178 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
rounded by plantations of manioc growing almost to the 
size of trees, A flock of 20 to 30 goats was a novel sight ; 
but the master being absent, we could not purchase one. 
The women sold us some manioc, and gave us a jar of water. 
At the upper end of the valley we found a complete banza 
of ant hills, placed with more regularity than the native ban- 
zas ; they were very large, and had the shape of a mushroom, 
but sometimes with double and treble domes, the latter evi- 
dently intended te carry off the water in the rains. At four 
o'clock we reached the river at Mavoonda Boaya, where we 
found it still lined with rocks and vast heaps of sand, but 
free from all obstruction i the middle, from two to three 
hundred yards wide; the current gentle (not above two 
miles an hour), and a strong counter current running up 
on the north shore ; its direction N. W. 
The Macaya of Mavoonda being told of our arrival, visit- 
ed us in a few hours, and was very civil, and seemingly re- 
joiced to see white men; in return for his civility and his 
palm wine, I gave him a cotton umbrella. The information 
received here, of the upward course of the river, was more 
distinct than any we have yet had; all the persons we spoke 
to agreeing that, after ten days in a canoe, we should come to 
a large sandy island, which makes two channels, one to the 
N.W. and the other to the N.E.; that in the latter there is a 
