BAIT ANTONIO DE JAVITA. 351 



tLe bed of the river. Our canoe remained fast for some 

 minutes between two trunks of trees ; and it was no sooner 

 disengaged than we reached a spot where several paths, or 

 small channels, crossed each other, so that the pilot was 

 puzzled to distinguish the most open path. We navigated 

 through a forest so thick that we could guide ourselves 

 neither by the sun nor by the stars. We were again struck 

 during this day by the want of arborescent ferns in that 

 country ; they diminish visibly from the sixth degree of north 

 latitude, while the palm-trees augment prodigiously towards 

 the equator. Pern-trees belong to a climate less hot, and 

 a soil but little mountainous. It is only where there are 

 mountains that these majestic plants descend towards the 

 plains ; they seem to avoid perfectly flat grounds, as those 

 through which run the Cassiquiare, the Temi, Inirida, and 

 the Bio Negro. We passed in the night near a rock, called 

 the Piedra de Astor by the missionaries. The ground from 

 the mouth of the Gruaviare constantly displays the same 

 geological formation. It is a vast granitic plain, in which 

 from league to league the rock pierces the soil, and forms, 

 not hillocks, but small masses, that resemble pillars or 

 ruined buildings. 



On the 1st of May the Indians chose to depart long 

 before sunrise. We were stirring before them, however, 

 because I waited (though vainly) for a star ready to pass 

 the meridian. In those humid regions covered with forests, 

 the nights became more obscure in proportion as we drew 

 nearer to the Rio Negro and the interior of Brazil. We 

 remained in the bed of the river till daybreak, being afraid 

 of losing ourselves among the trees. At sunrise we again 

 entered the inundated forest, to avoid the force of the 

 current. On reaching the junction of the Temi with an- 

 other little river, the Tuamini, the waters of which are 

 equally black, we proceeded along the latter to the south- 

 west. This direction led us near the mission of Javita, 

 which is founded on the banks of the Tuamini; and at 

 this Christian settlement we were to find the aid necessary 

 for transporting our canoe by land to the Eio Negro. We 

 did not arrive at San Antonio de Javita till near eleven in 

 the morning. An accident, unimportant in itself, but 

 which shows the excessive timidity of the little sagoina 



