Island of Arran. Shortly

before my arrival at Teneriffe a stem of South American cedar-wood

(_Cedrela odorata_), thickly covered with lichens, was cast ashore near

the harbour of Santa Cruz.

The effects of the Gulf Stream in stranding on the Azorean Islands of

Fayal, Flores, and Corvo, bamboos, artificially cut pieces of wood,

trunks of an unknown species of pine from Mexico or the West Indies, and

corpses of men of a peculiar race, having very broad faces, have mainly

contributed to the discovery of America, as they confirmed Columbus in

his belief of the existence of Asiatic countries and islands situated in

the west. The great discoverer even heard from a settler on the Cap de

la Verga in the Azores “that persons in sailing westward had met with

covered barks, which were managed by men of foreign appearance, and

appeared to be constructed in such a manner that they could not sink,

_almadias con casa movediza que nunca se hunden_.” There are well

authenticated proofs, however much the facts may have been called in

question, that natives of America (probably Esquimaux from Greenland or

Labrador), were carried by currents or streams from the north-west to

our own continent. James Wallace[FG] relates that in the year 1682 a

Greenlander in his canoe was seen on the southern extremity of the

Island of Eda by many persons, who could not, however, succeed in

reaching him. In 1684 a Greenland fisherman appeared near the Island of

Westram. In the church at Burra there was suspended an Esquimaux boat,

which had been driven on shore by currents and storms. The inhabitants

of the Orkneys call the Greenlanders who have appeared amongst them

_Finnmen_.

In Cardinal Bembo’s _History of Venice_ I find it stated, that in the

year 1508 a small boat, manned by seven persons of a foreign aspect, was

captured near the English coast by a French ship. The description given

of them applies perfectly to the form of the Esquimaux (_homines erant

septem mediocri statura, colore subobscuro, lato et patente vultu,

cicatriceque una violacea signato_). No one understood their language.

Their clothing was made of fish skins sewn together. On their heads they

wore _coronam e culmo pictam, septem quasi auriculis intextam_. They ate

raw flesh, and drank blood as we would wine. Six of these men perished

during the voyage, and the seventh, a youth, was presented to the King

of France, who was then at Orleans.[FH]

The appearance of men called _Indians_ on the coasts of Germany under

the Othos and Frederic Barbarossa in the tenth and twelfth centuries,

and as Cornelius Nepos (in his _Fragments_),[FI] Pomponius Mela,[FJ] and

Pliny[FK] relate, when Quintus Metellus Celer was Proconsul in Gaul, may

be explained by similar effects of oceanic currents and by the long

continuance of north-westerly winds. A king of the Boii, or, as others

say, of the Suevi, gave these stranded dark-coloured men to Metellus

Celer. Gomara[FL] regards these Indian subjects of the King of the Boii

as natives of Labrador. He writes, _Si ya no fuesen de Tierra del

Labrador, y los tuviesen los Romanos por Indianos engañados en el

color_. It may be inferred that the appearance of Esquimaux on the

northern shores of Europe was more frequent in earlier times, for we

learn from the investigations of Bask and Finn Magnusen, that this race

had spread in the eleventh and twelfth century in considerable numbers,

under the name of Skrälingers, from Labrador as far south as the Good

Vinland, _i.e._ the shore of Massachussets and Connecticut.[FM]

As the winter cold of the most northern part of Scandinavia is

ameliorated by the action of the Gulf Stream, which carries American

tropical fruits (as cocoa-nuts, seeds of _Mimosa scandens_ and

_Anacardium occidentale_) beyond 62° north lat.; so also Iceland enjoys

from time to time the genial influence of the diffusion of the warm

waters of the Gulf Stream far to the northward. The sea coasts of

Iceland, like those of the Faroe Isles, receive a large number of trunks

of trees, driven thither from America; and this drift-wood, which

formerly came in greater abundance, was used for the purposes of

building, and cut into boards and laths. The fruits of tropical plants

collected on the Icelandic shores, especially between Raufarhaven and

Vapnafiord, show that the movement of the water is from a southerly

direction.[FN]

Footnote 25:

p. 10.—“_Lecideæ and other Lichens._”

In northern regions, the absence of plants is compensated for by the

covering of _Bœomyces roseus_, _Cenomyce rangiferinus_, _Lecidea

muscorum_, _Lecidea icmadophila_, and other cryptogamia which are spread

over the earth, and which may be said to prepare the way for the growth

of grasses and other herbaceous plants. In the tropical world, where

mosses and lichens are only observed to abound in shady places, some few

oily plants supply the place of the lowly lichen.

Footnote 26:

p. 11.—“_The Care of Animals yielding milk._—_Ruins of the Aztek

fortress._”

The two oxen already named, _Bos americanus_ and _Bos moschatus_, are

peculiar to the northern part of the American continent. But the

natives—

_Queis neque mos, neque cultus erat, nec jungere tauros_

Virg. Æn. i. 316.

drank the fresh blood, and not the milk, of these animals. Some few

exceptions have indeed been met with, but only among tribes who at the

same time cultivated maize. I have already observed that Gomara speaks

of a people in the north-west of Mexico who possessed herds of tame

bisons, and derived their clothing, food, and drink from these animals.

This drink was probably the blood,[FO] for, as I have frequently

remarked, a dislike of milk, or at least the absence of its use, appears

before the arrival of Europeans to have been common to all the natives

of the New Continent, as well as to the inhabitants of China and Cochin

China, notwithstanding their great vicinity to true pastoral tribes. The

herds of tame lamas which were found in the highlands of Quito, Peru,

and Chili, belonged to a settled and agricultural population. Pedro de

Cieça de Leon[FP] seems to imply, although assuredly as a very rare

exception to the general mode of life, that lamas were employed on the

Peruvian mountain plain of Callao for drawing the plough.[FQ] Ploughing

was, however, generally conducted in Peru by men only.[FR] Barton has

made it appear probable that the American buffalo had from an early

period been reared among some West Canada tribes on account of its flesh

and hide.[FS] In Peru and Quito the lama is nowhere found in its

original wild condition. According to the statements made to me by the

natives, the lamas on the western declivity of the Chimborazo became

wild at the time when Lican, the ancient residence of the rulers of

Quito, was laid in ashes. In Central Peru, in the Ceja de la Montaña,

cattle have in like manner become completely wild; a small but daring

race that often attacks the Indians. The natives call them “Vacas del

Monte” or “Vacas Cimarronas.”[FT] Cuvier’s assertion that the lama had

descended from the guanaco, still in a wild state, which had

unfortunately been extensively propagated by the admirable observer,

Meyen,[FU] has now been completely refuted by Tschudi.

The Lama, the Paco or Alpaca, and the Guanaco are three originally

distinct species of animals.[FV] The Guanaco (Huanacu in the Quichua

language) is the largest of the three, and the Alpaca, measured from the

ground to the crown of the head, the smallest. The Lama is next to the

Guanaco in height. Herds of Lamas, when as numerous as I have seen them

on the elevated plateaux between Quito and Riobamba, are a great

ornament to the landscape. The Moromoro of Chili appears to be a mere

variety of the lama. The different species of camel-like sheep found

still wild at elevations of from 13,000 to upwards of 16,000 feet above

the level of the sea, are the Vicuña, the Guanaco, and the Alpaca; of

these the two latter species are also found tame, although this is but

rarely the case with the Guanaco. The alpaca does not bear a warm

climate as well as the lama. Since the introduction of the more useful

horse, mule, and ass (the latter of which exhibits great animation and

beauty in tropical regions), the lama and alpaca have been less

generally reared and employed as beasts of burden in the mining

districts. But their wool, which varies so much in fineness, is still an

important branch of industry among the inhabitants of the mountains. In

Chili the wild and the tame guanaco are distinguished by special names,

the former being called “Luan” and the latter “Chilihueque.” The wide

dissemination of the wild Guanacos from the Peruvian Cordilleras to

Tierra del Fuego, sometimes in herds of 500 heads of cattle, has been

facilitated by the circumstance that these animals can swim with great

facility from island to island, and are not therefore impeded in their

passage across the Patagonian channels or fiords.[FW]

South of the river Gyla, which together with the Rio Colorado pours

itself into the Californian Gulf (Mar de Cortes), lie in the midst of

the dreary steppe the mysterious ruins of the Aztek Palace, called by

the Spaniards “las Casas Grandes.” When, about the year 1160, the Azteks

first appeared in Anahuac, having migrated from the unknown land of

Aztlan, they remained for a time on the borders of the Gyla river. The

Franciscan monks, Garces and Font, who saw the “Casas Grandes” in 1778,

are the last travellers who have visited these remains. According to

their statement, the ruins extended over an area exceeding sixteen

square miles. The whole plain was covered with the broken fragments of

ingeniously painted earthenware vessels. The principal palace, if the

word can be applied to a house formed of unburnt clay, is 447 feet in

length and 277 feet in breadth.[FX]

The Tayé of California, a delineation of which is given by the Padre

Venegas, appears to differ but inconsiderably from the _Ovis musimon_ of

the Old Continent. The same animal has also been seen in the Stony

Mountains near the source of the River of Peace, and differs entirely

from the small white and black spotted goat-like animal found on the

Missouri and Arkansas. The synonyme of Antilope furcifer, A. tememazama.

(Smith,) and Ovis montana is still very uncertain.

Footnote 27:

p. 11.—“_The culture of farinaceous grasses._”

The original habitat of the farinaceous grasses, like that of the

domestic animals which have followed man since his earliest migrations,

is shrouded in obscurity. Jacob Grimm has ingeniously derived the German

name for corn, _Getraide_, from the old German “gitragidi,” “getregede.”

“It is as it were the _tame_ fruit (_fruges_, _frumentum_) that has

fallen into the hands of man, as we speak of tame animals in opposition

to those that are wild.”[FY]

“It is a most striking fact that on one half of our planet there should

be nations who are wholly unacquainted with the use of milk and of the

meal yielded by narrow-eared grasses, (_Hordeaceæ_ and _Avenacecæ_)

whilst in the other hemisphere nations may be found in almost every

region who cultivate cereals and rear milch cattle. The culture of

different cereals is common to both hemispheres; but while in the New

Continent we meet with only one species, maize, which is cultivated from

52° north to 46° south lat., we find that in the Old World the fruits of

Ceres, (wheat, barley, spelt, and oats,) have been everywhere cultivated

from the earliest ages recorded in history. The belief that wheat grew

_wild_ in the Leontine plains as well as in other parts of Sicily was

common to several ancient nations, and is mentioned as early as Diodorus

Siculus.”[FZ] Cereals were also found in the alpine meadow of Enna.

Diodorus says expressly, “The inhabitants of the Atlantis were

_unacquainted with the fruits of Ceres_, owing to their having separated

from the rest of mankind before those fruits were made known to

mortals.” Sprengel has collected several interesting facts from which he

is led to conjecture that the greater number of our European cereals

originally grew wild in Northern Persia and India. He supposes for

instance that summer wheat was indigenous in the land of the Musicani, a

province of Northern India;[GA] barley, _antiquissimum frumentum_, as

Pliny terms it, and which was also the only cereal known to the

Guansches of the Canaries, originated, according to Moses of

Chorene,[GB] on the banks of the Araxes or Kur in Georgia, and according

to Marco Polo in Balascham, in Northern India;[GC] and _Spelt_

originated in Hamadan.

My intelligent friend and teacher, Link, has however shown in a

comprehensive and critical treatise,[GD] that these passages are open to

much doubt. In a former essay of my own,[GE] I expressed doubts

regarding the existence of wild cereals in Asia, and considered them to

have become wild. Reinhold Forster, who before his voyage with Captain

Cook made an expedition for purposes of natural history into the south

of Russia by order of the Empress Catherine, reported that the two-lined

summer barley (_Hordeum distichon_) grew wild near the confluence of the

Samara and the Volga. At the end of September in the year 1829,

Ehrenberg and myself also herborised on the Samara, during our journey

from Orenburg and Uralsk to Saratow and the Caspian Sea. The quantity of

wheat and rye plants growing wild on uncultivated ground in this

district was certainly very remarkable; but the plants did not appear to

us to differ from the ordinary kinds. Ehrenberg received from M. Carelin

a species of rye, _Secale fragile_, that had been gathered on the

Kirghis Steppe, and which Marshal Bieberstein for some time conjectured

to be the mother plant of our cultivated rye, _Secale cereale_.

Michaux’s herbarium does not show (according to Achill Richard’s

testimony), that Spelt (_Triticum spelta_) grows wild at Hamadan in

Persia, as Olivier and Michaux have been supposed to maintain. More

confidence is due to the recent accounts obtained through the unwearied

zeal of the intelligent traveller, Professor Carl Koch. He found a large

quantity of rye (_Secale cereale var._ β, _pectinata_) in the Pontic

Mountains, at heights of more than 5000 or 6000 feet above the level of

the sea, on spots where this species of grain had not within the memory

of the inhabitants been previously cultivated. “Its appearance here is

the more important,” he remarks, “because with us this grain never

propagates itself spontaneously.” Koch collected in the Schirwan part of

the Caucasus a kind of grain which he calls _Hordeum spontaneum_, and

regards as the originally wild _Hordeum zeocriton_. (Linn.)[GF]

A negro slave of the great Cortes was the first who cultivated wheat in

New Spain, from three seeds which he found amongst some rice brought

from Spain for the use of the troops. In the Franciscan convent at Quito

I saw, preserved as a relic, the earthen vessel which had contained the

first wheat sowed in Quito by the Franciscan monk, Fray Jodoco Rixi de

Gante, a native of Ghent in Flanders. The first crop was raised in front

of the convent, on the “Plazuela de S. Francisco,” after the wood which

then extended from the foot of the Volcano of Pichincha had been

cleared. The monks, whom I frequently visited during my stay at Quito,

begged me to explain the inscription on the cup, which according to

their conjecture contained some hidden allusion to wheat. On examining

the vessel, I read in old German the words “Let him who drinks from me,

ne’er forget his God.” This old German drinking cup excited in me

feelings of veneration! Would that everywhere in the New Continent the

names of those were preserved who, instead of devastating the soil by

bloody conquests, confided to it the first fruits of Ceres! There are

“fewer examples of a general affinity of names in terms relating to the

different species of corn and objects of agriculture than to the rearing

of cattle. Herdsmen when they migrated to other regions had still much

in common, while the subsequent cultivators of the soil had to invent

special words. But the fact that in comparison with the Sanscrit, Romans

and Greeks seem to stand on the same footing with Germans and

Slavonians, speaks in favour of the very early contemporaneous

emigration of the two latter. Yet the Indian _java_ (_frumentum

hordeum_), when compared with the Lithuanian _jawai_, and the Finnish

_jywa_, affords a striking exception.”[GG]

Footnote 28:

p. 11.—“_Preferring to keep within a cooler climate._”

Throughout the whole of Mexico and Peru we find the trace of human

civilisation confined to the elevated table-lands. We saw the ruins of

palaces and baths on the sides of the Andes, at an elevation of from

10,230 to 11,510 feet. None but northern tribes migrating from the north

towards the equator could have remained from preference in such a

climate.

Footnote 29:

p. 12.—“_The history of the peopling of Japan._”

I believe I have succeeded in showing, in my work on the monuments of

the American primitive races,[GH] by an examination of the Mexican and

Thibetian-Japanese calendars, by a correct determination of the position

of the Scansile Pyramids, and by the ancient myths which record four

revolutions of the world and the dispersion of mankind after a great

deluge, that the western nations of the New Continent maintained

relations of intercourse with those of Eastern Asia, long before the

arrival of the Spaniards. These observations have derived additional

weight, since the appearance of my work, from the facts recently

published in England, France, and the United States, regarding the

remarkable pieces of sculpture carved in the Indian style, which have

been discovered in the ruins of Guatimala and Yucatan.[GI] The ancient

architectural remains found in the peninsula of Yucatan testify more

than those of Palenque, to an astonishing degree of civilization. They

are situated between Valladolid, Merida, and Campeche, chiefly in the

western portion of the country. But the monuments on the island of

Cozumel, (properly Cuzamil,) east of Yucatan, were the first which were

seen by the Spaniards in the expedition of Juan de Grijalva in 1518, and

in that of Cortes in 1519. Their discovery tended to diffuse throughout

Europe an exalted idea of the advanced condition of ancient Mexican

civilization. The most important ruins of the peninsula of Yucatan

(unfortunately not yet thoroughly measured and drawn by architects) are

those of the “Casa del Gobernador” of Uxmal, the Teocallis and vaulted

constructions at Kabah, the ruins of Labnan with its domed pillars,

those of Zayi which exhibit columns of an order of architecture nearly

approaching the Doric, and those of Chiche with large ornamented

pilasters. An old manuscript written in the Maya language by a Christian

Indian, which is still in the hands of the “Gefe politico” of Peto, Don

Juan Rio Perez, gives the different epochs (_Katunes_ of 52 years) at

which the Toltecs settled in different parts of the peninsula. Perez

would infer from these data that the architectural remains of Chiche go

back as far as the fourth century of our era, whilst those of Uxmal

belong to the middle of the tenth century; but the accuracy of these

historical deductions is open to great doubt.[GJ]

I regard the existence of a former intercourse between the people of

Western America and these of Eastern Asia as more than probable,

although it is impossible at the present time to say by what route and

with which of the tribes of Asia this intercourse was established. A

small number of individuals of the cultivated hierarchical castes may

perhaps have sufficed to effect great changes in the social condition of

Western America. The fabulous accounts formerly current regarding

Chinese expeditions to the New Continent refer merely to expeditions to

Fusang or Japan. It is, however, possible that Japanese and Sian-Pi may

have been driven by storms from the Corea to the American coasts. We

know as matters of history that Bonzes and other adventurers navigated

the Eastern Chinese seas in search of a remedial agent capable of making

man immortal. Thus under Tschin-chi-huang-ti three hundred young couples

were dispatched to Japan in the year 209 before our era, who, instead of

returning to China, settled on the Island of Nipon.[GK] May not accident

have led to similar expeditions to the Fox Islands, to Alaschka, or New

California? As the western coasts of the American continent incline from

north-west to south-east, and the eastern coasts of Asia from north-east

to south-west, the distance between the two continents in the milder

zone, which is most conducive to mental development (45° lat.), would

appear too considerable to admit of an accidental settlement having been

made in this latitude. We must therefore assume that the first landing

took place in the ungenial climate of 55° and 65°, and that cultivation,

like the general advance of population in America, progressed by gradual

stations from north to south.[GL] It was even believed in the beginning

of the sixteenth century that the fragments of ships from Catayo, _i.e._

from Japan or China, had been found on the coasts of the Northern

Dorado, called also Quivira and Cibora.[GM]

We know as yet too little of the languages of America entirely to

renounce the hope that, amid their many varieties, some idiom may be

discovered, that has been spoken with certain modifications in the

interior of South America and Central Asia, or that might at least

indicate an ancient affinity. Such a discovery would undoubtedly be one

of the most brilliant to which the history of the human race can hope to

attain! But analogies of language are only deserving of confidence where

mere resemblances of sound in the roots are not alone the object of

research, but attention is also directed to the organic structure, the

grammatical forms, and those elements of language which manifest

themselves as the product of the intellectual power of man.

Footnote 30:

p. 12—“_Many other forms of animal life._”

The Steppes of Caracas abound in flocks of the so-called _Cervus

mexicanus_. This stag when young is spotted, and resembles the roe. We

have frequently met with perfectly white varieties, which is a very

striking fact when the high temperature of this zone is taken into

consideration. The _Cervus mexicanus_ is not found on the declivities of

the Andes in the equatorial region, at an elevation exceeding from 4476

to 5115 feet, but another white deer, which I could scarcely distinguish

by any one specific characteristic from the European species, ascends to

an elevation of nearly 13,000 feet. The _Cavia capybara_ is known in the

province of Caracas by the name of _Chiguire_. This unfortunate animal

is pursued in the water by the crocodile, and on land by the tiger or

jaguar. It runs so badly that we were often able to catch it with our

hands. The extremities are smoked and eaten as hams, but have a most

unpleasant taste, owing to the flavour and smell of musk by which they

are impregnated; and on the Orinoco we gladly ate monkey-hams in

preference. These beautifully striped animals—the _Viverra mapurito_,

_Viverra zorilla_, and _Viverra vittata_—exhale a fetid odour.

Footnote 31:

p. 12—“_The Guaranes and the fan-palm Mauritia._”

The small coast tribe of the Guaranes (called in British Guiana, the

Warraws, or Guaranos, and by the Caribs U-ara-u) inhabit not only the

swampy delta and the river net-work of the Orinoco (more particularly

the banks of the Manamo grande and the Caño Macareo), but also extend,

with very slight differences in their mode of living, along the

sea-shore, between the mouths of the Essequibo and the Boca de Navios of

the Orinoco.[GN] According to the testimony of Schomburgk, the admirable

observer referred to in the note, there are still about 1700 Warraus or

Guaranos living in the vicinity of Cumaca, and along the banks of the

Barime river, which empties itself into the gulf of the Boca de Navios.

The social habits of the tribes settled in the delta of the Orinoco were

known to the great historian Cardinal Bembo, the cotemporary of

Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Alonzo de Hojeda. He

says[GO] _quibusdam in locis propter paludes incolæ domus in arboribus

œdificant_. It is hardly probable that instead of the Guaranos at the

mouth of the Orinoco, Bembo should here allude to the natives of the

country near the mouth of the gulf of Maracaibo, where Alonzo de Hojeda,

in August, 1499, (when accompanied by Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa)

found a population having their dwellings _fondata sopra l’acqua come

Venezia_ (“built like Venice on the water”).[GP] Vespucci, in the

account of his travels, in which we meet with the first traces of the

etymology of the name of the province of _Venezuela_ (Little Venice) as

used for the province of Caracas, speaks only of houses built on a

foundation of piles, and makes no mention of habitations in trees.

Sir Walter Raleigh bears a subsequent and incontrovertible evidence to

the same fact, for he says expressly in his description of Guiana, that

on his second voyage in 1595, when in the mouth of the Orinoco, “he saw

the fire of the Tivitites and Qua-rawetes” (so he calls the Guaranes),

“high up in the trees.”[GQ] There is a drawing of the fire in the Latin

edition of this work,[GR] and Raleigh was the first who brought to

England the fruit of the Mauritia palm, which he very justly compared,

on account of its scales, to fir-cones. Father José Gumilla, who twice

visited the Guaranes as a missionary, says, indeed, that this tribe have

their dwelling in the Palmares (palm groves) of the morasses; but while

he speaks more definitely of pendent habitations supported by high

pillars, makes no mention of platforms attached to still growing

trees.[GS] Hillhouse and Sir Robert Schomburgk[GT] are of opinion that

Bembo, through the relations of others, and Raleigh, by his own

observation, were deceived into this belief in consequence of the high

tops of the palm trees being lighted up in such a manner by the fires

below them, that those sailing by thought the habitations of the

Guaranes were attached to the trees themselves. “We do not deny,” says

Schomburgk, “that in order to escape the attacks of the mosquitos, the

Indian sometimes suspends his hammock from the tops of trees, but on

such occasions no fires are made under the hammock.”[GU]

According to Martius, the beautiful Palm, Moriche, _Mauritia flexuosa_,

_Quieteva_, or _Ita_ Palm,[GV] belongs, together with Calamus, to the

family of the Lepidocaryæ or Corypheæ. Linnæus has described it very

imperfectly, as he erroneously considered it to be devoid of leaves. The

trunk is 26 feet high, but it probably does not attain this height in

less than 120 or even 150 years. The Mauritia extends high up the

declivity of the Duida, north of the Esmeralda mission, where I found it

in great beauty. It forms, in moist places, fine groups of a fresh and

shining verdure, reminding us of that of our alders. The trees preserve

the moisture of the ground by their shade, and hence the Indians believe

that the Mauritia draws water around its roots by some mysterious

attraction. In conformity with an analogous theory they advise, that

serpents should not be killed, because the destruction of these animals

is followed by the drying up of the lagoons. Thus do the rude children

of nature confound cause and effect! Gumilla calls the _Mauritia

flexuosa_ of the Guaranes the tree of life (“arbol de la vida”). It is

found on the mountains of Ronaima, east of the sources of the Orinoco,

as high as 4263 feet. On the unfrequented banks of the Rio Atabapo, in

the interior of Guiana, we discovered a new species of Mauritia having a

prickly stem; our _Mauritia aculeata_.[GW]

Footnote 32:

p. 13.—“_An American Stylite._”

The founder of the sect of Stylites, the fanatical Pillar-saint, Simeon

Sisanites of Syria, the son of a Syrian herdsman, is said to have passed

thirty-seven years in holy contemplation, elevated on five columns, each

higher than the preceding. He died in the year 461. The last of the

pillars which he occupied was 40 ells in height. For seven hundred years

there continued to be followers of this mode of life, who were called

_Sancti Columnares_, or Pillar-saints. Even in Germany, in the see of

Treves, attempts were made to found similar aërial cloisters; but the

dangerous practice met with the constant opposition of the bishops.[GX]

Footnote 33:

p. 14.—“_Towns on the banks of the Steppe-rivers._”

Families who live by raising cattle and do not take part in agricultural

pursuits have congregated together in the middle of the Steppe, in small

towns, which, in the cultivated parts of Europe, would scarcely be

regarded as villages. Among these are Calabozo, which, according to my

astronomical observations, is situated in 8° 56′ 14″ north lat., and 67°

43′ west long.; Villa del Pao (8° 38′ 1″ north lat., and 66° 57′ west

long.); Saint Sebastian, and others.

Footnote 34:

p. 14.—“_Funnel-shaped clouds._”

The singular phenomenon of these sand-spouts, of which we see something

analogous on the cross roads of Europe, is especially characteristic of

the Peruvian sandy desert between Amotape and Coquimbo. Such dense

clouds of sand may endanger the safety of the traveller who does not

cautiously avoid them. It is remarkable that these partial and opposing

currents of air should arise only when there is a general calm. The

aërial ocean resembles the sea in this respect; for here, too, we find

that the small currents (_filets de courant_) in which the water may

frequently be heard to flow with a splashing sound, occur only in a dead

calm (_calme plat_).

Footnote 35:

p. 14.—“_Increases the stifling oppression._”

I have observed in the Llanos de Apure, at the cattle farm of Guadalupe,

that the thermometer rose from 92°.7 to 97°.2 Fahr. whenever the hot

wind began to blow from the desert, which was covered either with sand

or short withered grass. In the middle of the sand-cloud the thermometer

stood for several minutes together at 111° Fahr. The dry sand in the

village of San Fernando de Apure had a temperature of 126° Fahr.

Footnote 36:

p. 15.—“_The phantom of a moving undulating surface._”

The well known phenomenon of the _mirage_ is called in Sanscrit “the

thirst of the gazelle.”[GY] All objects appear to float in the air,

while their forms are reflected in the lower stratum of the atmosphere.

At such times the whole desert resembles a vast lake, whose surface

undulates like waves. Palm trees, cattle, and camels sometimes appear

inverted in the horizon. In the French expedition to Egypt, this optical

illusion often nearly drove the faint and parched soldiers to

distraction. This phenomenon has been observed in all quarters of the

world. The ancients were also acquainted with the remarkable refraction

of the rays of light in the Lybian Desert. We find mention made in

Diodorus Siculus of strange illusive appearances, an African _Fata

Morgana_, together with still more extravagant explanations of the

conglomeration of the particles of air.[GZ]

Footnote 37:

p. 15.—“_The Melocactus._”

The _Cactus melocactus_ is frequently from 10 to 12 inches in diameter,

and has generally 14 ribs. The natural group of the Cactaceæ, the whole

family of the Nopaleæ of Jussieu, belongs exclusively to the New

Continent. The Cactus assumes a variety of shapes, being ribbed and

melon-like (_Melocacti_); articulated (_Opuntiæ_); upright-like columns

(_Cerei_); of a serpentine or creeping form (_Rhipsalides_); or provided

with leaves (_Pereskiæ_). Many extend high up the slopes of the

mountains. Near the foot of the Chimborazo, in the sandy table-land

around Riobamba, I found a new species of Pitahaya (_Cactus sepium_),

even at an elevation of 10,660 feet.[HA]

Footnote 38:

p. 16.—“_The scene suddenly changes in the Steppe._”

I have endeavoured to describe the approach of the rainy season, and the

signs by which it is announced. The deep blue of the heavens in the

tropics is occasioned by the imperfect solution of vapour. The

cyanometer indicates a lighter shade of blue as soon as the vapours

begin to fall. The dark spot in the constellation of the Southern Cross

becomes indistinct in proportion as the transparency of the atmosphere

decreases, and this change announces the approach of rain. The bright

radiance of the Magellanic clouds (_Nubecula major_ and _Nubecula

minor_) then gradually fades away. The fixed stars which had before been

shining with a calm, steady, planetlike light, are now seen to

scintillate in the zenith.[HB] All these phenomena are the result of the

increased quantity of aqueous vapour floating in the atmosphere.

Footnote 39:

p. 16.—“_The humid clay soil is seen to rise slowly in a broad flake._”

Drought produces the same phenomena in animals and plants as the

abstraction of heat. During the dry season many tropical plants lose

their leaves. The crocodile and other amphibious animals conceal

themselves in the mud and lie apparently dead, like animals in cold

regions who are thrown into a state of hybernation.[HC]

Footnote 40:

p. 17.—“_A vast inland sea._”

Nowhere are these inundations on a larger scale than in the net-work of

streams formed by the Apure, the Arachuna, the Payara, the Arauca, and

the Cabuliare. Large vessels sail across the country over the Steppe for

40 or 50 miles.

Footnote 41:

p. 17.—“_To the mountainous plain of Antisana._”

The great mountain plateau which surrounds the volcano of Antisana is

13,473 feet above the level of the sea. The pressure of the atmosphere

is so inconsiderable at this height, that blood will flow from the

nostrils and mouth of the wild bull when hunted with dogs.

Footnote 42:

p. 17.—“_The marshy waters of Bera and Rastro._”

I have elsewhere more circumstantially described the capture of the

gymnotus.[HD] Mons. Gay Lussac and myself were perfectly successful in

the experiments we conducted without a chain on a living gymnotus, which

was still very vigorous when it reached Paris. The discharge of

electricity is entirely dependent on the will of the animal. We did not

observe any electric sparks, but other physicists have done so on

numerous occasions.

Footnote 43:

p. 18.—“_Awakened by the contact of moist and dissimilar particles._”

In all organic bodies dissimilar substances come into contact with each

other, and solids are associated with fluids. Wherever there is

organization and life, there must be electric tension, or, in other

words, a voltaic pile must be brought into play, as the experiments of

Nobili and Matteucci, and more especially the late most admirable

labours of Emil Dubois, teach us. The last-named physicist has succeeded

in “manifesting the presence of the electric muscular current in living

and wholly uninjured animal bodies:” he shows that “the human body,

through the medium of a copper wire, can at will cause the magnetic

needle at a distance to deflect first in one direction and then in

another.”[HE] I have myself witnessed these movements produced at will,

and have thus unexpectedly seen much light thrown on phenomena, to which

I had laboriously and ardently devoted so many years of my earlier life.

Footnote 44:

p. 19.—“_The myth of Osiris and Typhon._”

Respecting the struggle of two human races, the Arabian shepherd tribes

of Lower Egypt and the cultivated agricultural races of Upper Egypt; on

the subject of the fair-haired Prince _Baby_ or _Typhon_, who founded

Pelusium; and on the dark-complexioned Dionysos or Osiris; I would refer

to Zoëga’s older and almost universally discarded views as set forth at

p. 577 of his masterly work “_De origine et usu obeliscorum_.”

Footnote 45:

p. 19—“_The boundaries of European semi-civilization._”

In the Capitania General de Caracas, as well as in all the eastern part

of America, the civilization formerly introduced by Europeans is limited

to the narrow strip of land which skirts the shore. In Mexico, New

Granada, and Quito on the other hand, European civilization has

penetrated far into the interior of the country and advanced up to the

ridges of the Cordilleras. There existed already in the fifteenth

century an earlier stage of civilization among the inhabitants of the

last-named region. Wherever the Spaniards perceived this culture they

pursued its track, regardless whether the seat of it was at a distance

from the sea, or in its vicinity. The ancient cities were enlarged and

their former significant Indian names mutilated, or exchanged for those

of Christian saints.

Footnote 46:

p. 19—“_Huge masses of leaden-coloured granite._”

In the Orinoco, and more especially at the cataracts of Maypures and

Atures (not in the Black River or Rio Negro), all blocks of granite,

even pieces of white quartz, wherever they come in contact with the

water, acquire a grayish black coating, which does not penetrate beyond

0·01 of a line into the interior of the rock. The traveller might almost

suppose that he was looking at basalt, or fossils coloured with

graphite. Indeed, the crust does actually appear to contain manganese

and carbon. I say “appears” to do so, because the phenomenon has not yet

been thoroughly investigated. Something perfectly analogous to this was

observed by Rozier in the syenitic rocks of the Nile (near Syene and

Philæ); by the unfortunate Captain Tuckey on the rocky banks of the

Zaire; and by Sir Robert Schomburgk at Berbice.[HF] On the Orinoco these

leaden-coloured rocks are supposed when wet to give forth noxious

exhalations, and their vicinity is believed to be conducive to the

generation of fevers.[HG] It is also remarkable that the South American

rivers generally, which have black waters (_aguas negras_), or waters of

a coffee brown or wine yellow tint, do not darken the granite rocks;

that is to say, they do not act upon the stone in such a manner as to

form from its constituent parts a black or leaden-coloured crust.

Footnote 47:

p. 20—“_The rain-foreboding howl of the bearded ape._”

Some hours before the commencement of rain, the melancholy cries of

various apes, as _Simia seniculus_, _Simia beelzebub_, &c., fall on the

ear like a storm raging in the distance. The intensity of the noise

produced by such small animals can only be explained by the circumstance

that one tree often contains a herd of seventy or eighty apes. I have

elsewhere spoken of the laryngeal sac, and the ossification of the

larynx of these animals.[HH]

Footnote 48:

p. 20—“_Its uncouth body often covered with birds._”

The crocodiles lie so motionless, that I have often seen flamingoes

(_Phœnicopterus_) resting on their heads, while the other parts of the

body were covered, like the trunk of a tree, with aquatic birds.

Footnote 49:

p. 20—“_Down its dilating throat._”

The saliva with which the boa covers its prey tends to promote rapid

decomposition. The muscular flesh is rendered gelatinously soft under

its action, so that the animal is able to force entire limbs of its

slain victim through its swelling throat. The Creoles call the giant boa

_Tragavenado_ (_stag-swallower_), and fabulously relate that the antlers

of a stag which could not be swallowed by the snake have been seen fixed

in its throat. I have frequently observed the boa constrictor swimming

in the Orinoco, and in the smaller forest streams, the Tuamini, the

Temi, and the Atabapo. It holds its head above water like a dog. Its

skin is beautifully speckled. It has been asserted, that the animal

attains a length of 48 feet, but the longest skins which have as yet

been carefully measured in Europe do not exceed from 21 to 23 feet. The

South American boa (a Python) differs from the East Indian.[HI]

Footnote 50:

p. 20—“_Living on gums and earth._”

It is currently reported throughout the coasts of Cumana, New Barcelona,

and Caracas (which the Franciscan monks of Guiana are in the habit of

visiting on their return from the missions,) that there are men living

on the banks of the Orinoco who eat earth. On the 6th of June, 1800, on

our return from the Rio Negro, when we descended the Orinoco in

thirty-six days, we spent the day at the mission inhabited by these

people (the Otomacs). Their little village, which is called La

Concepcion de Uruana, is very picturesquely built against a granite

rock. It is situated in 7° 8′ 3″ north lat.; and according to my

chronometrical determination, in 67° 18′ west longitude. The earth which

the Otomacs eat, is an unctuous, almost tasteless clay, true potter’s

earth, of a yellowish grey colour, in consequence of a slight admixture

of oxide of iron. They select it with great care, and seek it in certain

banks on the shores of the Orinoco and Meta. They distinguish the

flavour of one kind of earth from that of another; all kinds of clay not

being alike acceptable to their palate. They knead this earth into balls

measuring from four to six inches in diameter, and bake them before a

slow fire, until the outer surface assumes a reddish colour. Before they

are eaten, the balls are again moistened. These Indians are mostly wild,

uncivilized men, who abhor all tillage. There is a proverb current among

the most distant of the tribes living on the Orinoco, when they wish to

speak of anything very unclean, “so dirty that the Otomacs eat it.”

As long as the waters of the Orinoco and the Meta are low, these people

live on fish and turtles. They kill the former with arrows, shooting the

fish as they rise to the surface of the water with a skill and dexterity

that has frequently excited my admiration. At the periodical swelling of

the rivers, the fishing is stopped, for it is as difficult to fish in

deep river water as in the deep sea. It is during these intervals, which

last from two to three months, that the Otomacs are observed to devour

an enormous quantity of earth. We found in their huts considerable

stores of these clay balls piled up in pyramidal heaps. An Indian will

consume from three-quarters of a pound to a pound and a quarter of this

food daily, as we were assured by the intelligent monk, Fray Ramon

Bueno, a native of Madrid, who had lived among these Indians for a

period of twelve years. According to the testimony of the Otomacs

themselves, this earth constitutes their main support in the rainy

season. In addition, they however eat, when they can procure them,

lizards, several species of small fish, and the roots of a fern. But

they are so partial to clay, that even in the dry season, when there is

an abundance of fish, they still partake of some of their earth-balls,

by way of a _bonne bouche_ after their regular meals.

These people are of a dark, copper-brown colour, have unpleasant

Tartar-like features, and are stout, but not protuberant. The Franciscan

who had lived amongst them as a missionary, assured us that he had

observed no difference in the condition and well-being of the Otomacs

during the periods in which they lived on earth. The simple facts are

therefore as follows:—The Indians undoubtedly consume large quantities

of clay without injuring their health; they regard this earth as a

nutritious article of food, that is to say, they feel that it will

satisfy their hunger for a long time. This property they ascribe

exclusively to the clay, and not to the other articles of food which

they contrive to procure from time to time in addition to it. If an

Otomac be asked what are his winter provisions—the term winter in the

torrid parts of South America implying the rainy season—he will point to

the heaps of clay in his hut. These simple facts do not, however, by any

means decide the questions: whether clay can actually be a nutritious

substance; whether earths can be assimilated in the human body; whether

they only serve as ballast; or merely distend the walls of the stomach,

and thus appease the cravings of hunger? These are questions which I

cannot venture to decide.[HJ] It is singular, that Father Gumilla, who

is generally so credulous and uncritical, should have denied the fact of

earth being eaten by and for itself.[HK] He maintains that the

clay-balls are largely mixed with maize-flour, and crocodile’s fat. But

the missionary Fray Ramon Bueno, and our friend and fellow-traveller,

the lay-brother Fray Juan Gonzales, who perished at sea off the coast of

Africa (at the time we lost a portion of our collections), both assured

us, that the Otomacs never mix their clay cakes with crocodile’s fat,

and we heard nothing in Uruana of the admixture of flour.

The earth which we brought with us, and which was chemically

investigated by M. Vauquelin, is quite pure and unmixed. May not

Gumilla, by confounding heterogeneous facts, have intended to allude to

a preparation of bread from the long pod of a species of Inga? as this

fruit is certainly buried in the earth, in order to hasten its

decomposition. It appears to me especially remarkable, that the Otomacs

should not lose their health by eating so much earth. Has this tribe

been habituated for generations to this stimulus?

In all tropical countries men exhibit a wonderful and almost

irresistible desire to devour earth, not the so-called alkaline or

calcareous earth, for the purpose of neutralizing acidity, but unctuous,

strong-smelling clay. It is often found necessary to shut children up in

order to prevent their running into the open air to devour earth after

recent rain. The Indian women who are engaged on the river Magdalena, in

the small village of Banco, in turning earthenware pots, continually

fill their mouths with large lumps of clay, as I have frequently

observed, much to my surprise.[HL] Wolves eat earth, especially clay,

during winter. It would be very important, in a physiological point of

view, to examine the excrements of animals and men that eat earth.

Individuals of all other tribes, excepting the Otomacs, lose their

health if they yield to this singular propensity for eating clay. In the

mission of San Borja we found the child of an Indian woman, which,

according to the statement of its mother, would hardly eat anything but

earth. It was, however, much emaciated, and looked like a mere skeleton.

Why is it that in the temperate and cold zones this morbid eagerness for

eating earth is so much less frequently manifested, and is indeed

limited almost entirely to children and pregnant women, whilst it would

appear to be indigenous to the tropical lands of every quarter of the

earth? In Guinea the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call

_caouac_; and when they are carried as slaves to the West Indies they

even endeavour there to procure for themselves some similar species of

food, maintaining that the eating of earth is perfectly harmless in

their African home. The _caouac_ of the American islands, however,

deranges the health of the slaves who partake of it; for which reason

the eating of earth was long since forbidden in the West Indies,

notwithstanding which a species of red or yellowish tuff (_un tuf rouge

jaunâtre_) was secretly sold in the public market of Martinique in the

year 1751.

“The negroes of Guinea say that in their own country they _habitually_

eat a certain earth, the flavour of which is most agreeable to them, and

which does not occasion them any inconvenience. Those who have addicted

themselves to the excessive use of _caouac_ are so partial to it, that

no punishment can prevent them from devouring this earth.”[HM] In the

island of Java, between Sourabaya and Samarang, Labillardière saw small

square reddish cakes publicly sold in the villages. The natives called

them _tana ampo_ (_tanah_ signifies earth in Malay and Javanese); and on

examining them more closely, he found that they were cakes made of a

reddish clay, and intended for eating.[HN] The edible clay of Samarang

has recently (1847) beep sent, by Mohnike, to Berlin in the shape of

rolled tubes like cinnamon, and has been examined by Ehrenberg. It is a

fresh-water formation deposited in tertiary limestone, and composed of

microscopic polygastrica (Gallionella, Navicula) and of

Phytolitharia.[HO] The natives of New Caledonia, to appease their

hunger, eat lumps as large as the fist of friable steatite, in which

Vauquelin detected an appreciable quantity of copper.[HP] In Popayan and

many parts of Peru calcareous earth is sold in the streets as an article

of food for the Indians. This is eaten together with the Coca (the

leaves of the _Erythroxylon peruvianum_). We thus find that the practice

of eating earth is common throughout the whole of the torrid zone among

the indolent races who inhabit the most beautiful and fruitful regions

of the earth. But accounts have also come from the north, through

Berzelius and Retzius, from which we learn, that in the most remote

parts of Sweden hundreds of cartloads of earth containing infusoria are

annually consumed by the country people as bread-meal, more from fancy

(like the smoking of tobacco) than from necessity. In some parts of

Finland a similar kind of earth is mixed with the bread. It consists of

empty shells of animalcules, so small and soft, that they break between

the teeth without any perceptible noise, filling the stomach without

yielding any actual nourishment. Chronicles and archives often make

mention during times of war of the employment as food of infusorial

earth, which is spoken of under the indefinite and general term of

“mountain meal.” Such, for instance, was the case in the Thirty Years’

War, at Camin in Pomerania, Muskau in the Lausitz, and Kleiken in the

Dessau territory; and subsequently in 1719 and 1733, at the fortress of

Wittenberg.[HQ]

Footnote 51:

p. 20.—“_Images graven in rocks._”

In the interior of South America, between the parallels of 2° and 4°

north lat., lies a wooded plain inclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco,

the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. Here we find granitic

and syenitic rocks, which, like those of Caicara and Uruana, are covered

with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles, tigers, utensils of

domestic use, signs of the sun and moon, &c. This remote portion of the

earth is at present wholly uninhabited throughout an extent of more than

8000 square miles. The neighbouring tribes, who occupy the lowest place

in the scale of humanity, are naked wandering savages, who could not

possibly have carved hieroglyphics in stone. A whole range of these

rocks covered with symbolical signs may be traced from Rupunuri,

Essequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco

and of the Yupura, extending over more than eight degrees of longitude.

These carvings may belong to very different periods of time, for Sir

Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations of a

Spanish galliot,[HR] which must necessarily have been of a date

subsequent to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and that in a

wilderness where the inhabitants were probably as rude then as they now

are. But it must not be forgotten, as I have already elsewhere observed,

that nations of very different descent, but in similarly uncivilized

conditions, possessed of the same disposition to simplify and generalize

outlines, and urged by identical inherent mental tendencies, may be led

to produce similar signs and symbols.[HS]

At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in London a memoir was read

on the 17th of November, 1836, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, “On the

religious traditions of the Macusi Indians, who inhabit the Upper Mahu,

and a portion of the Pacaraima mountains,” and who have therefore not

changed their habitation for a century (since the journey of the

intrepid Hortsmann). “The Macusis,” says Sir Robert Schomburgk, “believe

that the only being who survived a general deluge, repeopled the earth

by converting stones into human beings.” This myth, which is the fruit

of the lively imagination of these tribes, and which reminds us of that

of Deucalion and Pyrrha, shows itself in a somewhat modified form among

the Tamanacs of the Orinoco. When these people are asked how the human

race survived this great flood, _the age of waters_ of the Mexicans,

they unhesitatingly reply, “that one man and one woman were saved by

taking refuge on the summit of the lofty mountain of Tamanacu, on the

banks of the Asiveru, and that they then threw over their heads the

fruits of the Mauritia palm, from the kernels of which sprang men and

women, who again peopled the earth.” Some miles from Encaramada there

rises in the midst of the savannah the rock of Tepu-Mereme; _i.e._, the

“painted rock,” which exhibits numerous figures of animals and

symbolical signs, having much resemblance to those which we observed at

some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara. (7° 5′ to 7° 40′ north

lat., and 66° 28′ to 67° 23′ west long.) Similarly carved rocks are

found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (2° 5′ to 3° 20′ lat.);

and what is most striking, also 560 miles further eastward in the

solitudes of the Parime. The last-named fact is proved beyond a doubt,

by the journal of Nicolas Hortsmann of Hildesheim, of which I have seen

a copy in the handwriting of the celebrated d’Anville. That simple and

modest traveller wrote down every day on the spot whatever had struck

him as worthy of notice; and his narrative deserves perhaps the more

confidence from the fact that the great disappointment he experienced in

having failed in the object of his researches, which was the discovery

of the Lake of Dorado, with its lumps of gold and a diamond mine (which

proved to be merely rock crystal of a very pure kind), led him to look

with a certain degree of contempt on all that fell in his way. On the

bank of the Rupunuri, at the point where the river, winding between the

Macarana mountains, forms several small cascades; and before reaching

the country immediately surrounding the Lake of Amucu, he found, on the

16th of April, 1749, “rocks covered with figures,” or, as he says in

Portuguese, “_de varias letras_” (with various letters or characters).

We were shown, at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the

Cassiquiare, signs said to be characters drawn by line and rule: but

they were merely ill-formed figures of the heavenly bodies, crocodiles,

boa-constrictors, and utensils used in the preparation of manioc-meal. I

found among these painted rocks (_piedras pintadas_) neither a

symmetrical arrangement nor any trace of characters drawn with a regard

to regularity in space and size. The word “_letras_” in the journal of

the German Surgeon (Hortsmann) must not, therefore, I am disposed to

think, be taken in the strictest sense.

Schomburgk did not succeed in finding the rocks observed by Hortsmann,

but he has described others which he saw on the bank of the Essequibo,

near the cascade of Waraputa. “This cascade,” he says, “is celebrated

not only for its height, but also for the great number of figures hewn

in the rock, which bear a great resemblance to those that I have seen on

the island of St. John, (one of the Virgin Islands,) and which I

consider to be without doubt the work of the Caribs, by whom this part

of the Antilles was peopled in former times. I made the most strenuous

efforts to hew away a portion of the rock carved with inscriptions,

which I was desirous of taking with me; but the stone was too hard, and

my strength had been wasted by fever. Neither threats nor promises could

prevail on the Indians to aim a single stroke of the hammer against

these rocks—the venerable monuments of the culture and superior skill of

their forefathers. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit; and

all the different tribes we met were acquainted with them, although

living at a great distance. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian

companions who seemed to expect every moment that the fire of heaven

would fall on my head. I now saw clearly that all my efforts were

fruitless, and I was therefore obliged to content myself with bringing

away a complete drawing of these monuments.”

The last resolution was undoubtedly the best, and the editor of the

English journal, to my great satisfaction, subjoins in a note the

remark, “that it is to be wished that others may succeed no better than

Schomburgk, and that no traveller belonging to a civilized nation will

in future attempt the destruction of these monuments of the unprotected

Indians.”

The symbolical signs which Sir Robert Schomburgk found in the fluvial

valley of the Essequibo, near the rapids of Waraputa,[HT] resemble,

indeed, according to his observation, the genuine Carib carvings of one

of the smaller Virgin Islands (St. John); but notwithstanding the wide

extent of the Carib invasions, and the ancient power of that fine race,

I cannot believe that this vast belt of carved rocks which intersects a

great portion of South America from west to east, is actually to be

ascribed to the Caribs. These remains seem rather to be traces of an

ancient civilization, which may have belonged to an epoch when the

tribes, whom we now distinguish by various names and races, were still

unknown. The veneration which is everywhere shown by the Indians for

these rude carvings of their predecessors, proves that the present races

have no idea of the execution of similar works. Nay, more than this,

between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, many of

these hieroglyphic figures are found sculptured on the sides of rocks at

a height which can now only be reached by means of extremely high

scaffolding. When asked who can have carved these figures, the natives

answer with a smile, as if it were a fact of which none but a white man

could be ignorant, that “in the days of the great waters their fathers

sailed in canoes at this height.” Here we find a geological dream

serving as a solution of the problem presented by a long extinct

civilization.

I would here be permitted to subjoin a remark, which I borrow from a

letter addressed to me by Sir Robert Schomburgk, the distinguished

traveller already mentioned. “The hieroglyphic figures are much more

widely extended than you probably have conjectured. During my

expedition, the object of which was the exploration of the river

Corentyn, I not only observed several gigantic figures on the rock of

Timeri (4° 30′ north lat. and 57° 30′ west long.), but I also discovered

similar ones in the vicinity of the great cataracts of the river

Corentyn (in 4° 21′ 30″ north lat. and 57° 55′ 30″ west long.) These

figures have been executed more carefully than any others which I met

with in Guiana. They are about 12 feet in height and appear to represent

human figures. The head-gear is extremely remarkable; it surrounds the

entire head, spreads far out, and is not unlike the glory represented

round the heads of Saints. I left drawings of these images in the

colony, which I hope some day to be able to lay collectively before the

public. I have seen less complete figures on the Cuyuwini, a river

which, flowing from the north-west, empties itself into the Essequibo in

2° 16′ north lat.; and I subsequently found similar figures on the

Essequibo itself in 1° 40′ north lat. These figures, therefore, as

appears from actual observations, extend from 7° 10′ to 1° 40′ north

lat., and from 57° 30′ to 66° 30′ west long. The zone (or belt) of the

sculptured rocks (as far as it has yet been investigated) thus extends

over an area of 192,000 square miles, and includes within its circuit

the basins of the Corentyn, Essequibo, and Orinoco—a circumstance that

enables us to judge of the former population of this portion of the

continent.”

Remarkable relics of a former culture, consisting of granitic vessels

ornamented with beautiful representations of labyrinths, and the

earthenware forms resembling the Roman masks, have been discovered among

the wild Indians on the Mosquito coast.[HU] I had them engraved in the

picturesque Atlas appended to the historical portion of my travels.

Antiquarians are astonished at the resemblance of these _algreco_

vessels to those which embellish the Palace of Mitla (near Oaxaca, in

New Spain). The large-nosed race, who are so frequently sculptured in

relief on the Palenque of Guatimala and in Aztec pictures, I have never

observed in Peruvian carvings. Klaproth recollects having noticed that

the Chalkas, a horde of Northern Mongolia, had similar large noses. It

is universally known, that many races of the North American, Canadian,

and copper-coloured Indians, have fine aquiline noses, which constitute

an essential physiognomical mark of distinction between them and the

present inhabitants of New Granada, Quito, and Peru. Are the large-eyed,

fair-skinned natives of the north-west coast of America, of whom

Marchand speaks as living in 54° and 58° north lat., descended from the

Usuns, an Alano-Gothic race of Central Asia?

Footnote 52:

p. 20.—“_Deal certain death with a poisoned thumb-nail._”

The Otomacs frequently poison their thumb-nails with _curare_. The mere

impress of the nail proves fatal, should the curare become mixed with

the blood. We have in our possession the creeping plant, from the juice

of which the curare is prepared, in the Esmeralda Mission, on the Upper

Orinoco, but, unfortunately, we did not find the plant when in blossom.

From its physiognomy, it seems to be allied to _Strychnos_.[HV]

Since I wrote the above notice of the _Curare_, or _Urari_, as the plant

and poison were called by Raleigh, the brothers Robert and Richard

Schomburgk have rendered important service to science by making us

accurately acquainted with the nature and mode of preparing this

substance, which I was the first to bring to Europe in any considerable

quantity. Richard Schomburgk found this creeping plant in flower in

Guiana, on the banks of the Pomeroon and Sururu, in the territory of the

Caribs, who are, however, ignorant of the mode of preparing the poison.

His instructive work[HW] gives the chemical analysis of the juice of the

_Strychnos toxifera_, which, notwithstanding its name and organic

structure, contains, according to Boussingault, no trace of strychnine.

Virchow’s and Münter’s interesting physiological experiments show that

the curare or urari poison does not appear to destroy by resorption from

without, but chiefly when it is absorbed by the animal substance after

the separation of the continuity of the latter; that curare does not

belong to tetanic poisons; and that it especially produces paralysis,

_i.e._, a cessation of voluntary muscular movement, while the function

of the involuntary muscles (as the heart and intestines) continues

unimpaired.[HX]

ON THE CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO,

_Near Atures and Maypures_.

In the preceding section, which I made the subject of an Academical

Lecture, I have delineated those boundless plains, whose natural character

is so variously modified by climatic relations, that what in one region

appear as barren treeless wastes or deserts, in another are Steppes or

far-stretching Prairies. With the Llanos of the southern portion of the

New Continent, may be contrasted the fearful sandy deserts in the interior

of Africa; and these again with the Steppes of Central Asia, the

habitation of those world-storming herdsmen, who, once pouring forth from

the east, spread barbarism and devastation over the face of the earth.

While on that occasion (1806), I ventured to combine many massive features

in one grand picture of nature, and endeavoured to entertain a public

assembly with subjects, somewhat in accordance with the gloomy condition

of our minds at that period, I will now, confining myself to a more

limited circle of phenomena, pourtray in brighter tints the cheerful

picture of a luxuriant vegetation, and fluvial valleys with their foaming

mountain torrents. I will describe two scenes of Nature from the wild

regions of Guiana,—ATURES and MAYPURES, the far-famed CATARACTS OF THE

ORINOCO,—which, previously to my own travels, had been visited by few

Europeans.

The impression which is left on the mind by the aspect of natural scenery

is less determined by the peculiar character of the region, than by the

varied nature of the light through which we view, or mountain or plain,

sometimes beaming beneath an azure sky, sometimes enveloped in the gloom

of lowering clouds. Thus, too, descriptions of nature affect us more or

less powerfully, in proportion as they harmonize with the condition of our

own feelings. For the physical world is reflected with truth and animation

on the inner susceptible world of the mind. Whatever marks the character

of a landscape: the profile of mountains, which in the far and hazy

distance bound the horizon; the deep gloom of pine forests; the mountain

torrent, which rushes headlong to its fall through overhanging cliffs: all

stand alike in an ancient and mysterious communion with the spiritual life

of man.

From this communion arises the nobler portion of the enjoyment which

nature affords. Nowhere does she more deeply impress us with a sense of

her greatness, nowhere does she speak to us more forcibly than in the

tropical world, beneath the “Indian sky,” as the climate of the torrid

zone was called in the early period of the Middle Ages. While I now,

therefore, venture to give a delineation of these regions, I am encouraged

to hope that the peculiar charm which belongs to them will not be unfelt.

The remembrance of a distant and richly endowed land, the aspect of a free

and powerful vegetation, refreshes and strengthens the mind; even as our

soaring spirit, oppressed with the cares of the present, turns with

delight to contemplate the early dawn of mankind and its simple

grandeur.[HY]

Western currents and tropical winds favour the passage over that pacific

arm of the sea[53] which occupies the vast valley stretching between the

New Continent and Western Africa. Before the shore is seen to emerge from

the highly curved expanse of waters, a foaming rush of conflicting and

intermingling waves is observed. The mariner who is unacquainted with this

region would suspect the vicinity of shoals, or a wonderful burst of fresh

springs, such as occur in the midst of the Ocean among the Antilles[54].

On approaching nearer to the granitic shores of Guiana, he sees before him

the wide mouth of a mighty river, which gushes forth like a shoreless sea,

flooding the ocean around with fresh water. The green waves of the river,

which assume a milky white hue as they foam over the shoals, contrast with

the indigo-blue of the sea, which marks the waters of the river in sharp

outlines.

The name Orinoco, which the first discoverers gave to this river, and

which probably owes its origin to some confusion of language, is unknown

in the interior of the country. For in their condition of animal rudeness,

savage tribes only designate by peculiar geographical names, those objects

which might be confounded with others. Thus the Orinoco, the Amazon, and

the Magdalena, are each simply termed _The River_, the _Great River_, and

_The Great Water_; whilst, those who dwell on the banks of even the

smallest streams distinguish them by special names.

The current produced by the Orinoco between the South American Continent

and the asphaltic island of Trinidad is so powerful, that ships, with all

their canvass spread, and a westerly breeze in their favour, can scarcely

make way against it. This desolate and fearful spot is called the Bay of

Sadness (_Golfo Triste_), and its entrance the _Dragon’s Mouth_ (_Boca del

Drago_). Here isolated cliffs rise tower-like in the midst of the rushing

stream. They seem to mark the old rocky barrier[55] which, before it was

broken through by the current, connected the island of Trinidad with the

coast of Paria.

The appearance of this region first convinced the bold navigator Columbus

of the existence of an American continent. “Such an enormous body of fresh

water,” concluded this acute observer of nature, “could only be collected

from a river having a long course; the land, therefore, which supplied it

must be a continent, and not an island.” As, according to Arrian, the

companions of Alexander, when they penetrated across the snow-crowned

summits of Paropanisus[56], believed that they recognized in the

crocodile-teeming Indus a part of the Nile,[HZ] so Columbus, in his

ignorance of the similarity of physiognomy which characterises all the

products of the climate of palms, imagined that the New Continent was the

eastern coast of the far projecting Asia. The grateful coolness of the

evening air, the ethereal purity of the starry firmament, the balmy

fragrance of flowers, wafted to him by the land breeze—all led him to

suppose. (as we are told by Herrera, in the Decades[57],) that he was

approaching the garden of Eden, the sacred abode of our first parents. The

Orinoco seemed to him one of the four rivers, which, according to the

venerable tradition of the ancient world, flowed from Paradise, to water

and divide the surface of the earth, newly adorned with plants. This

poetical passage in the Journal of Columbus, or rather in a letter to

Ferdinand and Isabella, written from Haiti in October, 1498, presents a

peculiar psychological interest. It teaches us anew, that the creative

fancy of the poet manifests itself in the discoverer of a world, no less

than in every other form of human greatness.

When we consider the great mass of water poured into the Atlantic Ocean by

the Orinoco, we are naturally led to ask which of the South American

rivers is the greatest—the Orinoco, the Amazon, or the La Plata? The

question is as indeterminate as the idea of greatness itself. The Rio de

la Plata has undoubtedly the widest mouth, its width measuring 92 miles

across; but this river, like those of Great Britain, is comparatively of

but inconsiderable length. Its shallowness, too, is so great as to impede

navigation at Buenos Ayres. The Amazon, which is the longest of all

rivers, measures 2880 miles from its rise in the Lake of Lauricocha to its

estuary. Yet its width in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, near the

cataract of Rentama, where I measured it at the foot of the picturesque

mountain of Patachuma, is scarcely equal to that of the Rhine at Mayence.

The Orinoco is narrower at its mouth than either the La Plata or the

Amazon, while its length, according to my astronomical observations, does

not exceed 1120 geographical miles. But in the interior of Guiana, 560

miles from its estuary, I found that at high water the width of the river

measured upwards of 17,265 feet. Its periodical swelling here raises the

level of the waters every year from 30 to 36 feet above the lowest

water-mark. We are still without sufficient data for an accurate

comparison between the enormous rivers which traverse the South American

Continent. For such a comparison it would be necessary to ascertain the

profile of the river-bed, as well as the velocity of the water, which

varies very considerably at different points.

If the Orinoco, in the Delta formed by its variously divided and still

unexplored branches, as well as in the regularity of its rise and fall,

and in the number and size of its crocodiles, exhibits numerous points of

resemblance to the Nile; there is this further analogy between the two

rivers, that they for a long distance wind their impetuous way, like

forest torrents, between granitic and syenitic rocks, till, slowly rolling

their waters over an almost horizontal bed, skirted by treeless banks,

they reach the sea.

An arm of the Nile (the Green Nile, Bahr-el-Azrek), from the celebrated

mountain lake, near Gondar, in the Gojam Alps, in Abyssinia, to Syene and

Elephantis, winds its way through the mountain range of Schangalla and

Sennar; and in like manner the Orinoco rises on the southern slope of a

mountain chain, which stretches between the parallels of 4° and 5° north

lat., from French Guiana, in a westerly direction towards the Andes of New

Granada. The sources of the Orinoco have never been visited by any

European[58], nor even by any natives who have held intercourse with

Europeans.

When, in the summer of 1800, we ascended the Upper Orinoco, we passed the

mission of Esmeralda, and reached the mouths of the Sodomoni and the

Guapo. Here soars high above the clouds, the mighty peak of the Yeonnamari

or Duida; a mountain which presents one of the grandest spectacles in the

natural scenery of the tropical world. Its altitude, according to my

trigonometrical measurement, is 8278 (8823 English) feet above the level

of the sea. Its southern slope is a treeless grassy plain, redolent with

the odour of pine-apples, whose fragrance scents the humid evening air.

Among lowly meadow plants rise the juicy stems of the _anana_, whose

golden yellow fruit gleams from the midst of a bluish green diadem of

leaves. Where the mountain springs break forth from beneath the grassy

covering, rise isolated groups of lofty fan-palms, whose leaves, in this

torrid region, are never stirred by a cooling breeze.

To the east of the Duida mountain, begins a thicket of wild cacao trees,

among which are found the celebrated almond tree, _Bertholletia excelsa_,

the most luxurious product of a tropical vegetation[59]. Here the Indians

collect colossal stalks of grass, whose joints measure upwards of 18 feet

from knot to knot, which they use as blow-pipes for the discharge of their

arrows[60]. Some Franciscan monks have penetrated as far as the mouth of

the Chiguire, where the river is already so narrow that the natives have

suspended over it, near the waterfall of the Guaharibes, a bridge woven of

the stems of twining plants. The Guaicas, of palish complexion and short

stature, armed with poisoned arrows, oppose all further progress eastward.

Therefore, all that has been advanced to prove that the Orinoco derives

its source from a lake must be regarded as a fable[61]. In vain the

traveller seeks to discover the Lake of El Dorado, which, in Arrowsmith’s

maps, is set down as an inland sea measuring upwards of 20 geographical

(80 English) miles. Can the little reed-covered lake of Amucu, near which

rises the Pirara (a branch of the Mahu), have given rise to this myth?

This swamp lies, however, 4° to the east of the region in which we may

suppose the sources of the Orinoco to be situated. Here tradition placed

the island of Pumacena, a rock of micaceous schist, whose shining

brightness has played a memorable, and, for the deluded adventurers, often

a fatal, part in the fable of _El Dorado_, current since the sixteenth

century.

According to the belief of many of the natives, the Magellanic clouds of

the southern sky, and even the glorious nebulæ in the constellation Argo,

are mere reflections of the metallic brilliancy of these silver mountains

of the Parime. It was besides an ancient custom of dogmatising geographers

to make all the most considerable rivers of the world originate in lakes.

The Orinoco is one of those remarkable rivers which, after numerous

windings, first towards the west and then to the north, finally return

towards the east in such a manner as to bring both its estuary and its

source into nearly the same meridian. From the Chiguire and the Gehette as

far as the Guaviare, the course of the Orinoco inclines westward, as if it

would pour its waters into the Pacific. Here branches off to the south,

the Cassiquiare, a remarkable river, but little known to Europeans, which

unites with the Rio Negro, or as the natives call it, the Guainia:

furnishing the only example of a bifurcation which forms in the very

interior of a continent a natural connection between two great river

valleys.

The nature of the soil, and the junction of the Guaviare and Atabapo with

the Orinoco, cause the latter to deflect suddenly northwards. From a want

of correct geographical data, the Guaviare, flowing in from the west, was

long regarded as the true source of the Orinoco. The doubts advanced since

1797 by an eminent geographer, M. Buache, regarding the possibility of a

connection with the Amazon, have, I trust, been completely set at rest by

my expedition. In an uninterrupted voyage of 920 miles, I penetrated

through a remarkable net-work of rivers, from the Rio Negro, along the

Cassiquiare, into the Orinoco; across the interior of the continent, from

the Brazilian boundary to the coast of Caracas.

In the upper portion of this fluvial district, between 3° and 4° north

lat., nature has exhibited, at many different points, the puzzling

phenomenon of the so-called _black waters_. The Atabapo, whose banks are

adorned with _Carolinias_ and arborescent _Melastomas_, the Temi, Tuamini,

and Guainia, are all rivers of a brown or coffee colour, which, under the

deep shade of the palms, assumes a blackish, inky tint. When placed in a

transparent vessel, the water appears of a golden yellow colour. These

black streams reflect the images of the southern stars with the most

remarkable clearness. Where the waters flow gently they afford the

astronomer, who is making observations with reflecting instruments, a most

excellent artificial horizon.

An absence of crocodiles as well as of fish—greater coolness—less torment

from stinging mosquitoes—and salubrity of atmosphere, characterize the

region of the black rivers. They probably owe their singular colour to a

solution of carburetted hydrogen, to the rich luxuriance of tropical

vegetation, and to the abundance of plants on the soil over which they

flow. Indeed, I have observed that on the western declivity of the

Chimborazo, towards the shores of the Pacific, the overflowing waters of

the Rio de Guayaquil gradually assume a golden yellow, approaching to a

coffee colour, after they have covered the meadows for several weeks.

Near the mouths of the Guaviare and Atapabo grows one of the noblest forms

of the palm-tree, the Piriguao[62], whose smooth stem, which is nearly 70

feet in height, is adorned with delicate flag-like leaves having curled

margins. I know no palm which bears equally large and beautifully coloured

fruits. They resemble peaches in their blended tints of yellow and

crimson. Seventy or eighty of these form one enormous cluster, of which

each stem annually ripens three. This noble tree might be termed the

peach-palm. It s fleshy fruit, owing to the extreme luxuriance of

vegetation, is generally devoid of seed; and it yields the natives a

nutritious and farinaceous article of food which, like the banana and the

potato, is capable of being prepared in many different ways.

To this point, that is, as far as the mouth of the Guaviare, the Orinoco

flows along the southern declivity of the chain of the Parime. From its

left bank, across the equator, and as far us the parallel of 15° south

lat., extends the boundless wooded plain of the river Amazon. At San

Fernando de Atabapo the Orinoco, turning off abruptly in a northerly

direction, intersects a portion of the mountain chain itself. Here are the

great waterfalls of Atures and Maypures, and here the bed of the river is

everywhere contracted by colossal masses of rocks, which give it the

appearance of being divided by natural dams into separate reservoirs.

At the entrance of the Meta stands, in the midst of an enormous whirlpool,

an isolated rock, which the natives very aptly term the “Rock of

Patience,” because when the waters are low, it sometimes retards for two

whole days the ascent of the navigator. Here the Orinoco, biting deep into

its shores, forms picturesque rocky bays. Opposite the Indian mission of

Carichana, the traveller is surprised by a most remarkable prospect.

Involuntarily his eye is arrested by a steep granite rock, “El Mogote de

Cocuyza,” a cubiform mass, which rises precipitously to a height of more

than 200 feet; and whose summit is crowned with a luxuriant forest. Like a

Cyclopic monument of simple grandeur, this bold promontory towers high

above the tops of the surrounding palms, cutting the deep azure of the sky

with its strongly marked outlines, and lifting, as it were, forest upon

forest.

On descending beyond Carichana, the traveller arrives at a point where the

river has opened itself a passage through the narrow pass of Baraguan.

Here we everywhere recognise traces of chaotic devastation. To the north,

towards Uruana and Encaramada, rise granite rocks of grotesque appearance,

which, in singularly formed crags of dazzling whiteness, gleam brightly

from amidst the surrounding groves.

At this point, near the mouth of the Apure, the stream leaves the granitic

chain, and flowing eastward, separates as far as the Atlantic, the

impenetrable forests of Guiana from the Savannahs, on whose far distant

horizon the vault of heaven seems to rest. Thus the Orinoco surrounds on

the south, west, and north, the high mountain chain of the Parime, which

occupies the vast space between the sources of the Jao and of the Caura.

No cliffs or rapids obstruct the course of the river from Carichana to its

mouth, excepting, indeed, the “Hell’s Mouth” (Boca del Inferno) near

Muitaco, a whirlpool occasioned by rocks, as at Atures and Maypures, which

does not, however, block up the whole breadth of the stream. In this

district, which is contiguous to the sea, the only dangers encountered by

the boatmen arise from the natural timber-floats, against which canoes are

often wrecked at night. These floats consist of forest trees which have

been uprooted and torn away from the banks by the rising of the waters.

They are covered, like meadows, with blooming water-plants, and remind us

of the floating gardens of the Mexican lakes.

After this brief glance at the course of the Orinoco and its general

features, I pass to the waterfalls of Maypures and Atures.

From the high mountain-group of Cunavami, between the sources of the

rivers Sipapo and Ventuari, a granite ridge projects to the far west

towards the mountain of Uniama. From this ridge descend four streams,

which mark, as it were, the limits of the cataracts of Maypures; two bound

Sipapo and Sanariapo, on the eastern shore of the Orinoco; and two the

Cameji and Toparo, on the western side. At the site of the missionary

village of Maypures the mountains form a wide bay opening towards the

south-west.

Here the stream rushes foaming down the eastern declivity of the mountain,

while far to the west traces remain of the ancient and now forsaken bank

of the river. An extensive Savannah stretches between the two chains of

hills, at an elevation of scarcely 30 feet above the upper water-level of

the river, and here the Jesuits have erected a small church formed of the

trunks of palms.

The geognostical aspect of this region, the insular form of the rocks of

Keri and Oco, the cavities worn in the former by the current, and which

are situated at exactly the same level as those in the opposite island of

Uivitari; all these indications tend to prove that the Orinoco once filled

the whole of this now dried-up bay. It is probable that the waters formed

a wide lake, as long as the northern dam withstood their passage. When

this barrier gave way, the Savannah now inhabited by the Guareke Indians

emerged as an island. The river may perhaps long after this have continued

to surround the rocks of Keri and Oco, which now picturesquely project,

like castellated fortresses, from its ancient bed. After the gradual

diminution of the waters, the river withdrew wholly to the eastern side of

the mountain chain.

This conjecture is confirmed by various circumstances. Thus, for instance,

the Orinoco, like the Nile at Philæ and Syene, has the singular property

of colouring black the reddish-white masses of granite, over which it has

flowed for thousands of years. As far as the waters reach one observes on

the rocky shore a leaden-coloured manganeseous and perhaps carbonaceous

coating which has penetrated scarcely onetenth of a line into the stone.

This black coloration, and the cavities already alluded to, show the

former water level of the Orinoco.

These black cavities may be traced at elevations of from 160 to 192 feet

above the present level of the river on the rocks of Keri, in the islands

of the cataracts; in the gneiss-like hills of Cumadanimari, which extend

above the island of Tomo; and lastly at the mouth of the Jao. Their

existence proves, what indeed we learn from all the river-beds of Europe,

that those streams which still excite our admiration by their magnitude,

are but inconsiderable remains of the immense masses of water belonging to

a former age.

These simple facts have not escaped even the rude natives of Guiana.

Everywhere the Indians drew our attention to these traces of the ancient

water-level. Nay, in a Savannah near Uruana there rises an isolated rock

of granite, which, according to the testimony of persons worthy of credit,

exhibits at an elevation of between 80 and 90 feet, a series of figures of

the sun and moon, and of various animals, especially crocodiles and

boa-constrictors, graven, almost in rows. At the present day this

perpendicular rock, which well deserves the careful examination of future

travellers, cannot be ascended without the aid of scaffolding. In a

similarly remarkable elevated position, the traveller can trace

hieroglyphic characters carved on the mountains of Uruana and Encaramada.

If the natives are asked how these characters could have been graven

there, they answer that it was done in former times, when the waters were

so high that their fathers’ canoes floated at that elevation. Such lofty

condition of the water level must therefore have been coeval with these

rude memorials of human skill. It indicates an ancient distribution of

land and water over the surface of the globe widely different from that

which now exists; but which must not be confounded with that condition

when the primeval vegetation of our planet, the colossal remains of

extinct terrestrial animals, and the oceanic creatures of a chaotic world,

found one common grave in the indurating crust of our earth.

At the most northern extremity of the cataracts our attention is attracted

by what are called the natural representations of the Sun and Moon. The

rock of Keri, to which I have more than once referred, derives its name

from a glistening white spot seen at a considerable distance, and in which

the Indians profess to recognize a striking resemblance to the disc of the

full moon. I was not myself able to climb this precipitous rock, but it

seems probable that the white spot is a large knot of quartz, formed by a

cluster of veins in the greyish-black granite.

Opposite to the Keri rock, on the twin mountain of the island of Uivitari,

which has a basaltic appearance, the Indians point, with mysterious

admiration, to a similar disc, which they venerate as the image of the

Sun, _Camosi_. The geographical position of these two rocks may have

contributed to their respective appellations, for I found that Keri was

turned towards the west, and Camosi towards the east. Some etymological

inquirers have thought they could recognize an analogy between the

American word Camosi and the word Camosh, a name applied in one of the

Phœnician dialects to the sun, and identical with the Apollo Chomeus or

Beelphegor and Amun.

The lofty falls of Niagara, which are 150 feet in height, derive their

origin, as is well known, from the combined precipitation of one enormous

mass of water. Such, however, is not the case with respect to the

cataracts of Maypures, nor are they narrow straits or passes through which

the stream rushes with increasing velocity, like the Pongo of Manseriche

on the Amazon, but rather to be regarded as a countless number of small

cascades succeeding each other like steps. The _Raudal_, (as the Spaniards

term this kind of cataract,) is formed by an archipelago of islands and

rocks, which so contract the bed of the river that its natural width of

more than 8500 feet is often reduced to a channel scarcely navigable to

the extent of 20 feet. At the present day the eastern side is far less

accessible and far more dangerous than the western.

At the mouth of the Cameji the boatmen unload their cargo that they may

leave the empty canoe, or, as it is here called, the _Piragua_, to be

piloted by Indians well acquainted with the Raudal, as far as the mouth of

the Toparo, where all danger is supposed to be past. Where the rocks or

shelvy ledges, (each of which has its particular name,) are not above two

or three feet in height, the natives venture to shoot the rapid with their

canoes. When, however, they have to ascend the stream, they swim in

advance of the piragua, and after much labour, and, perhaps, many

unsuccessful efforts, succeed in throwing a rope round a point of rock

projecting above the breakers, and by this means draw the canoe against

the stream, which, in this arduous operation, is often water-logged, or

upset.

Sometimes the canoe is dashed to pieces on the rock, and this is the only

danger the natives fear. With bleeding bodies they then strain every nerve

to escape the fury of the whirlpool and swim to land. Where the rocky

ledges are very high and form a barrier by extending across the entire bed

of the river, the light canoe is hauled to land and dragged for some

distance along the shore on branches of trees which serve the purpose of

rollers.

The most celebrated and most perilous ledges are those of Purimarimi and

Manimi, which are between nine and ten feet in height. It was with

surprise I found, by barometrical measurements, that the entire fall of

the Raudal, from the mouth of the Cameji to that of the Toparo, scarcely

amounted to more than 30 or 32 feet. (A geodesic levelling is not

practicable, owing to the inaccessibility of the locality and the

pestiferous atmosphere, which swarms with mosquitoes.) I say with

surprise, for I hence discovered that the tremendous roar and wild dashing

of the stream arose from the contraction of its bed by numerous rocks and

islands, and the counter-currents produced by the form and position of the

masses of rock. The truth of my assertion regarding the inconsiderable

height of the whole fall will be best verified by observing the cataracts,

in descending to the bed of the river, from the village of Maypures,

across the rocks of Manimi.

At this point the beholder enjoys a most striking and wonderful prospect.

A foaming surface, several miles in length, intersected with iron-black

masses of rock projecting like battlemented ruins from the waters, is seen

at one view. Every islet and every rock is adorned with luxuriant forest

trees. A perpetual mist hovers over the watery mirror, and the summits of

the lofty palms pierce through the clouds of vapoury spray. When the rays

of the glowing evening sun are refracted in the humid atmosphere, an

exquisite optical illusion is produced. Coloured bows appear, vanish, and

reappear, while the ethereal picture dances, like an ignis fatuus, with

every motion of the sportive breeze.

During the long rainy seasons, the falling waters carry down quantities of

vegetable mould, which accumulating, form islands of the naked rocks;

adorning the barren stone with blooming beds of Melastomes and Droseras,

silver-leaved _Mimosæ_, and a variety of ferns. They recal to the mind of

the European those groups of vegetation which the inhabitants of the Alps

term _courtils_, blocks of granite bedecked with flowers which project

solitarily amid the Glaciers of Savoy.

In the blue distance the eye rests on the mountain chain of Cunavami, a

far-stretching chain of hills which terminates abruptly in a sharply

truncated cone. We saw this conical hill, called by the Indians

Calitamini, glowing at sunset as if in crimson flames. This appearance

daily returns. No one has ever been in the immediate neighbourhood of this

mountain. Possibly its dazzling brightness is produced by the reflecting

surface of decomposing talc, or mica schist.

During the five days that we passed in the neighbourhood of the cataracts,

we were much struck by the fact that the roar of the rushing torrent was

three times as great by night as by day. The same phenomenon is observed

in all European waterfalls. To what can we ascribe this effect in a

solitude where the repose of nature is undisturbed? Probably to ascending

currents of warm air, which producing an unequal density of the elastic

medium, obstruct the propagation of sound by displacing its waves; causes

which cease after the nocturnal cooling of the earth’s surface.

The Indians showed us traces of ruts caused by wheels. They speak with

wonder of the horned cattle, (oxen,) which at the period of the Jesuit

missions used to draw the trucks, that conveyed the canoes, along the left

shore of the Orinoco, from the mouth of the Cameji to that of the Toparo.

The canoes at that time were transported without the discharge of their

cargoes, and were not as now injured by being constantly dragged over

sharp-pointed rocks, or stranded.

The topographical plan which I have sketched of the locality, shews that a

canal might be opened between the Cameji and the Toparo. The valley in

which these two abundantly watered rivers flow is a gentle level; and the

canal, of which I suggested a plan to the Governor-General of Venezuela,

would become a navigable arm of the Orinoco, and supersede the old and

dangerous bed of the river.

The Raudal of Atures is exactly similar to that of Maypures, like which it

consists of a cluster of islands between which the river forces itself a

passage extending from 18,000 to 24,000 feet. Here too a forest of palm

trees rises from the midst of the foaming surface of the waters. The most

celebrated ledges of the cataract are situated between the islands of

Avaguri and Javariveni, between Suripamana and Uirapuri.

When M. Bonpland and myself were returning from the banks of the Rio

Negro, we ventured to pass the latter, that is the lower half, of the

Raudal of Atures in our loaded canoe. We several times disembarked to

climb over rocks, which, like dykes, connected one island with another. At

one time the water shoots over these dykes; at another it falls into their

cavities with a deafening hollow sound. In some places considerable

portions of the bed of the river are perfectly dry, in consequence of the

stream having opened for itself a subterranean passage. In this solitude

the golden-coloured Rock Manakin (_Pipra rupicola_) builds its nest. This

bird, which is as pugnacious as the East India cock, is one of the most

beautiful birds of the tropics, and is remarkable for its double moveable

crest of feathers with which its head is decorated.

In the Raudal of Canucari the dyke is formed of piled-up granitic

boulders. We crept into the interior of a cavern, whose humid walls were

covered with confervæ and phosphorescent Byssus. The river rushed over our

heads with a terrible and stunning noise. By accident we had an

opportunity of contemplating this grand scene longer than we desired. The

Indian boatmen had left us in the middle of the cataract, to take the

canoe round a small island, at the other extremity of which, after a

considerable circuit, we were to re-embark. For an hour and a half we

remained exposed to a fearful thunder-storm. Night was approaching, and we

in vain sought shelter in the fissures of the rocks. The little apes which

we had carried with us for months in wicker cages, attracted by their

plaintive cries large crocodiles, whose size and leaden-grey colour

indicated their great age. I should not have alluded to the appearance of

these animals in the Orinoco, where they are of such common occurrence,

were it not that the natives had assured us that no crocodiles had ever

been seen among the cataracts; indeed, on the strength of that assertion,

we had repeatedly ventured to bathe in this portion of the river.

Meanwhile our anxiety increased every moment, lest, drenched as we were

and deafened by the thundering roar of the falling waters, we should be

compelled to spend the long tropical night in the midst of the Raudal. At

length, however, the Indians made their appearance with our canoe. Their

delay had been occasioned by the inaccessibility of the steps they had to

descend, owing to the low state of the water; which had obliged them to

seek in the labyrinth of channels a more practicable passage.

Near the southern entrance of the Raudal of Atures, on the right bank of

the river, lies the cavern of Ataruipe, so celebrated among the Indians.

The surrounding scenery has a grand and solemn character, which seems to

mark it as a national burial-place. With difficulty, and not without

danger of being precipitated into the depths below, we clambered a steep

and perfectly bare granite rock, on whose smooth surface it would be

hardly possible to keep one’s footing were it not for large crystals of

feldspar, which, defying the action of weather, project an inch or more

from the mass.

On gaining the summit, a wide prospect of the surrounding country

astonishes the beholder. From the foaming bed of the river rise hills

richly crowned with woods, while beyond its western bank the eye rests on

the boundless Savannah of the Meta. On the horizon loom like threatening

clouds the mountains of Uniama. Such is the distant view; but immediately

around all is desolate and contracted. In the deep ravines of the valley

moves no living thing save where the vulture and the whirring goat-sucker

wing their lonely way, their heavy shadows gleaming fitfully past the

barren rock.

The cauldron-shaped valley is encompassed by mountains, whose rounded

summits bear huge granite boulders, measuring from 40 to more than 50 feet

in diameter. They appear poised on only a single point of their surface,

as if the slightest shock of the earth would hurl them down.

The further side of this rocky valley is thickly wooded. It is in this

shady spot that the cave of the Ataruipe is situated; properly speaking,

however, it is not a cave, but a vault formed by a far projecting and

overhanging cliff,—a kind of bay hollowed out by the waters when formerly

at this high level. This spot is the grave of an extinct tribe[63]. We

counted about six hundred well-preserved skeletons, placed in as many

baskets, formed of the stalks of palm-leaves. These baskets, called by the

Indians _mapires_, are a kind of square sack varying in size according to

the age of the deceased. Even new-born children have each their own

mapire. These skeletons are so perfect, that not a rib or a finger is

wanting.

The bones are prepared in three different ways: some are bleached, some

dyed red with onoto, the pigment of the _Bixa Orellana_; others like

mummies, are anointed with fragrant resin and wrapped in banana leaves.

The Indians assured me that the corpse was buried during several months in

a moist earth, which gradually destroyed the flesh; and that after being

disinterred, any particles of flesh still adhering to the bones were

scraped off with sharp stones. This practice is still continued among many

tribes of Guiana. Besides these baskets or mapires, we saw many urns of

half-burnt clay, which appear to contain the bones of whole families. The

largest of these urns are upwards of three feet in height and nearly six

feet in length, of an elegant oval form, and greenish colour; with handles

shaped like crocodiles and serpents, and the rims bordered with flowing

scrolls and labyrinthine figures. These ornaments are precisely similar to

those which cover the walls of the Mexican palace at Mitla. They are found

in every clime and every stage of human culture,—among the Greeks and

Romans, no less than on the shields of Otaheitans, and other South Sea

islanders,—in all regions where a rhythmical repetition of regular forms

delights the eye. The causes of these resemblances, as I have explained

elsewhere, are rather to be referred to psychical conditions, and to the

inner nature of our mental qualifications, than as affording evidence in

favour of a common origin and the ancient intercourse of nations.[IA]

Our interpreters could give us no certain information regarding the age of

these vessels; but that of the skeletons did not in general appear to

exceed a hundred years. There is a legend amongst the Guareke Indians,

that the brave Atures, when closely pursued by the cannibal Caribs, took

refuge on the rocks of the cataracts,—a mournful place of abode, in which

this oppressed race perished, together with its language![64] In the most

inaccessible portion of the Raudal other graves of the same character are

met with; indeed it is probable that the last descendants of the Atures

did not become extinct until a much more recent period. There still lives

and it is a singular fact, an old parrot in Maypures which cannot be

understood, because, as the natives assert, it speaks the language of the

Atures!

We left the cave at nightfall, after having collected, to the extreme

annoyance of our Indian guides, several skulls and the perfect skeleton of

an aged man. One of these skulls has been delineated by Blumenbach in his

admirable craniological work;[IB] but the skeleton, together with a large

portion of our natural history collections, especially the entomological,

was lost by shipwreck off the coast of Africa on the same occasion when

our friend and former travelling companion, the young Franciscan monk,

Juan Gonzalez, lost his life.

As if with a presentiment of this painful loss, we turned from the grave

of a departed race with feelings of deep emotion. It was one of those

clear and deliciously cool nights so frequent beneath the tropics. The

moon stood high in the zenith, encircled by a halo of coloured rings, her

rays gilding the margins of the mist, which in well defined outline

hovered like clouds above the foaming flood. Innumerable insects poured

their red phosphorescent light over the herb-covered surface, which glowed

with living fire, as though the starry canopy of heaven had sunk upon the

grassy plain. Climbing Bignonia, fragrant Vanillas, and golden-flowered

Banisterias, adorned the entrance of the cave, while the rustling

palm-leaves waved over the resting-place of the dead.

Thus pass away the generations of men!—thus perish the records of the

glory of nations! Yet when every emanation of the human mind has

faded—when in the storms of time the monuments of man’s creative art are

scattered to the dust—an ever new life springs from the bosom of the

earth. Unceasingly prolific nature unfolds her germs,—regardless though

sinful man, ever at war with himself, tramples beneath his foot the

ripening fruit!