196 coircEPCioir DE URBANA. 



quent in those regions, and display at that period the 

 greatest intrepidity. 



On the following day, the 7th, we passed, on our right, the 

 mouth of the great Bio Auraca, celebrated for the immense 

 number of birds that frequent it; and, on our left, the 

 Mission of Uruana, commonly called La Concepcion de Ur- 

 lana. This small village, which contains five hundred souls, 

 was founded by the Jesuits, about the year 1748, by the 

 union of the Ottomac and Cavere Indians. It lies at the 

 foot of a mountain composed of detached blocks of granite, 

 which, I believe, bears the name of Saraguaca. Masses of 

 rock, separated one from the other by the effect of decom- 

 position, form caverns, in which we find indubitable proofs 

 of the ancient civilization of the natives. Hieroglyphic 

 figures, and even characters in regular lines, are seen sculp- 

 tured on their sides; though I doubt whether they bear 

 any analogy to alphabetic writing. We visited the Mission 

 of Uruana on our return from the Bio Negro, and saw with 

 our own eyes those heaps of earth which the Ottomacs eat, 

 and which have become the subject of such lively discussion 

 in Europe.* 



On measuring the breadth of the Orinoco between the 

 islands called Isla de Uruana and Isla de la Manteca, we 

 found it, during the high waters, 2674 toises, which make 

 nearly four nautical miles. This is eight times the breadth 

 of the Nile at Manfalout and Syout, yet we were at the 

 distance of a hundred and ninety-four leagues from the 

 mouth of the Orinoco. 



The temperature of the water at its surface was 27' 8 of 

 the centigrade thermometer, near Uruana. That of the 

 river Zaire, or Congo, in Africa, at an equal distance from 

 the equator, was found by Captain Tuckey, in the months 

 of July and August, to be only from 23'9 to 25'6. 



The western bank of the Orinoco remains low farther 



* This earth is a greasy kind of clay, which, in seasons of scarcity, the 

 natives use to assuage the cravings of hunger ; it having been proved by 

 their experience as well as by physiological researches, that want of food 

 can be more easily borne by filling the cavity of the stomach with some 

 substance, even although it may be in itself very nearly or totally innu- 

 tritions. The Indian hunters of North America, for the same purpose, 

 tie boards tightly across the abdomen ; and most savage races are found 

 to have recourse to expedients that answer the same end. 



