276 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



Javita. Before them lay Monte Pimichin, which forms the 

 watershed between the Orinoco and the Amazon, and is noto- 

 rious for the serpents with which it is infested. A land journey 

 of three days across this portage, over which the pirogue was 

 carried by the Indians, brought the travellers to the Rio Negro, 

 the course of which they followed still farther south to San 

 Carlos, on the frontier of Brazil. This, the most southern point 

 of their travels, in 2 North latitude, was reached on May 7. 

 Leaving the Rio Negro, a little above San Carlos, at the con- 

 fluence of the Casiquiare, they followed the course of this river 

 in a north-easterly direction until it joined the Orinoco, thus 

 proving incontestably that a communication existed between 

 the Orinoco and the Amazon. The furthest point to which 

 they followed the Orinoco was Esmeralda, which they reached 

 on May 21, a town situated opposite the mountain of Duida. 



On May 23, 1800, the travellers commenced their return 

 journey. From Esmeralda they descended the Orinoco as far 

 as Angostura, the capital of Gruiana, visiting on May 31 the 

 Cavern of Atoruipe, the burial-place of the extinct race of the 

 Aturs. At Angostura they remained from June 15 till July 10, 

 when they proceeded on foot northward through the Llanos of 

 Barcelona. Their arrival at Barcelona on July 23 brought to 

 a close this highly interesting journey, during which they had 

 travelled 1725 miles through a wild and uninhabited region, 

 and, among other important results, had obtained the solution 

 of the problem of the bifurcation of the Orinoco, the position 

 of which was accurately determined by astronomical observa- 

 tion. 



At Barcelona the travellers again rested for some weeks, and 

 not till September 1 was Humboldt able to reach Cumana and 

 find himself once more under the hospitable roof of Don Vincente 

 Emperan, the governor of that province. 



The letters written by Humboldt during this journey are 

 naturally very inferior in matters of detail, as well as in general 

 scientific interest, to the succinct account of his travels published 

 in his works, but they possess the inestimable advantage of 

 reflecting the warmth and freshness of individual feeling excited 

 by the impressions of the moment, and vividly portray the mind 

 of the writer. Of the many letters belonging to this period our 



