234 BAPLDS OF THE ATTJHES. 



island of Panuinana is rich in plants. "We there again 

 found those shelves of bare rock, those tufts of melastomas, 

 those thickets of small shrubs, the blended scenery of which 

 had charmed us in the plains of Carichana. The mountains 

 of the Great Cataracts bounded the horizon towards the 

 south-east. In proportion as we advanced, the shores of 

 the Orinoco exhibited a more imposing and picturesque 

 aspect. 



CHAPTER 



The Mouth of the Rio Anaveni. Peak of Uniana. Mission of Atures. 

 Cataract, or Raudal of Mapara. Islets of Surupamana and 

 Uirapuri. 



THE river of the Orinoco, in running from south to north, 

 is crossed by a chain of granitic mountains. Twice confined 

 in its course, it turbulently breaks on the rocks, that form 

 steps and transverse dykes. Nothing can be grander than 

 the aspect of this spot. Neither the fall of the Tequendama, 

 near Santa Fe de Bogota, nor the magnificent scenes of the 

 Cordilleras, could weaken the impression produced upon 

 my mind by the first view of the rapids of Atures and of 

 Maypures. When the spectator is so stationed that the 

 eye can at once take in the long succession of cataracts, the 

 immense sheet of foam and vapours illumined by the rays 

 of the setting sun, the whole river seeins as it were sus- 

 pended over its bed. 



Scenes so astonishing must for ages have fixed the atten- 

 tion of the inhabitants of the New World. When Diego de 

 Todaz, Alfonzo de Herrera, and the intrepid Ealeigh, an- 

 chored at the mouth of the Orinoco, they were informed 

 by the Indians of the Great Cataracts, which they them- 

 selves had never visited, and which they even confounded 

 with cascades farther to the east. Whatever obstacles the 

 force of vegetation under the torrid zone may throw in the 

 way of intercourse among nations, all that relates to the 

 course of great rivers acquires a celebrity which extends to 

 vast distances. The Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Tin* 

 guay, traverse, like inland arms of seas, in different direr-* 

 tions, a land covered with forests, and inhabited by tribf 3 



