R. H. SCHOMBURGK. 59 



JOURNEY TO THE SOURCES OP THE ESSEQUIBO, TO 

 FORT ST. JOAQUIM, AND TO ESMERALDA, ON THE 

 UPPER ORINOCO. 



Upwards of five months had passed away since 

 his return from the expedition to the river Berbice, 

 during the greater part of which Mr. Schomburgk 

 had been laid up with a severe attack of yellow 

 fever, when, having recovered sufficient strength and 

 health, he determined to lose no more time in carry- 

 ing out the grand objects for which he had been 

 sent to these distant reofions. 



On the ]2th September, 1837, therefore, in his 

 friend Mr. Arrindell's schooner, he quitted George- 

 town, and, sailing up the broad expanse of the 

 Essequibo, soon reached Ampa, about thirty miles 

 upon its eastern shore, where he remained a few 

 days in order to complete his crews. 



On arriving at the Cumuti or Taquiara rocks, 

 our traveller climbed these masses of granite, which 

 by measurement, he found to be a hundred and 

 sixty feet in height. On one of the rocks, a Carib 

 pointed out some Indian "picture writing," re- 

 sembling the sculptures eastward of Ekaterinburg, 

 in Siberia ; and at Dighton, near the banks of the 

 Taunton river, twelve leagues south of Boston, in 

 North America, to which some antiquaries have 

 ascribed a Phoenician origin. In this part of South 

 America, ]Mr. Schomburgk has himself traced these 

 inscriptions through seven hundred miles of longi- 



