36 MEMOIR OF 



They now approached the mountain-range of 

 Conocor or Canuku, through which the Rupununi 

 has forced a passage, carrying a width of about a 

 hundred and thirty yards. Some of these moun- 

 tains rise to the height of from two thousand to 

 two thousand five hundred feet. They are of gra- 

 nite, well covered with wood, and are inhabited by 

 ti numerous tribe of Indians called "VVapisianas or 

 Mapeshanas. Near a village of these Indians our 

 travellers with their attendants encamped. On 

 landing, amidst a very heavy rain, all hands were 

 set to work building temporary huts. The axe, the 

 hatchet, and cutlass were heard resounding in all 

 directions, and many a young tree or graceful palm 

 was speedily laid low. The rain descended in tor- 

 rents for several days. To add to the annoyance, 

 Mr. Schomburgk was sufi'ering from a severe tertian 

 fever ; his situation, therefore, in a hut covered only 

 by a sort of wax cloth, open to the rain from all 

 sides, w4th the thermometer at 78 deg. Fahrenheit 

 at noon, was certainly not to be envied. Never- 

 theless, he did not delay setting off, taking with 

 him in a small corial only four Indians and their 

 chief. Jacobus. 



The state of the river soon obliged him to make 

 a stoppage ; it was now only an insignificant moun- 

 tain stream, beset by granitic rocks and sand-banks. 

 He landed, therefore ; but it was only to encounter 

 a new, and. if possible, more provoking annoyance : 

 a small species of sand-fly, called by the Indians 

 mapXre^ which were in thousands over the river, 



