218 PEAK OF COCUTZA. 



dred toisea of height; and when examining the queRtion 

 whether we may consider the stratum of clouds that enve- 

 lops the mountains as a horizontal continuation of the 

 stratum which we see immediately above us in the plains. 



The Orinoco, full of islands, begins to divide itself into 

 several branches, of which the most western remain dry 

 during the months of January and February. The total 

 breadth of the river exceeds two thousand five hundred or 

 three thousand toises. "We perceived to the East, opposite 

 the island of Javanavo, the mouth of the Cafio Aujacoa. 

 Between this Cano and the Eio Paruasi or Paruati, the 

 country becomes more and more woody. A solitary rock, 

 of extremely picturesque aspect, rises in the midst of a 

 forest of palm-trees, not far from the Orinoco. It is a 

 pillar of granite, a prismatic mass, the bare and steep sides 

 of which attain nearly two hundred feet in height. Its 

 point, which overtops the highest trees of the forest, is 

 terminated by a shelf of rock with a horizontal and smooth 

 surface. Other trees crown this summit, which the mis- 

 sionaries call the peak, or Mogote de Cocwyza. This monu- 

 ment of nature, in its simple grandeur recalls to mind the 

 Cyclopean remains of antiquity. Its strongly-marked out- 

 lines, and the group of trees and shrubs by which it is 

 crowned, stand out from the azure of the sky. It seems a 

 forest rising above a forest. 



Further on, near the mouth of the Paruasi, the Orinoco 

 narrows. On the east is perceived a mountain with a bare 

 top, projecting like a promontory. It is nearly three hun- 

 dred feet high, and served as a fortress for the Jesuits. 

 They had constructed there a small fort, with three batteries 

 of cannon, and it was constantly occupied by a military 

 detachment. We saw the cannon dismounted, and half- 

 buried in the sand, at Carichana and at Atures. This fort of 

 the Jesuits has been destroyed since the dissolution of their 

 society ; but the place is still called El Castillo. I find it 

 set down, in a manuscript map, lately completed at Caracas 

 by a member of the secular clergy, under the denomination 

 of "Trinchera del despotismo monacal."* 



The garrison which the Jesuits maintained on this rock, 

 was not intended merely to protect the Missions' against 

 * Intrenchment of monachal despotism. 



