148 THE MISSION OF SAN BOKJA. 



with their arms, and wearying the travellers with tneii 

 wild cries. It was night when they reached the Cataract 

 of Tabaje. As the Indians would not hazard passing the 

 cataract, they slept on a very incommodious spot, on the 

 shelf of a rock, with a slope of more than eighteen 

 degrees, and of which the crevices sheltered a swarm of 

 bats. They hoard the cries of the jaguar very near them 

 during the whole night. The jaguars were answered 

 by their great dog in lengthened howlings. Humboldt 

 waited the appearance of the stars in vain : the sky was 

 exceedingly black ; and the hoarse sounds of the cascades 

 of the Orinoco mingled with the rolling of the distant 

 thunder. 



Early in the morning of the 13th they passed the 

 rapids of Tabaje, and again disembarked. Father Zea, 

 who accompanied them, desired to perform mass in 

 the New Mission of San Borja, established two years 

 before. They found there six houses inhabited by un- 

 catechised Guahibos. They differed in nothing from the 

 wild Indians. Their eyes, which were large and black, 

 had more vivacity than those of the Indians who inha- 

 bited the ancient missions. They were offered brandy, 

 but they would not even taste it. The faces of all the 

 young girls were marked with round black spots ; like 

 the patches by which the ladies of Europe formerly 

 imagined they set off the whiteness of their skins. The 

 bodies of the Guahibos were not painted. Several of 

 them had beards, of which they seemed proud; and, 

 taking the white men by the chin, they showed them 

 by signs, that they were made like them. 



The Orinoco, in running from south to north, was 

 crossed by a chain of granitic mountains. Twice con^ 



