THE RIO METJL. 229 



From Cabruta to the mouth of the Kio Sinaruco, a 

 distance of nearly two degrees of latitude, the left bank of 

 the Orinoco is entirely uninhabited; but to the west of 

 the Randal de Cariven an enterprising man, Don Felix 

 Relinchon, had assembled some Jaruro and Ottomac Indiana 

 in a small village. It is an attempt at civilization, on which 

 the monks have had no direct influence. It is superfluous 

 to add, that Don Felix lives at open war with the mis- 

 sionaries on the right bank of the Orinoco. 



Proceeding up the river we arrived, at nine in the morning, 

 before the mouth of the Meta, opposite the spot where the 

 Mission of Santa Teresa, founded by the Jesuits, was here- 

 tofore situated. 



Next to the Guaviare, the Meta is the most considerable 

 river that flows into the Orinoco. It may be compared to 

 the Danube, not for the length of its course, but for the 

 volume of its waters. Its mean depth is thirty-six feet, 

 and it sometimes reaches eighty-four. The union of these 

 two rivers presents a very impressive spectacle. Lonely 

 rocks rise on the eastern bank. Blocks of granite, piled 

 upon one another, appear from afar like castles in ruins, 

 vast sandy shores keep the skirting of the forest at a distance 

 from the river ; but we discover amid them, in the horizon, 

 solitary palm-trees, backed by the sky, and crowning the 

 tops of the mountains. "We passed two hours on a large 

 rock, standing in the middle of the Orinoco, and called the 

 Piedra de la Pacien^ia, or the Stone of Patience, because 

 the canoes, in going up, are sometimes detained there two 

 days, to extricate themselves from the whirlpool caused by 

 this rock. 



The Kio Meta, which traverses the vast plains of Casa- 

 nare, and which is navigable as far as the foot of the Andes 

 of New Grenada, will one day be of great political import- 

 ance to the inhabitants of Guiana and Venezuela. From 

 the Golfo Triste and the Boca del Drago a small fleet 

 may go up the Orinoco and the Meta to within fifteen or 

 twenty leagues of Santa Fe de Bogota. The flour of New 

 Grenada may be conveyed the same way. The Meta is like 

 a canal of communication between countries placed in tho 

 same latitude, but differing in their productions as much as 

 France and Senegal. The Meta has its source in the union 



