R. H. SCHOMBURGK. 67 



coxswain at the head, carrying the British union 

 flag, under which they had been marching for the 

 last three years through hitherto unknown parts of 

 Guiana. Now it was to lead them beyond the 

 British boundaries, into regions only known to the 

 copper-coloured Indian ; but they were animated 

 with the hope of reaching, for the first time, from 

 this side of the continent, that point which Baron 

 Humboldt had, in 1800, after many difficulties, 

 arrived at from the westward, — namely, Esmeralda 

 on the Orinoco. They now bent their way across 

 the savannahs, a dreary march, and at night were 

 surprised at finding themselves surrounded by an 

 ocean of flame. The hunters had set the savannahs 

 on fire, black columns of smoke were rolling on- 

 wards, and the noise of the hollow stalks of the 

 large grasses, bursting with the heat, was almost 

 deafening. 



Having crossed the Mahu and continued for some 

 distance over the savannah country, they turned to 

 the northward and entered a basin-like expanse, 

 surrounded by high mountains, amongst which are 

 three peaks, especially remarkable from their singu- 

 lar appearance. The highest, estimated at fifty feet, 

 appeared to be of columnar basalt, terminating at 

 the summit with an abrupt pillar ; of the remaining 

 two, one was a group of trap rocks, and the other a 

 mass of rock which any traveller might mistake for 

 the stump of an old tree, and which the Indians call 

 Pure-piapa, signifying " the headless tree." The 

 rock rises to an altitude of fifty feet ; its sides partly 



