R. H. SCnOMBURGK. 73 



now connected ^vith those of Humboldt at Esme- 

 ralda. 



The village was a few hundred yards from the 

 shore ; half-way to it they were met by the Alcade, 

 who welcomed them, in Spanish, to his hut, where 

 his wife, children, and grandchildren had assembled. 

 He was attired simply in a shirt made of the bark 

 of a tree called mai^bna ; and, excepting a miserable 

 half-starved looking being of an Indian, who had 

 not long arrived from Brazil, he was the only adult 

 male inhabitant of the place. 



Thirty-nine years had now elapsed since Alexan- 

 der von Humboldt visited Esmeralda, and found in 

 the most remote Christian settlement on the Upper 

 Orinoco a population of eighty persons. The cross 

 before the village still showed that its inhabitants 

 professed to be Christians; but their number had 

 dwindled to a single family, — a patriarch and his 

 grandchildren. A ridge of heaped-up boulders of gra- 

 nite, named Caquire, occupies the fore-ground, and at 

 its foot Esmeralda is situate. Some pious hand had 

 planted a cross on the largest of these blocks, the 

 airy form of which stands boldly in relief against 

 the blue sky, reminding the traveller that there are 

 still some in this wilderness who adore the Deity 

 and acknowledoe a crucified Saviour. 



o 



If, however, the works of man in this secluded 

 spot have fallen into decay. Nature still remains the 

 same. Duida still raises its lofty summit to the 

 clouds ; and flat savannahs, interspersed with tufts 

 of trees and the majestic Mauritia palm, stretch 



