1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 17^ 



CHAP. XVI. 



AN EXPEDITION OF MR. BANKS TO TRACE THE RIVER: MARKS 

 OF SUBTERRANEOUS FIRE : PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING 

 THE ISLAND : AN ACCOUNT OF TUPIA. 



On the 3d, Mr. Banks set out early in the morning 

 with some Indian guides, to trace our river up the 

 valley from which it issues, and examine how far its 

 banks were inhabited. For about six miles they met 

 with houses, not far distant from each other, on each 

 side of the river, and the valley was every where about 

 four hundred yards wide from the foot of the hill on 

 one side to the foot of that on the other ; but they 

 were now shown a house which they were told was 

 the last that they would see. When they came up 

 to it, the master of it offered them refreshments of 

 cocoa-nuts and other fruits, of which they accepted. 

 After a short stay, they walked forward for a con- 

 siderable time : in bad way it is not easy to compute 

 distances, but they imagined that they had walked 

 about six miles farther, following the course of the 

 river, when they frequently passed under vaults, 

 formed by fragments of the rock, in which they were 

 told people who were benighted frequently passed 

 the night. Soon after they found the river banked 

 by steep rocks, from which a cascade, falling with 

 great violence, formed a pool, so steep, that the In- 

 dians said they could not pass it. They seemed, in- 

 deed, not much to be acquainted with the valley 

 beyond this place, their business lying chiefly upon 

 the declivity of the rocks on each side, and the plains 

 which extended on their summits, where they found 

 plenty of wild plantain, which they called Vae, The 

 way up these rocks from the banks of the river was 

 in every respect dreadful : the sides were nearly per- 

 pendicular, and in some places one hundred feet 



