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MISSION OF ATURES.

rueni, they slept on the island of Panumana, which they found rich in plants, and where they again observed the low shelves of rock partially coated with the vegetation which they had admired at Carichana.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Voyage up the Orinoco continued.

Mission of Atures--Epidemic Fevers-Black Crust of Granitic RocksCauses of Depopulation of the Missions--Falls of Apures--Scenery→ Anecdote of a Jaguar-Domestic Animals-Wild Man of the Woods -Mosquitoes and other poisonous Insects--Mission and Cataracts of Maypures-Scenery--Inhabitants-Spice-trees--San Fernando de Atabapo-San Baltasar-The Mother's Rock--Vegetation-DolphinsSan Antonio de Javita--Indians--Elastic Gum--Serpents-Portage of the Pimichin-Arrival at the Rio Negro, a Branch of the AmazonAscent of the Casiquiare

LEAVING the island of Panumana at an early hour, the navigators continued to ascend the Orinoco, the scenery on which became more interesting the nearer they approached the great cataracts. The sky was in part obscured, and lightnings flashed among the dense clouds; but no thunder was heard. On the western bank of the river they perceived the fires of an encampment of Guahiboes, to intimidate whom some shots were discharged by the direction of the missionary. In the evening they arrived at the foot of the great fall, and passed the night at the mission of Atures, in its neighbourhood. The flat savanna which surrounds the village seemed to Humboldt to have formerly been the bed of the Orinoco.

This station was found to be in a deplorable state, the Indians having gradually deserted it until only

NOXIOUS EXHALATIONS FROM THE ROCKS. 207 forty-seven remained. At its foundation in 1748 several tribes had been assembled, which subsequently dispersed, and their places were supplied by the Guahiboes, who belong to the lowest grade of uncivilized society, and a few families of Macoes. The epidemic fevers, which prevail here at the commencement of the rainy season, contributed greatly to the decay of the establishment. This distemper is ascribed to the violent heats, excessive humidity of the air, bad food, and, as the natives believe, to the noxious exhalations that rise from the bare rocks of the rapids. This last is a curious circumstance, and, as Humboldt remarks, is the more worthy of attention on account of its being connected with a fact that has been observed in several parts of the world, although it has not yet been sufficiently explained.

Among the cataracts and falls of the Orinoco, the granite rocks, wherever they are periodically submersed, become smooth, and seem as if coated with black lead. The crust is only 03 of a line in thickness, and occurs chiefly on the quartzy parts of the stone, which is coarse-grained, and contains solitary crystals of hornblende. The same appearance is presented at the cataracts of Syene as well as those of the Congo. This black deposite, according to Mr. Children's analysis, consists of oxide of iron and manganese, to which some experiments of Humboldt induced him to add carbon and supercarburetted iron. The phenomenon has hitherto been observed only in the torrid zone, in rivers that overflow periodically and are bounded by primitive rocks, and is supposed by our author to arise from the precipitation of substances chymically dissolved in the water, and not from an efflorescence of matters contained in the rocks themselves. The Indians and missionaries assert, that the exhalations from these rocks are unwholesome, and consider it dangerous to sleep on granite near the river; and our

208

DEPOPULATION OF THE MISSIONS.

travellers, without entirely crediting this assertion, usually took care to avoid the black rocks at night. But the danger of reposing on them, Humboldt thinks, may rather be owing to the very great degree of warmth they retain during the night, which was found to be 85.5°, while that of the air was 78.8°. In the day their temperature was 118.4°, and the heat which they emitted was stifling.

Among the causes of the depopulation of the missions, Humboldt mentions the general insalubrity of the climate, bad nourishment, want of proper treatment in the diseases of children, and the practice of preventing pregnancy by the use of deleterious herbs. Among the savages of Guiana, when twins are produced one is always destroyed, from the idea that to bring more than one at a time into the world is to resemble rats, opossums, and the vilest animals; and that two children born at once cannot belong to the same father. When any physical deformity occurs in an infant, the father puts it to death, and those of a feeble constitution sometimes undergo the same fate, because the care which they require is disagreeable. "Such," says Humboldt, "is the simplicity of manners,-the boasted happiness of man in the state of nature! He kills his son to escape the ridicule of having twins, or to avoid travelling more slowly,-in fact to avoid a little inconvenience."

The two great cataracts of the Orinoco are formed by the passage of the river across a chain of granitic mountains, constituting part of the Parime range. By the natives they are called Mapara and Quittuna; but the missionaries have denominated them the falls of Atures and Maypures, after the first tribes which they assembled in the nearest villages. They are only forty-one miles distant from each other, and are not more than 345 miles west of the cordilleras of New-Grenada. They divide the Christian establishments of Spanish Guiana into two un

SCENERY OF THE LOWER CATARACT. 209

equal parts; those situated between the lower cataract, or that of Apures, being called the missions of the Lower Orinoco, and those between the upper cataract and the mountains of Duida being called the missions of the Upper Orinoco. The length of the lower section, including its sinuosities, is 897 miles, while that of the upper is 576 miles. The navigation of the river extends from its mouth to the point where it meets the Anaveni near the lower cataract, although in the upper part of this division there are rapids which can be passed only in small boats. The principal danger, however, is that which arises from natural rafts, consisting of trees interwoven with lianas, and covered with aquatic plants carried down by the current. The cataracts are formed by bars stretching across the bed of the river, which forces its way through a break in the mountains; but beyond this rugged pass the course is again open for a length of more than 576 miles.

The scenery in the vicinity of the lower fall is described as exceedingly beautiful. To the west of Atures, a pyramidal mountain, the Peak of Uniana, rises from a plain to the height of nearly 3200 feet. The savannas, which are covered with grasses and slender plants, though never inundated by the river, present a surprising luxuriance and diversity of vegetation. Piles of granitic blocks rise here and there, and at the margins of the plains occur deep valleys and ravines, the humid soil of which is covered with arums, heliconias, and lianas. The shelves of primitive rocks, scarcely elevated above the plain, are partially coated with lichens and mosses, together with succulent plants, and tufts of evergreen shrubs with shining leaves. On all sides the horizon is bounded by mountains, overgrown with forests of laurels, among which clusters of palms rise to the height of more than a hundred feet, their slender stems supporting tufts of feathery foliage. To the east of Atures other mountains ap

210

CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO.

pear, the ridge of which is composed of pointed cliffs, rising like huge pillars above the trees. When these columnar masses are situated near the Orinoco, flamingoes, herons, and other wading birds perch on their summits, and look like sentinels. In the vicinity of the cataracts, the moisture which is diffused in the air produces a perpetual verdure, and wherever soil has accumulated on the plains, it is occupied by the beautiful shrubs of the mountains.

The rainy season had scarcely commenced, yet the vegetation displayed all the vigour and brilliancy which on the coast it assumes only towards the end of the rains. The old trunks were decorated with orchidea, bannisterias, bignonias, arums, and other parasitic plants. Mimosas, figs, and laurels were the prevailing trees in the woody spots; and in the vicinity of the cataract were groups of heliconias, bamboos, and palms.

Along a space of more than five miles the bed of the Orinoco is traversed by numerous dikes of rock, forming natural dams, filled with islands of every form, some rocky and precipitous, while others resemble shoals. By these the river is broken up into torrents, which are ever dashing their spray against the rocks. They are all furnished with sylvan vegetation, and resemble a mass of palm-trees rising amid the foam of the waters. The current is divided into a multitude of rapids, each endeavouring to force a passage through the narrows, and is everywhere ingulfed in caverns, in one of which the travellers heard the water rolling at once over their heads and beneath their feet.

Notwithstanding the formidable aspect of this long succession of falls, the Indians pass many of them in their canoes. When ascending they swim on before, and after repeated efforts succeed in fixing a rope to a point of rock, and thus draw the canoe up the rapid. Sometimes it fills with water, and is not unfrequently dashed to pieces against the shelves;