60 MEMOIR OF 



tude and five hundred of latitude. Of many of 

 them he fortunately possesses copies. 



Continuing on, and ascending the Rupununi in 

 a westerly direction for about thirty miles, he esta- 

 blished his camp on its southern shore, at the mouth 

 of the Roiwa ; while he pushed on to the Macusi 

 settlement at Annai, in order to procure a supply 

 of cassada-bread. On his return he commenced the 

 ascent of the Roiwa, its course for thirty miles run- 

 ning nearly parallel to the Essequibo, at an average 

 distance of fifteen miles. Several rapids occur in 

 its course. At one spot it makes an almost circular 

 sweep of about two miles in diameter; and the 

 natives have cut a small canal or ditcli across the 

 isthmus for about one hundred yards, and thus 

 save the circuit in their smaller canoes. Now be- 

 came visible the elevated summit of the mountain 

 Ataraipu, one of the greatest natural wonders of 

 Guiana. Towards this mountain the travellers pro- 

 ceeded, along the stream Guidaru. After tw^o hours 

 scrambling through woods so dense that they were 

 at times obliged to clear their way with cutlasses, 

 they ascended a mass of granite about four hundred 

 feet high, when the natural pyramid of Ataraipu, 

 or Devil's Rock, * burst on their sight, raising its 

 bare head from an abyss of dense foliage which 

 spread around in all directions at its foot, and stand- 

 ing, like a giant, " to sentinel enchanted lands." Its 

 base is wooded for about three hundred and fifty 

 feet high ; from thence arises the mass of granite, 

 * See Views in Guiana, by R. Schoraburgk. 



