158 THE MOUTH OF THE ZAMA. 



They spent two days and a half in the little village of 

 Maypures, on the banks of the great Upper Cataract, 

 and on the 21st of April embarked in the canoe they 

 had obtained from the missionary of Carichana. It 

 was much damaged by the shoals it had struck against, 

 and the carelessness of the Indians ; but still greater dan- 

 gers awaited it. It had to be dragged over land, across 

 an isthmus of thirtj^-six thousand feet; from the Rio 

 Tuamini to the Rio Negro, to go up by the Cassiquiare 

 to the Orinoco, and to repass the two cataracts. 



They landed at the mouth of the Rio Yichada or Yisata 

 to examine the plants of that part of the country. The 

 scenery was very singular. The forest was thin, and an 

 innumerable quantity of small rocks rose from the plain. 

 These formed massy prisms, ruined pillars, and solitary 

 towers fifteen or twenty feet high. Some were shaded 

 by the trees of the forest, others had their summits 

 crowned with palms. 



Passing the Cano Pirajavi on the east, and then a small 

 river on the west, they rested on the night of the 22d on 

 the shore of the Orinoco, at the mouth of the Zama. 

 Notwithstanding the " black waters" of the Zama, they 

 suffered greatly from insects. The night was beautiful, 

 without a breath of wind in the lower regions of the at- 

 mosphere, but towards two in the morning they saw thick 

 clouds crossing the zenith rapidly from east to west. 

 When, declining towards the horizon, they traversed the 

 great nebulae of Sagittarius and the Ship, they appeared 

 of a dark blue. 



The travellers left the mouth of the Zama at five in the 

 morning of the 23d. The river continued to be skirted 

 on both sides by a thick forest. The mountains on the 



