40 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE 



I have been twice to the junction of the Guainia and Casiquiare. 

 The water of the latter is not very white, which is explained by its 

 having received, duringr its course from the Orinoco^ two considerable 

 rivers of black water, the Pacimoni and Siapa. The Guainia and Ca- 

 siquiare seem of nearly equal bulk ; but neither can compare with the 

 Uaupes. It should be noted that the name " Guainia " does not extend 

 below the mouth of the Casiquiare, the junction of the two constitut- 

 ing the Rio Negro. " Quiare " is the ancient name of the Rio Negro*, 

 and " Casi-quiare " has evidently some connection with it, but what I 

 am not prepared to say. Possibly the prefix *'Casi" is pure Spanish 

 {Lat, quasi) ; for the Rio Negro is here considered the continuation 

 of the Casiquiare ("as it were the Quiare'*), and not of the Guainia. 



I am now preparing a boat to ascend the Casiquiare, and, if possible, 

 explore the mountains at the back of the Duida of Esmeralda, for which 

 purpose the preferable course seems to be to eater the Rio Cunucuniima, 

 whose mouth is half-a-day's journey on the Orinoco, below the Casi- 

 quiare. The summit of the Duida is said to be inaccessible, on account 

 of the perpendicular walls of rock on every side of it ; yet everybody 

 seems to know perfectly well that there is a round lake on the very top, 

 inhabited by a large turtle, the ^genius' of the mountain. Whether I 

 shall proceed direct from the Cunucunuma towards the sources of the 

 Orinoco, or first return to San Carlos, will depend on the intelligence 

 I receive from Don Gregorio en his reaching San Fernando. 



The gratification I naturally feel at finding myself fairly in terra Hii^n- 

 holdtiand is considerably lessened by various untoward circumstances, 

 not the least of which is the very great difficulty experienced here in 

 procuring the necessaries of life, — so great indeed, that it occupies nearly 

 all a persou*s time, especially when the river is filling, and we think 

 ourselves well off at San Carlos when we can eat once a day. Anciently, 

 when there were missions in most of the pueblos on the Orinoco and 

 Rio Negro, travellers had in them a ready resource; but for some 

 twenty years past there has not been a padre resident in the Canton del 

 Rio Negro, and scarcely one on the Orinoco out of Angostura. A 

 country without priests, lawyers, doctors, police, and soldiers, is not 

 quite so happy as Rousseau dreamt it ought to be ; and this, in which 

 I now am, has been in a state of gradual decadence ever since the sepa- 

 ration from Spain, at which period (or shortly after) the inhabitants 



♦ See Baeua, 'Ensmo Corografico sobre a Provincia do Para/ p. 530. 



