CHAPTER XI
THE MAQUIRITARES’ LAND AND THE UPPER ORINOCO
San Fernando, on the Atabapo, consists of about fifty adobe huts of the usual type, and at the time of our arrival was all but deserted. Almost the entire population had gone up-river to the scattered rubber-camps, as this was the season for collecting the valuable latex.
The town is situated on the Atabapo, where this river and the Guaviare unite, and its elevation above sea-level is three hundred and seventy feet. The mean temperature is about 80° F., although in the sun the mercury ascends to 112° F. or more, but the place is not particularly unhealthful.
The water of the Guaviare is muddy, while that of the Atabapo is of a clear red color and unfit for drinking. There are few fish, no crocodiles or sand-flies, and practically no mosquitoes, all of which is attributed to the discolored water. Two small springs near the town furnish an abundant supply of potable water, and when during the rainy season these are covered with the overflow from the river it is necessary to paddle across and fill the water-jars from the Guaviare.
To secure a crew of men for our trip up the river was a difficult undertaking and required a great deal of time. This gave us an opportunity of exploring the surrounding country.
In the immediate vicinity of San Fernando the forest has been cut down and tall second-growth sprouts form dense thickets; this is a favorite resort of many small birds, and several species of night-hawks make it a daytime rendezvous. The basic granite crops out in many places, the strata occasionally standing on end, and it is often streaked with narrow seams of quartz. There is no cultivation of any kind; the inhabitants lack all initiative for work and eat tinned foods and mandioc received in exchange for trinkets from the Indians.
When we returned a few months later a changed town confronted us. The rubber-collectors had returned from their several months isolation in the interior, and were spending the fruits of their labor as rapidly as possible. Dance-halls, gaming-dens, and almost every conceivable device for relieving men of their money had sprung up like mushrooms, and there was drinking and merrymaking day and night. Then suddenly, and without presage, a tragedy occurred; it will never be forgotten by the few who survived.
Governor Pulido, so it was rumored, had imposed a new tax on all rubber collected in the district, and had come to San Fernando to personally collect the extortion. Naturally, there was a good deal of dissatisfaction, and one night, just after we had been provided with a canoe and secretly advised to leave as soon as possible, the storm broke. A band of men, said to be under the leadership of one Colonel Funes, an Indian and the most notorious man in the district, attacked the town, killed the governor, and practically the entire male population, and rifled the shops and dwellings. If one may believe the tales of the few who escaped the brutalities committed that night, the deeds rival those of the most barbaric ages.
Perhaps some of those who perished deserved their fate, others assuredly did not; but it is a fact that government offices had been conducted abominably. In the post-office, for example, stamps were sold for twice their face value, and if one did not purchase them there and place them on the letters in full view of the postmaster, the mail was destroyed. A physician who chanced to be there, named La Page, and who apparently belonged to the military organization as he wore the regulation uniform, tried to collect over four hundred dollars gold for a few injections of quinine; and so the robbery went on until the whole band was exterminated.
Having engaged a captain with some experience on the Upper Orinoco, and a crew, we on February 3 loaded the low _batelão_ and started on our mission, reaching a point called _Puerto Ti Ti_ that night; from this spot a wide trail leads through the magnificent forest to the clearing wherein stands San Fernando.
For six days we made slow but steady progress up the river, and then entered the formidable _Raudal de Santa Barbara_, which extends across the entire delta of the Ventuari.
The Orinoco is wide but with few exceptions so shallow that we pushed along with long poles. Where the water was deep and the current swift, long-handled hooks were used to catch the overhanging vegetation and pull the boat along. This latter mode of travel was always slow and dangerous and the swarms of wasps and other insects living among the leaves, and shaken down, were far from being agreeable travelling companions. The banks were covered with dense, virgin forest; but there were extensive sand-banks and flat ledges of rock at convenient intervals, and one of these was always chosen for a night’s camping-site. If we chanced to be on a _playa_, the early hours of the evening were spent in fishing. Armed with _machetes_, a bag, and acetylene-lamps, we waded out in the shallow water and “shined” the shoals of fish much in the manner that frogs are caught in parts of this country. At night the fish swam near the surface, and by directing the rays of the strong white light upon them one could approach to within a short distance and then strike with the knife: in this manner large numbers were taken. Occasionally a stingray, electric eel, or crocodile was suddenly encountered and then there ensued a hurried scramble in the other direction; this gave the pastime a decided element of sport. We also became more familiar with the dreaded _caribe_ or cannibal fish, known as the _piranha_ in Brazil, with which the water teemed. In the Orinoco they attain a weight exceeding three pounds and are formidable indeed. The natives will not go in bathing except in very shallow water, and I know of two instances where men were attacked and severely bitten before they could escape. The fish somewhat resembles a bass in shape, although the mouth is smaller; the jaws are armed with triangular, razor-edged teeth; and as they travel in immense shoals they are capable of easily devouring a man or large animal if caught in deep water. Floundering or splashing in the water attracts them, but they seldom attack unless their appetite has been whetted by a taste of blood; and then woe to the unfortunate creature which falls into their power. To catch them, we used a large hook secured to a long wire leader and baited with any kind of raw meat, and they always put up a good fight. Without a wire, a line would be bitten in two every time a fish struck. When taken from the water they are first killed by a blow on the head with the _machete_, and then removed from the hook.
At night there was always a heavy dew, and it rained intermittently each day. On dark nights, and often after a shower, the banks of the river where there was forest glowed with twinkling phosphorescence. Examination showed that the decaying vegetation was filled with myriads of small, wriggling insects, greatly resembling our well-known cellar-bug (_Isopod_), and one day we paddled for many hours through a mass of flying ants which had come to grief in the river. The water was covered with them and the waves had tossed them up on the banks to a depth of several inches. Another thing that attracted our attention was the large number of bats. On one occasion we heard a dull rumbling among the granite ledges near camp, and not long after a stream of bats began to emerge from the cracks; from a distance they resembled a cloud of smoke. There must have been many thousands, for the black masses continued to rise until darkness obscured them from our view. Spruce records that on one occasion he saw not less than a million under similar circumstances. This brings up an interesting problem. The individual range of these bats is probably not very great, the result of which is that immense numbers of them are distributed over a comparatively small area. Now, if the struggle for existence is as keen as is often supposed, how can the female, encumbered with her offspring fully three-fourths as large as herself, compete successfully with the unhampered males, and secure enough food not only for herself but also for her young? The fruit-eating varieties might not suffer seriously from this handicap, but it does seem as if the agility of the insectivorous kinds catching their food on the wing would be greatly affected.
There are numbers of curious formations along the river which cannot fail to attract the interest of the traveller, no matter what his particular mission might be. One of these is the Cerro Yapacana, a square block of granite not over one thousand five hundred feet high; it is a very conspicuous landmark as it towers above the forest like a giant monument, and can be seen many miles away. We did not come abreast of it until eight days after first sighting it.
There are few rubber-camps along this part of the river, but several Indian families had come to spend some weeks collecting turtles and eggs on the sand-banks. At night absolute quiet reigned on the _playas_ so long as the moon shone; but no sooner had the brilliant orb disappeared below the horizon than the water was broken with ripples as numbers of turtles emerged to deposit their eggs in the loose, warm sand, and jaguars came from the dark forest to feast on the defenseless creatures and rend the still night air with ugly coughs and grunts.
In returning from fishing excursions we usually cut across the several miles of sandy waste toward camp, guided by the bright fire which the cook was required to keep burning, and in this way learned a good deal about the turtle’s habits. After leaving the water the creature wends its way toward the highest point on the island or _playa_, and with a few powerful strokes of the flippers excavates a deep hole; the eggs, twenty to a hundred in number, are then deposited, after which the sand is scooped back into place and patted down so carefully that it takes a very experienced eye to locate the spot. The turtle then hurries back to the water, where it apparently remains until the following year. When the eggs, warmed by the sun’s rays, finally hatch, the _playas_ swarm with small turtles which are eagerly collected by the natives, boiled entire and eaten. The egg contains a great deal of oil, and although cooked a long time always remains soft. Iguana eggs are taken, also, and boiled and eaten, even when about to hatch.
Besides the turtles there were many other signs of life on the sand-banks. Water-birds, squatting low in some cup-shaped hollow, looked stupidly at the dazzling light of the gas-lamps, and could be approached to within a few feet; downy young birds waited quietly until nearly touched with the hand and then ran away into the darkness, like puffballs rolling before a breeze.
The _Raudal de Santa Barbara_ is a wicked stretch of water. The Ventuari, coming from the neighborhood of the Brazilian border, forms an extensive delta near its mouth. There are many islands, some of great size, and all heavily forested. The Orinoco is very wide, and hundreds of sharp, tall rocks protrude above the water, causing a series of rapids which are hard to ascend. It took us three days of the most trying kind of work to traverse this stretch of agitated water, and finally to haul the boat up the falls, which come as a sort of climax at the end. A strong wind blows from the north almost constantly, whipping the water into a choppy sea. On the bank stands a good-sized rubber-camp, and extra hands can usually be secured to help pull the boat through the rapids. The men from this place had just returned from a hunt in the forest, bringing two jaguars and an armadillo weighing sixty-five pounds. One of the jaguars was black. All of these animals were eaten, and of the two species the flesh of the jaguars was the better. One night, not long after, one of these animals invaded our camp. As the sand-bank we had selected was a narrow one, the crew chose to sleep on the forest side; they greatly feared the crocodiles in the river. Early in the morning I was awakened by a jaguar’s roaring mingled with frightened wails, and upon investigation discovered that the men had come to our part of the camp near the water, leaving the captain’s wife in their former location. They had reasoned that she was the least useful member of the party and had compelled her to remain as “bait.” Maria was sent back to San Fernando in the next canoe we met bound down the river.
The abundance of the big, spotted cats and their harmlessness under ordinary circumstances is astonishing, although at times they will attack human beings. At one of the rubber-camps we were shown the skin of a recently killed animal which had stalked a two-year-old child at play not far from the hut; the mother, a negress, seeing the animal in time, attacked it with a _machete_ and killed it.
The next river of any importance to be encountered was the Rio Lao, reached February 17. Up to this time the strong north wind had continued to blow without interruption, and the course of the river was dotted with islands. Rubber-camps were situated on the river-bank, and we had our first glimpses of the Maquiritare Indians. Owing to the frequent rains, the year had been a bad one for the _patrones_, or managers of the camps; also, a kind of malady had broken out among the _peons_ and Indians which killed many and frightened others away. Nevertheless, those who remained seemed quite contented, and if we chanced to spend the night at a camp or _barraca_, our men always joined them in their pastime of drinking, playing the guitar, and singing songs about one another, far into the night. Some of the men were clever at improvising songs apropos of the occasion. At one place, for instance, they heard of the jaguar’s visit to the sand-bank, and that the captain’s wife had been sent back to San Fernando. Without hesitation one of the peons sang:
_Qué tristeza en nuestro campamento, Pobrecito Ildefonso está llorando, A caramba, nadie está alegre, Será porqué Maria fué á San Fernando._
The largest _barraca_ by far which we saw was owned by an old Turk named Parraquete. He received us cordially, shook our hands, and embraced us, apologetically explaining that a slight fever prevented his rising from the hammock; later we found out that he was a leper in the last stages of the disease. He had fifteen Maquiritares in his employ, each of whom collected the latex from several hundred rubber-trees every morning; in the afternoon the milk was smoked, one hundred pounds of the liquid yielding about forty or fifty pounds of crude rubber. A species of heavy, deep-red wood called _mazarandul_ was used to produce the dense smoke necessary to coagulate the latex. _Hevea_ only was gathered here, although _balata_ was also collected farther down the river and on the Guaviare. The governor of the district told me that about fifteen million trees of the _balata_ had been cut down along the latter river during the last ten years, as the method used to secure this class of rubber necessitates felling the trees.
The proprietors of rubber-camps use the same system of keeping their employees that the commission merchants in Ciudad Bolivar, who are the purchasers of the crude product, employ in dealing with themselves; namely, they keep them constantly in debt by advancing quantities of merchandise at exorbitant prices. It is not unusual for one _patrón_ to sell some of his men to another for the amount of their indebtedness, or more, if he can get it, and sometimes an unsatisfactory _peon_ is turned loose in the wilderness to shift for himself; we picked up one who had been abandoned on a sand-bank, in a half-starved condition.
The Cerro Carriche is another granite mass similar to Yapacana, but not quite so high. It stands on the south bank of the river, between the mouths of two small rivers called Carriche and Trocoapure.
Early on February 21 we had the first distinct view of the Cerro Duida, looming, faintly outlined, in the distance. From afar it resembled a high, level plain, but as the vapor clinging to the huge, dark mass slowly dissolved itself, a well-defined short range appeared with twin peaks showing high above the rest of the mountains.
The Orinoco steadily decreases in width until the distance across is not more than half a mile; in many places the banks are high and composed of pink and white clay streaked with layers of dark-blue clay. On both sides the jungle presents an unbroken wall of tangled verdure; occasionally a slender palm rears its delicate head high above the riotous mass, as if gasping for one more breath of air before being strangled by the figs and creepers slowly entwining its stem with their death-dealing tentacles. Among the lower growth are vast areas of palms, known as _coco del mono_, with long fronds resembling those of the _Seaforthia_, and bearing small, hard nuts; the leaves are used in thatching huts and the _carroza_ or covering of the boats. Another palm, tall and thorny, resembles the well-known _chonta_ of Colombia; it bears large clusters of red nuts, which are very palatable when thoroughly boiled.
The heat was always intense and most oppressive; even the cool nights brought no respite, and in the early morning a thick vapor slowly rose from the water, to be later wafted above the tree-tops and disappear.
Flocks of hoatzins, or lizard-birds (_Opisthocomus cristatus_), were seen almost daily. They fussed and fluttered among the dense vegetation, but could not be induced to leave their dark retreat. There were also nesting-trees of the black and yellow orioles, better known as caciques, which are about the size of a blue jay; sometimes a single tree contained thirty or more nests placed close together, and also invariably a number of large wasp-nests were placed in the same tree. The nests of these birds differed from those of the giant orioles (_Ostinops_) in being smaller and having the opening at the top instead of at the side of the swinging bag.
At the end of the twentieth day we reached the mouth of the Cunucunuma, and camped upon its sandy banks for the night. This river is approximately five hundred feet wide at its mouth, shallow, with dark, clear water, and flows southward, joining the Orinoco at right angles, as the course of the latter river at this point is eastward; a low, forested hill called _Ventana_ rises to the north. One may cover the distance from the mouth of the Cunucunuma to the Cassiquiare in a day, and reach the plains on which was located Esmeraldas by continuing his journey an additional day.
Not far above the mouth of the river is the dry bed of a stream, said to have been the former course of the Cunucunuma; short, soft grass now covers the ancient, sandy route and the lines of trees on each side present such clean-cut edges as to suggest well-kept hedgerows. Tapirs and capybaras have worn many paths through the luxuriant sward; apparently these animals come out into the open at night to feed.
The current of the river is so strong that we could not average more than four or five miles a day. Through the clear water we could see shoals of fish and numbers of large sting-rays darting about over the bottom. One fish, resembling a beautifully spotted trout, rose eagerly to a trailing hook baited with a strip of white cloth; it weighed about a pound, and was called _pabón_ by the natives; on two occasions members of this species leaped clear of the water and into the boat as we poled along after nightfall. Another kind greatly resembled a flying-fish, and leaving the water singly or in pairs, skimmed over the surface for a distance of twenty yards or more, and then dropped with a splash; when “flying” it left a train of ripples in its wake, as if long appendages were trailing after it.
There now followed a series of low, disconnected mountains which might be called the foot-hills of Duida. The first of these is the Cerro Piapoco, one thousand three hundred feet high; parts of it are covered with low scrub growth, and the river winds around three sides of it. Next comes the Cerro Tapicure, a rounded granite mass approximately one thousand four hundred feet high. At the base of the latter is a Maquiritare plantation of _yucas_ (Manihot), pineapples, and plantains, on the edge of which stood the communal house, conical in shape and one hundred feet in diameter. The place was temporarily deserted, as the Indians were down-river gathering the rubber harvest. Near by also grew a palm new to us, the _Tamiche_; it is thirty feet high, with erect, undivided leaves, and the crown resembles a huge, green, opening tulip.
While tramping in the forest across the river from the Indian plantation we came suddenly upon a Maquiritare woman and her four small children, squatting around a small fire built under a rough lean-to. She was roasting a curassow and tearing off pieces for her young brood, which was devouring them with the voracity of wolves. The frightened glances of these wild people and their gnawing at the half-cooked flesh was quite in keeping with their surroundings, and stamped them immediately as a perfect part of the virgin wilderness.
Rapids are not wanting in the Cunucunuma. The first is the _Raudal del Muerto_, formed by a wide ledge of rock which extends across the river, and over which the water rushes with a deafening roar. Next comes the _Raudal del Sina_, which is longer but not so difficult to navigate. Just above this we entered the Sina, a small stream which comes from the direction of Duida, and ascended to its highest navigable point; this, however, was only a few miles above its mouth.
The Cunucunuma, it may be stated, rises in the vicinity of the little-known Cerro Cuachamacari, and may be ascended to the foot of the Cerro Maravaca. On most maps its course has been marked east of Duida, while in reality it is on the western side. Its tributaries from the east are the Tabarí, Sina, Cua, and Rio Negro; and from the west the Yacaré and Cumichi. There are numerous rapids. Besides the two mentioned, the Indians named the San Ramón, Rayao, Chacherito, Vaquiro, Mapaco, Chipirima, Picure, and Culebra, all of which must be passed before reaching Maravaca.
When rocks and low water barred a farther ascent we made camp on the high bank and began the arduous work of cutting a trail to Duida, about six miles distant. We had secured the services of a number of Maquiritares; two men, two women, and a boy, and these, together with the members of our crew, were immediately put to work on the trail. While this was in progress we devoted ourselves to the exploration of the forest and its inhabitants.
Apparently the Indians, who in common with many South American tribes seek the smaller streams for their habitations, and who live in small groups all along the Cunucunuma, rarely visited this locality. Game was so abundant and so tame that it was impossible that the animals had been persecuted to any considerable extent. We also visited the house of the chief of the tribe, named Antonio Yaracuma, whose _cunuco_ (clearing) was on the Cunucunuma, a few miles above the mouth of the Sina (Sina is a Maquiritare word meaning wolf). This place he chose to call Yacaré. Surrounding the great, conical house was a small patch of _yucas_ and pineapple-plants, walled in on all sides by the interminable forest. The edge of the roof came down to within five feet of the ground, and there were eight fireplaces, equal distances apart, showing that eight families occupied the dwelling. A perfect network of poles and beams supported the ragged grass and palm-leaf canopy, and from these various articles were suspended: Drums, made of sections of hollow tree-trunks and covered with the skin of a red howling monkey on one side and of a peccary on the other; long tubular baskets of wickerwork used to express the poisonous juice of the _yuca_ root in making _mandioca_; blow-guns ten feet long, hammocks, and fishing-tackle. Everything was immaculately clean and well arranged. On one side two small rooms had been built of adobe, one for the chief, and the other for storing baskets of _mandioca_, each of which held about a hundred pounds.
A walk around the edge of the clearing disclosed an obscure trail which zigzagged and wound through the forest about a mile and then opened into an immense plantation, which we estimated contained not less than a hundred acres. The trees had been cut down and burned, and _yucas_ neatly planted in hills stretched to the very edge of the clearing. Through the centre ran lanes of plantain and banana plants, bordered by rows of pineapples, sugar-cane, and cashews. The ground was carefully cultivated, and there were no weeds; the stalks of uprooted plants had been piled around the edge of the field forming a thick fence. The reason for maintaining such large plantations is that the women make a good deal of _mandioca_ to sell to the traders for cloth, matches, perfume, and trinkets. The men clear the ground; the women plant and care for the crops. From the juice of the _yuca_ a very intoxicating drink called _casire_ is made, and of this great quantities are consumed during the wild orgies which take place at frequent intervals. Boiling and fermentation destroy the poisonous effect of the fresh juice.
We found the forest around camp to be all but impenetrable on account of the underbrush and creepers. Also, there were a number of windfalls where cyclones had cut wide, clean swaths through the forest, leaving an upheaved barrier that could not be crossed without the liberal use of axe and _machete_. Small birds were abundant and travelled in mixed flocks. Of the larger birds there was an unfailing supply; guans and curassows strutted unconcernedly about, or flew into the lower branches of the trees to look at us with surprise or resentment; large tinamou ran about in pairs like chickens and were slow to take wing. Occasionally we ran into a flock of trumpeters (_Psophia_), which stared at us in curiosity for a few moments and then flew into a tree, and raised an unearthly din, cackling and screaming until dispersed by a few shots.
The Indians told a curious story about a trumpeter and a curassow. In the very beginning of things two of these birds decided upon a matrimonial alliance, but domestic troubles soon broke out and there was no possibility of a reconciliation; it was thereupon decided to lay the case before the gods who live on the summit of Mount Duida. The wise gods ordered them to fight it out; in the course of the combat that followed, the curassow pushed the trumpeter into the fire, burning off the feathers of the latter’s tail; the trumpeter promptly retaliated by pushing her mate into the fire, singeing his crest. Thereupon the gods decreed that they should remain in this humiliating plight for the rest of their days, and so even to this day the curassow wears a curled crest and the trumpeter has a very short tail.
No matter how far we chanced to go during the morning’s hunt it was always easy to determine the exact location of our camp. A colony of caciques had built their nests in the top of a tree near the tent, and quarrelled and chirped so noisily all day long that we could not get out of hearing of them.
After the trail had been completed for a distance of several miles, hunting was rendered much easier. It was a delight to wander noiselessly along the clean path and watch the wild things pursuing their daily activities. Tapirs moved quietly across the narrow lane, like shadows; but if disturbed crashed through the brush and thundered away like frightened horses. Large red squirrels frisked in the trees or fed in the nut-bearing palms. Monkeys were always about; there were red howlers, cebus, and small black woolly monkeys with gold-colored hands; the latter travelled in small troops and raced through the tree-tops at great speed, making long jumps from branch to branch; at frequent intervals during the morning and evening they raised their voices in shrill little cries of distress, resembling a series of quickly repeated ohs.
The river was teeming with fish. At night, after their work had been completed, the Indians, who camped on the water’s edge, threw in their lines and never failed to catch a goodly supply. While in our presence the men always wore blue cotton trousers and the women loose dresses of the same color, but when alone they threw aside all clothing.
Occasionally a light canoe containing women and children passed our camping-site, but they always remained as near as possible to the opposite bank and paid no attention to us whatever if we chanced to call to them; in fact, they could not even be induced to look in our direction.
The nights were always sultry and it rained frequently. If the weather permitted, a huge fire was built; into this a steady stream of fireflies or click-beetles winged their way to destruction. Late one night we heard a queer pattering on the top of the tent-fly; back and forth scurried the little feet, and up and down the sloping roof. Our acetylene-lamps revealed a family of opossums which had discovered an ideal playground. Often, too, we heard cautious footsteps near by, and the suddenly flashed light disclosed the glowing eyes of a deer, tapir, or jaguar, which gazed stupidly a moment into the dazzling brilliance and then darted away.
On account of the dampness mould formed so rapidly that cameras and all leather goods had to be cleaned daily, and there was great difficulty in drying specimens.
We had frequent views of Duida. Each morning at about ten the mist drifted from the summit and revealed the jagged, rocky peaks; our calculations placed the altitude of the mountain at approximately five thousand five hundred feet. Toward the Orinoco the mass presents a bold front, the sheer walls of granite rising to a height of several thousand feet. The western slope is gradual and any attempt to ascend the mountain should be made from that side.
Cutting the trail required more time than we had anticipated. It was our intention to remove the equipment to the very base of Duida, and this was impossible until a suitable way had been prepared. The intervening country is rolling and the hollows are filled with a network of deep, water-filled canyons; across these trees had to be felled to provide a means of crossing. Also, neither the Maquiritares or the Venezuelans proved to be very industrious, and were about as poor a class of assistants as can be found. However, work progressed steadily, and there came the day when the last bridge had been placed across the winding river, and we were able to proceed to the foot of Duida.
Near the mountain the forest assumes a different aspect. Instead of the tall trees there are vast groves of palms which form such a dense canopy that the sunlight never penetrates to the ground; for this reason there is no undergrowth, but the earth is covered with a soft carpet of dry leaves. Some of the plants attain such giant proportions, with fronds thirty or forty feet long and fifteen feet wide, they form great tent-like shelters.
As we neared the mountain the Indians became restive and finally refused to go any farther. They firmly believe that it is the abode of spirits who will be quick to resent any intrusion into their sacred precincts. Besides, the rainy season was fast approaching, and at night blinding flashes of lightning played among the crags, and the dull boom of distant thunder pierced the sultry blackness. Wind swept through the forest in fitful blasts, and it rained frequently. Sometimes the blasts attained the velocity of a cyclone and sent tall trees crashing down on all sides. The Indians could endure the strain no longer, so one night they quietly disappeared, taking the boat with them. At first this loss seemed anything but pleasant, but a raft was soon constructed, and two of the men were sent down to the nearest rubber-camp on the Orinoco for another craft. We never saw our Indians again, but one afternoon two men of the tribe visited our camp. They emerged silently from the forest, having concealed their canoe somewhere above or below, laden with baskets of plantains, sweet potatoes, and bananas, and several cakes of cassava bread, also a large, freshly killed curassow--enough provisions to keep two men a week. I thought they wanted to stop with us for the night, and showed them the fireplace. They paid no heed to my implied invitation, but dropped their burdens at our feet, reluctantly accepted a few fish-hooks which were offered to them, and then departed as mysteriously as they had come. Perhaps they had been sent by our erstwhile companions, who may have been conscientious enough to make some reparation for the theft of the canoe.
The rainy season advanced with such rapid strides that further work was impossible. Vapor hung over the forest like a pall for days at a time, and the river, rising with each passing hour, was quickly inundating the lowlands. The sight of the new canoe coming up the river was therefore a welcome one, and it did not require many days to pack our collections and outfit, stow them aboard, and steer a course downward with the rapid current. It required only nine days to reach San Fernando de Atabapo.
The results of the expedition are surprising and interesting. Duida is not the isolated “mountain island” it was commonly supposed to be, but is connected with the mountains of the Ventuari and Parima by a series of hills, some of which reach a height of over a thousand feet. Its elevation is comparatively low, being less than that of the Maravaca. To attempt its ascent from the Orinoco side seems hopeless on account of the frowning precipices facing the plains near Esmeraldas. The proper placing of the Cunucunuma and an elaboration of the map of the region are other results.
It should be remembered that the dry season is much shorter on the Upper Orinoco than on the lower river, and work must be pushed with the utmost speed. The tributaries of the Orinoco, as well as the main river, leave their banks soon after the beginning of the steady downpours, and the whole country is flooded many miles inland; in places the river is then one hundred and twenty miles wide; all the rubber-camps we had seen on the upward trip were totally deserted when we passed them going down, and of some of the huts the roofs only showed above the water; others had vanished with the yellow flood.
The collections of birds and mammals were large and interesting; they yielded a number of species and one genus new to science.
And finally, a word about assistants; under no circumstances should Venezuelans or Indians be depended upon. It is possible to secure experienced river-men in Trinidad, and with proper treatment they make faithful and efficient companions.