THE AMAZONAS TERRITORY
Area—General character—San Fernando de Atabapo—The upper
Orinoco—Communication with outside world—Atures and Maipures
rapids—Humboldt’s description—The Compañía Anónima de
Navegacion Fluvial y Costanera—General Chalbaud—Railway
projects—The Piaroas—_Curare_—Savannahs—Rubber—Brazil-nuts—Wild
cocoa—Mineral wealth—Water-power—Rubber prospectors—Method
of working—Esmeralda—The place of flies—Mt. Duida—Gold
possibilities—The Raudal de los Guaharibos—The limit of
exploration—The Ventuari—An old Spanish road—A midnight
massacre—Stock-raising lands—The Maquiritare—Trading with
gold-dust—The Casiquiare bifurcation—Life of the natives—Eau de
Cologne in the wilds—The Guainia and Rio Negro—Maroa—Cucuhy—The
Atabapo—Lack of population—Education—Colonisation—General
prospects.
On the right bank of the Orinoco above the confluence of the Meta and
below that of the Atabapo, and south-eastward of this on both banks of
the main river, lies the great but little known Territorio Amazonas,
extending over the ill-defined watershed into the Rio Negro, and,
therefore, the Amazon, basin. The area included in the territory amounts
to some 281,700 square kilometres or 101,400 square miles, and of this
vast region practically nothing is known, save the character of the banks
of the larger rivers and of such parts of the hills and forests as may
have been traversed by the few explorers who have entered the hinterland
of the Guayanas.
On the northern and eastern borders the general character of the region
is like that of the greater part of the State of Bolivar, the boundary to
the north being more or less arbitrary, in part at least. The Brazilian
frontier follows the watershed of the Sierra Parima in its northern part,
but near the Rio Negro this line also ceases to be determined by any
clearly marked natural features.
The capital of this huge and almost unknown area is San Fernando de
Atabapo, little more than a village from the point of view of population,
which amounted to only 388 in 1891, but still the largest centre in the
region. It is situated at the junction of the Atabapo and Orinoco, the
land on which it stands being practically an island on account of the
channel connecting the two rivers behind the settlement; the Inirida and
Guaviare enter the Atabapo opposite the town, the contrast between the
white waters of the Guaviare, the black, clear stream of the Atabapo,
and the muddy Orinoco being very noticeable. The capital is the seat
of the Governor and a Judge of First Instance and minor officials, who
constitute an appreciable fraction of the population.
The upper Orinoco basin includes some of the best known, as well as some
of the least explored districts in the whole territory. The old mission
station of Esmeralda (longitude 65° 40´ W., latitude 3° 11´ N.) marks the
limit of any attempt at civilisation on the upper Orinoco, and beyond
this point our knowledge of the country is very scant indeed. Below this
point the river and forests and savannahs near its bank are comparatively
well known, from the number of travellers and small rubber prospectors,
as far as San Fernando, and below this again little exploration has been
carried out away from the river, which, nevertheless, is the main line of
communication with Pericos, below the Atures Rapids, whence steamers run
down the lower Orinoco to Ciudad Bolivar, and so afford communication
with the outside world.
The Atures Rapids, the biggest on the Orinoco, form at present an
effectual barrier to through communication by steamer, between the upper
and lower river, a difficulty formerly obviated by the construction of
a now disused cart-road from Pericos to Salvajitos, above the rapids, a
distance of 14 kilometres. But though the rapids have thus barred the
advance of civilisation, their great beauty and the possibility that one
day they may afford the power for an electric railway along the line of
the old cart-road beyond compensate for any such disadvantage.
Humboldt thus describes the Maipures and Atures Rapids in his “Ansichten
der Natur.” They are, he says, “to be regarded as a countless number
of small cascades succeeding each other like steps. The _Raudal_ (as
the Spanish 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 8,500 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.
“... It was with surprise I found, by barometrical measurements, that the
entire fall of the Raudal (of Maipures) scarcely amounted to more than
30 or 32 feet.... 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 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 crowd 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.
“... A canal might be opened between the Cameji and the Toparo ... which
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 Maipures, 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.
“... rocks, 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 builds its nest.”
The contract recently entered into with General R. D. Chalbaud, the
President of the Compañía Anónima de Navegacion Fluvial y Costanera de
Venezuela, stipulates for a railway worked by steam or electricity to
provide a land connection between a service of upper Orinoco steamers
above the Maipures Rapids and the lower Orinoco steamers already plying
below those of Atures; the time may not be far distant, therefore,
when these beautiful falls will also add to the sum of the world’s
happiness by assisting in opening up a vast extent of territory rich in
agricultural and mineral products, which hitherto they themselves have
been largely instrumental in closing.
From the right bank of the Orinoco in the region of the rapids along
the Sipapo and Cataniapo tributaries to the hills forming the watershed
between that river and the Ventuari, and beyond these, is the unknown
territory of the Piaroa Indians, whose sacred mountain of Sipapo is
visible from the Orinoco banks. The name Piaroa appears to be a general
term including those branches of families of the Maipures, Atures, &c.,
which were formerly considered to be separate tribes. Tavera-Acosta
describes them as a timid people, devoted to agriculture, and they are
said to be very light in colour. They frequently come down to the town of
Atures to exchange their curare, cotton, cassava, plantains, and game for
general merchandise and tools; and their curare is held in high esteem
for its purity and high quality by the other tribes.
Of an unexplored country such as that of the Piaroas little or
nothing can be said definitely with regard to the products, but the
observations of travellers as to the country along the river banks and
the circumstantial accounts of the remainder derived from some of the
inhabitants point to this region as one rich in all manner of resources.
Near the Orinoco and at intervals throughout the region there are
grass plains, or savannahs, which may some day, like those elsewhere
in Guayana, support many thousand head of cattle. In the forests which
surround these savannahs there are quantities of untouched rubber-trees
(_Hevea guianensis_ and _H. Brasilensis_). Though near the rivers, the
wild rubber has been exploited to some small extent, not always wisely,
the output of the district is very far below what it might be, apart from
the possibility of plantation rubber, the lack of development being due,
as throughout the Orinoco region, to lack of population. Practically all
the available hands work at the collection of rubber, but a few trees
of _Bertholettia excelsa_, the Brazil-nut, have been planted near San
Fernando, and the enormous quantities of wild nuts which at present
lie on the ground and rot will doubtless one day be systematically
collected and exported; to mention only one other of the many forest
products, there are, along the Orinoco below San Fernando, many natural
cacao patches (_Theobroma cacao_), as yet untouched and undeveloped.
It is hardly necessary to speak of the valuable timber-trees of which
the forests are largely composed, and the quantity of natural vegetable
products of the region is as yet only to be surmised from the casual
specimens brought in by natives or travellers.
Nor is there lack of mineral resources; the _lajas_ which so often occur
both in the savannahs and as bare patches in the midst of the forest
frequently show indications of metallic ores, and below Pericos, on the
Orinoca, copper is said to be visible in the river banks. The Indians
frequently show specimens of ores, iron, manganese, copper, and even
gold, the localities of which they are not unnaturally unwilling to
reveal until there is some prospect of development of the “mine.”
Finally, the big falls on the Cataniapo and Sipapo and other tributaries
of the Orinoco, with the rapids of the main river, promise a supply of
power in the Piaroa territory sufficient for all probable demands for
many years to come.
The 75 kilometres of open water between the Atures and Maipures Rapids is
navigable for steamers during the greater part of the year, but the upper
of the two great “raudales” proves a bar again to through communication
with the upper Orinoco and its tributaries. Above Maipures, however,
there is no serious hindrance to navigation, even through to the Amazon
basin by way of the Casiquiare bifurcation.
[Illustration: CROSSING THE TORBES IN FLOOD.]
Some twenty miles above Maipures the Orinoco receives the large volume
of water drained by the River Vichada from the llanos of the San Martin
territory of Colombia, and a little over one hundred miles from Maipures
the Guaviare and Atabapo discharge their waters side by side into the
main stream.
From the mouth of the Guaviare up to Esmeralda is probably the best known
portion of the upper valley, since it is here that the majority of small
rubber prospectors have obtained small fortunes after a short period of
hard and rough labour in the insect-infested forests. The same causes
as those referred to above in the lower parts of the Orinoco have here
also prevented more systematic and continuous exploitation; those who
have ventured to brave the discomforts and dangers of the forest have
almost invariably retired with their gains to taste such pleasures of
civilisation as the towns of the Lower Orinoco and neighbouring regions
afford; thus the scanty population remains stationary, and previously,
from want either of sufficient interest or opportunity, capital has never
attempted to introduce colonists or to develop the resources of the
region with such labour as can be had.
The _picadores de goma_ have thus only seen the forests along the river
for a few kilometres on either bank, and the remoter parts of the region
are as little known as any other part of the territory of the Amazons.
The rubber collectors enter the forest in the month of October, the
season lasting from then to February or March, and parcel out the forest
among themselves, each man taking an area including some five hundred
trees or more. He then proceeds to cut an _estrada_ through the forest
along a tortuous course, so arranged that about half the rubber-trees lie
on either side. He will begin to traverse this path at sunrise and tap
the trees of either group on alternate days, the latex being carried back
to the river late in the day and put to smoke in huts by the river. Each
day he may collect eight or ten gallons of sap, and so twelve or fifteen
hundredweight in the season, in addition to inferior gums derived from
the creepers which hang everywhere from the large forest trees.
The rubber and other valuable trees, including the wild cacao and
brazil-nuts, seem to become less scattered above Maipures, and this is
doubtless an additional reason for the greater extent of exploitation in
this more remote district, while it should also be remembered that the
Casiquiare affords a highway for the bold and industrious Banibas and
other Indians of the Rio Negro basin to the rubber-producing forests,
which afford better returns than those in their immediate neighbourhood.
About forty miles above the mouth of the Guaviare, where the Orinoco
again changes the direction of its course from parallel to meridian, the
Delta and mouth of the great Ventuari tributary is encountered and beyond
this the course is in a south-easterly direction and so continues as far
as the source. The famous Casiquiare bifurcation is about 150 miles above
the mouth of the Ventuari; and Esmeralda, the highest point of attempted
permanent civilisation on the Orinoco, is some twenty miles beyond.
Esmeralda was, even in Humboldt’s time, a flourishing mission, but has
been now for many years little more than a name, the houses being reduced
to two or three huts. The name is derived from the quantity of fragments
of chloritic and colourless quartz which lie scattered about the grass
plains on which the mission was established. All travellers bear witness
to the beauty of the position, with the peak of Duida visible beyond the
forest to the north-east; but they also agree in considering Esmeralda
the worst place for the tiny sandflies (mosquitoes of the Spaniards),
which are the great plague of the Upper Orinoco.
Duida appears to be one of the peaks of the vertical-sided tableland
type usual in Guayana, belonging to a range of mountains extending into
the Piaroa territory, though broken at many points by river valleys,
including that of the Ventuari. Though similarity of form cannot always
be regarded as indicating identity of composition, the fact that such
observations as have been made point to the floor of the whole elevated
plateau of Guayana, here as elsewhere, being made of the same granite as
that of the Roraima Hills and the Callao goldfields. It seems justifiable
to suppose that all these peculiar mountains are of the same probably
pre-Cambrian sediments, and it may be that Mount Duida and the range of
which it is part will be found to be pierced by the dykes and sills which
elsewhere in the Guayanas are often found to be accompanied by gold and
other ores.
Beyond Esmeralda several travellers, from the time of Don Francisco de
Bobadilla downwards, have reached the Raudal de los Guaharibos, but all
have been compelled to turn back from those rapids, on account of the
ferocity of the Indians of that name. Only one traveller claimed to have
been more fortunate than the rest and to have reached the source of the
great river. The Guaharibo Rapids are situated some 120 miles up-stream
from Esmeralda.
The Ventuari is the largest Venezuelan tributary of the Upper Orinoco,
yet the three hundred miles or so of its course are practically unknown
to Europeans. As far as its valley has been explored, alternating forests
and savannahs have been found. Across these in colonial times there was
once a track uniting Esmeralda directly with the Lower Orinoco by way of
the Caura; the route lay up the Padamo and then across the head-waters
of the Ventuari to the source of the Erewato, a tributary of the Caura.
Along this road there was a chain of forts, but the cruelties of the
soldiers at last led the Indians to unite for their examination, and
Humboldt tells us that every man in the fifty-league-long chain of forts
was slain one night in 1776. The Indians told him that by this road it
was ten days from Esmeralda to the headquarters of the Ventuari, and two
days thence to the mouth of the Erewato.
Some of the upland savannahs which this road crossed must be excellently
situated both for occupation by Europeans and for stock-raising, but the
region is naturally very difficult of access at present, lying as it does
in the very back of the hinterland of the Guayana. These districts are
occupied by the Maquiritare, near relatives of, if not identical with,
the Waiomgomo of the Caura. Their territory produces rubber and timber
as well as gold. Auriferous quartz is said to have been seen by casual
traders up the Ventuari, and the inhabitants collect the precious metal,
storing it in jars, with which, by devious waterways and many portages,
they travel across to British Guiana to trade for rifles of a quality
unobtainable in southern Venezuela.
Separated by a narrow ridge from the Ventuari is the upper valley of the
Merevari (Caura), a practically unknown region, scantily peopled by the
Waiomgomo, and apparently possessing no particular attractions from a
commercial point of view.
On the south side of the main river we have one of the most notable
instances of a natural phenomenon peculiar to the elevated inland plain
of South America in the celebrated bifurcation of the Casiquiare, some
twenty miles below Esmeralda. The watershed between the Orinoco and the
Rio Negro is here very ill defined, and near the bifurcation a line of
slight elevation on the southern bank of the former river is all that
exists to separate the two great drainage systems. At the head of the
Casiquiare the elevation is sufficiently reduced to allow some part of
the water of the Orinoco to overflow into the southern drainage area,
and so affords a through waterway to the whole of the Amazon Valley.
On the eastern side of the _Brazo_, as it is called, there are numerous
tributaries, whose upper courses are absolutely unknown, save from the
casual reports of wandering Indians. The main stream and its affluents
alike flow through great forests, and the immediate neighbourhood of the
Casiquiare being level, the valley is damp and abounds in small lakes and
swamps.
There is abundant rubber in the forests, but the life of the inhabitants
of the small settlements, which are mainly supported by this industry,
is a miserable one. They live chiefly on cassava, accompanied by much
alcohol in one form or another, from champagne to raw sugar spirit; if
other beverages fail, they have even fallen back on eau-de-Cologne,
brought from Pará or Ciudad Bolivar and, one would have imagined, too
expensive a luxury to be imbibed in quantity.
The Casiquiare discharges its waters into the Guainia, or more correctly,
the two streams join to form the Rio Negro, the river being known by that
name below the junction. The highest village of importance on the Guainia
is Maroa, the seat of government of the Rio Negro district. The Guainia
being a clear, deep (_i.e._, black) stream, with a cloudless sky overhead
and no mosquitoes, Maroa enjoys a good climate. Its inhabitants cultivate
an excellent quality of manioc and manufacture hammocks.
The forests of the Guainia and Rio Negro are comparatively little known,
though some rubber is collected along the banks. The old settlement of
San Carlos, on the Rio Negro, is now abandoned, and beyond this there are
no Venezuelan villages before the hill known as the Cerro del Cucuhy,
which marks the Brazilian frontier, and beyond lies the military station
of Cucuhy, occupied by soldiers of the latter republic.
Although, as we have seen, it is possible to travel by water from the
Orinoco to the Amazon, the more direct route up the Atabapo and across
the “Isthmus” of Pimichin to the Guainia is generally used by the Indians
and traders.
Above San Fernando there are no towns on the banks of the Atabapo,
though many native villages. To the south-east of the capital is the
wide savannah of Santa Barbara, capable of supporting a vast number of
cattle. Farther south the banks are forest-covered, and when the head of
navigation is reached at Yavita the route across to Pimichin lies between
giant trees, which have attracted the attention of many travellers.
The watershed here between the two rivers has no great elevation, and
it would be possible to excavate a canal and so provide a far shorter
waterway between the two great river systems. Whether such a project will
ever seem to be justified is another matter.
The great hindrance to progress over the whole of the Amazons territory
is at present lack of population, for with less than two persons to the
square mile it is impossible to do much towards developing the country.
Apart from their natural lack of enthusiasm, the Indians have for over
a century been neglected as far as education is concerned, and whether
judicious action in this direction on the part of the Government would
be possible or profitable one cannot say. The general tendency of the
authorities is rather towards colonisation by Europeans, with due
regard to the protection of the Indians. However its development may
eventually come about, there is no doubt of the great possibilities of
the territory, pastoral, agricultural, and mineral resources being alike
abundant and untried.