36 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE 



the year 1854. Nearly all the whites in the canton seem eager to join 

 uSj being possessed with the idea that there is certainly an El Dorado 

 at the source of the- Orinoco. Don Gregorio is at present making a 

 progress through his dominions, having come to San Carlos by the 

 Atabapo and Guainia^ and returning by the Casiquiare and Orinoco. He 

 proposes to ascend above Esmeralda as far as the mouth of the Manaca, 

 and to enter three days' journey within this river, where there is a pueblo, 

 established a few years ago. He engages to make eveiywhere inquiries 

 as to the best route for reaching the sources of the Orinoco, and the 

 facilities or hindrances we may expect to encounter. I heard from 

 him the other day, from about midway along the Casiquiare ; and he 



promises to write to me again, should there be opportunity, from Esme- 

 ralda. 



As to the modes of reaching the sources of the Orinoco, besides that 

 of following the river itself, there appear to be several. When I was 

 at the Barra, the most direct route seemed to be by the Eio Padaniri, 

 whose mouth is a little eastward of the 64th meridian. This laree 





•ge river entering 



river has its sources "in the Serra de Tapiira-pecu, or " Ox's-tongue, 

 and the Orinoco is considered to rise on the north-eastern slopes of the 

 same serra. Persons who have ascended high up the Padaniri, in quest 

 of salsaparilha, assure me they have met Indians from the sources of the 

 Orinoco. The river Padaniri, however, gives dysentery and the ague 

 to every one who enters it; and it was here my countryman, Mr. Bradley, 

 caught the illness which proved fatal to him, while cutting piassaba 

 with a party of Indians. The Marania is the next la 

 the Eio Negro on the same side, but its course is ascertained to be 

 much shorter than that of the Padaniri. The Eio Canaboris, which 

 enters the Eio Negro on the 66th meridian, probably extends nearly to 

 the Orinoco ; in its lower part it makes a large curve to the westward^ 

 nearly parallel to that of the Eio Negro ; and I have been assured by 

 Indians at S. Gabriel, that it ran not much to the eastward of that 

 place. From Marabitanas, the frontier town of Brazil, I could dis- 

 tinctly see, though at a great distance, the serrania called Pird-puM, or 

 "The Long Pish," whose base is laved by the Canaboris. The lofty 

 ridge seems to run westward, trending slightly northward ; and the 

 portion of it seen from Marabitanas extends through an an^-le of about 



D" "** ""6 



90*^ (from east nearly to north), its prolongation westward being hidden 

 from view by the forest on the opposite side of the river. With mv 



