MISTtXESS O THE ATMOSPHERE. 403 



my part, was afraid lest I should again find the fogs of the 

 Rio Negro in the valley of the Cassiquiare. No one in 

 these missions for half a century past had doubted the 

 existence of communication between two great systems of 

 rivers; the important point of our voyage was confined there- 

 fore to fixing by astronomical observations the course of the 

 Cassiquiare, and particularly the point of its entrance into 

 the Eio Negro, and that of the bifurcation of the Orinoco. 

 Without a sight of the sun and the stars this object would 

 be frustrated, and we should have exposed ourselves in vain 

 to long and painful privations. Our fellow travellers would 

 have returned by the shortest way, that of the Pimichin and 

 the small rivers; but M. Bonpland preferred, like me, per- 

 sisting in the plan of the voyage, which we had traced for 

 ourselves in passing the Great Cataracts. We had already 

 travelled one hundred and eighty leagues in a boat from San 

 Fernando de Apure to San Carlos, on the Rio Apure, the 

 Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Terni, the Tuamini, and the Rio 

 Negro. In again entering the Orinoco by the Cassiquiafe 

 we had to navigate three hundred and twenty leagues, from 

 San Carlos to Angostura. By this way we had to struggle 

 against the currents during ten days; the rest was to be 

 performed by going down the stream of the Orinoco. It 

 would have been blamable to have suffered ourselves to be 

 discouraged by the fear of a cloudy sky, and by the mos- 

 quitos of the Cassiquiare. Our Indian pilot, who had been 

 recently at Mandavaca, promised us the sun, and "those 

 great stars that eat the clouds," as soon as we should have 

 left the black waters of the Ghiaviare. We therefore carried 

 out our first project of returning to San Fernando de Ata- 

 bapo by the Cassiquiare ; and, fortunately for our researches, 

 the prediction of the Indian was verified. The white waters 

 brought us by degrees a more serene sky, stars, mosquitos, 

 and crocodiles. 



We passed between the islands of Zaruma and Mini, or 

 Mibita, covered with thick vegetation; and, after having 

 ascended the rapids of the Piedra de Uinumane, we entered 

 the Rio Cassiquiare at the distance of eight miles from the 

 small fort of San Carlos. The Piedra, or granitic rock 

 which forms the little cataract, attracted our attention, on 

 account of the numerous veins of quartz by which it ia 



2 D 2 



