R. H. SCHOMBURGK. 75 



travellers found in an almost starving condition, and 

 were assisted by the party in a small craft bought 

 for the purpose. 



On the 22d April they reached Fort San Joaquim. 

 Seven months and two days had elapsed since their 

 departure from this establishment; during which 

 period the expedition had made a circuit of about 

 two thousand two hundred miles, through a tract 

 comprising the sources of the northern tributaries of 

 the Takutu, the waters of the Mazaruni, the sources 

 of the Caroni, northern tributaries of the Narima, 

 the sources of the Parawa, the Parima proper, the 

 Merewari, the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and the 

 northern tributaries of the Rio Negro to the con- 

 fluence of the Rio Branco, which river they had 

 now ascended for three hundred miles, including 

 its windings, in twenty days, and eventually reached 

 their starting point at Fort San Joaquim. 



On arriving at Pirara, they found a Brazilian de- 

 tachment in possession, who ultimately drove away 

 the zealous missionary, the Rev. Mr. Youd, and 

 dispersed his flock. What right the Brazilian go- 

 vernment had thus to act, need not be discussed 

 here ; but let the fact be reported, that the former 

 chapel was converted into barracks, and the build- 

 ing where the first seeds of Christianity had been 

 sown amongst the benighted Indians, became the 

 theatre of obscene language and nightly revels. 



After three months' drought, the first rain fell at 

 Pirara on the 3d May, and with it commenced the 



