4 MR. SPRUCE’S VOYAGE 
time to be lost, for the first randal, passed with difficulty on the ascent, 
might now be impassable. It was as we feared—in attempting to 
shoot the fall the piragoa stuck on the rocks, and I know not how it 
: was she did not fill with water, as she swung round and fell over first 
to one side and then the other. With great risk, and in the midst of 
roaring breakers, which prevented us hearing the sound of one another's 
voice, we embarked the cargo by little and little in the curiara, and 
conveyed it to a small bit of bare dry rock, which fortunately appeared 
by the side. Then, some on board and some in the water, applying 
our united strength, we at last succeeded in pushing the piragoa off the 
rocks, and got all the cargo put on board again before the night fell, 
nor had the piragoa sustained the least injury. On the 6th we emerged 
from the Cunucunuma, and I had now to decide whither I should next 
bend my course.. There was little chance of getting much further up 
the Orinoco, from the small depth of water. In my way up the Casi- 
quiare I had entered lake Vasiva, and though it had dried so little that 
we could nowhere on its shores find a spot of land whereon to light a 
fire, the adjacent forests seemed to contain a peculiar vegetation. There 
were large playas covered with Palo de Balsa, now several feet under 
water, but left bare in the dry season, and my pilot, who had spent a 
summer in Vasiva catching turtle, told me that at that time the sand 
was covered by thousands of little annual plants. 
I determined, therefore, to explore Vasiva thoroughly, and I pic- 
tured to myself the numbers of new Burmannias, Utricularias, Pepa- 
lanthi, etc., I should gather on its shores. It was necessary to use 
all expedition, for when the Casiquiare is at its lowest, only small boats 
can navigate the upper part. We re-entered it about noon on the 7th, 
We and commenced our downward course. After sun-down it came on to 
= rain heavily, and did not clear up till ten o'clock the following morning, 
when the river had sensibly risen. Rain continued to fall daily, and 
the river to rise. On the 12th we reached an Indian settlement, a 
. A little above the mouth of the Vasiva—one of those pueblitos which are 
constantly springiug up on the Rio Negro and Casiquiare, endure a 
generation, and disappear with the demise “of their founder. The in- 
habitants called it Famédu-béni, i. e. * wild-man’s land." The “ Ya- 
madu” is a sort of Orson, a belief in whose existence, under various 
names, I have found to prevail throughout Terra Amazonica. Hoping 
the rise of the water might be only temporary, I waited in Yamadu-bani 
