210 UNCOMFORTABLE AEEANGEMENTS. 



tura, or at Grand Para, the two capitals situated on the 

 banks of the Orinoco and the Amazon, the fore-deck oi 

 which boats might be fitted up with two rows of cages shel- 

 tered from the rays of the sun. Every night, when we esta- 

 blished our watch, our collection of animals and our instru- 

 ments occupied the centre ; around these were placed first 

 our hammocks, then the hammocks of the Indians ; and on 

 the outside were the fires which are thought indispensable 

 against the attacks of the jaguar. About sunrise the mon- 

 keys in our cages answered the cries of the monkeys of the 

 forest. These communications between animals of the same 

 species sympathizing with one another, though unseen, one 

 party enjoying that liberty which the other regrets, have 

 something melancholy and affecting. 



In a canoe not three feet wide, and so incumbered, there 

 remained no other place for the dried plants, trunks, a 

 sextant, a dipping-needle, and the meteorological instru- 

 ments, than the space below the lattice-work of branches, on 

 which we were compelled to remain stretched the greater 

 part of the day. If we wished to take the least object out 

 of a trunk, or to use an instrument, it was necessary to 

 row ashore and land. To these inconveniences were joined 

 the torment of the mosquitos which swarmed under the 

 toldo, and the heat radiated from the leaves of the palm- 

 trees, the upper surface of which was continually exposed to 

 the solar rays. We attempted every instant, but always 

 without success, to amend our situation. While one of us 

 hid himself under a sheet to ward off the insects, the other 

 insisted on having green wood lighted beneath the toldo, in 

 the hope of driving away the mosquitos by the smoke. The 

 iminful sensations of the eyes, and the increase of heat, 

 already stifling, rendered both these contrivances alike im- 

 Dracticable. With some gaiety of temper, with feelings of 

 mutual good-will, and with a vivid taste for the majestic 

 grandeur of these vast valleys of rivers, travellers easily 

 support evils that become habitual. 



Our Indians showed us, on the right bank of the river, 

 the place which was formerly the site of the Mission of 

 Pararuma, founded by the Jesuits about the year 1733. 

 The mortality occasioned by the small-pox among the Salive 

 Indians was the principal cause of the dissolution of the 



