178 THE RIO MATAVENI. 



scended from the mountains, and mingled with the 

 palm-trees of the plain. They^ rested that night on the 

 island of Minisi; and, after having passed the mouths 

 of the little rivers Qnejanuma, Ubua, and Masao, arrived, 

 on the 27th, at San Fernando de Atabapo. They 

 lodged in the same house which they had occupied a 

 month previously, when going up the Rio Negro. Then 

 they directed their course towards the south, by the 

 Atabapo and the Temi ; they were now returning from 

 the west, having made a long circuit by the Cassiquiare 

 and the Upper Orinoco. 



Quitting San Fernando on the 27th, they arrived, by 

 help of the rapid current of the Orinoco, in seven hours, 

 at the mouth of the Rio Mataveni. They passed the 

 night in the open air, under the granitic rock El Cas- 

 tillito, which rose in the middle of the river, the form of 

 which reminded Humboldt of the ruin called the Mouse- 

 tower, opposite Bingen. 



' Fair Binnfen on the Rhine." 



'& 



On the evening of the 31st they landed just before 

 sunset on the eastern bank of the Orinoco in order tc 

 visit the cavern of Ataruipe, the sepulchre of a de- 

 stroyed nation. 



They climbed with difficult}^, and not without some 

 danger, a steep rock of granite, entirely bare. It would 

 have been almost impossible for them to have fixed their 

 feet on its smooth and sloping surface, but for large crystals 

 of feldspar, resisting decomposition, which stood out from 

 the rock, and furnished points of support. Scarcely had 

 they attained the summit of the mountain when they 



