402 LOCALITY OF THE AMAZON STONES 



which is known to all the inhabitants of Esmeralda,* seems 

 to indicate that the Orinoco must be very narrow at this 

 point. It is generally estimated by the Indians to be only 

 two or three "hundred feet broaa. They say, that the 

 Orinoco, above the B-audal of the Grtiaharibos, is no longer a 

 river, but a brook (riachuelo) ; while a well informed eccle- 

 siastic, Fray Juan Gonzales, who had visited those countries, 

 assured me, that the Orinoco, in the part where its farther 

 course is no no longer known, is two-thirds of the breadth 

 of the Rio Negro near San Carlos. This opinion appears to 

 me hardly probable ; but I relate what I have collected, and 

 affirm nothing positively. 



In the rocky dike that crosses the Orinoco, forming the 

 Baudal of the Guaharibos, Spanish soldiers pretend to have 

 found the fine kind of saussurite (Amazon-stone), of which 

 we have spoken. This tradition however is very uncertain ; 

 and the Indians, whom I interrogated on the subject, as- 

 sured me, that the green stones, called piedras de Macagua\ 

 at Esmeralda, were purchased from the Guaicas and Gruaha- 

 ribos, who traffic with hordes much farther to the east. 

 The same uncertainty prevails respecting these stones, as 

 that which attaches to many other valuable productions of 

 the Indies. On the coast, at the distance of some hundred 

 leagues, the country where they are found is positively 

 named; but when the traveller with difficulty penetrates 

 into that country, he discovers that the natives are ignorant 

 even of the name of the object of his research. It might be 

 supposed that the amulets of saussurite found in the posses- 

 sion of the Indians of the Bio Negro, come from the Lower 

 Maranon, while those that are received by the missions of 

 the Upper Orinoco and the Bio Carony come from a 

 country situated between the sources of the Essequibo and 

 the Bio Branco. The opinion that this stone is taken in 



* The Amazon also is crossed twice on bridges of wood near its source 

 in the lake Lauricocha ; first north of Chavin, and then below the con- 

 fluence of the Rio Aguamiras. These, the only two bridges that have 

 been thrown over the largest river we yet know, are called Puente de 

 Quivilla, and Puente de Guancaybamba. 



t The etymology of this name, which is unknown to me, might lead to 

 the knowledge of the spot where these stones are found. I have sought 

 in vain the name of Macagua among the numerous tributary streams of 

 the Tacutu, the Maho, the Rupu-iury, and the Rio Trombetus. 



