VOYAGE UP THE ATABAPO, 161 



•was manned by a crew of four Indians, and provisioned 

 with oranges and niaQoca. The latter is a coarse, grated 

 flour, made from the yuca-root {3Ianihot utlllssima), the 

 Portuguese substitute for the Venezuelian cassava. 



Upon the 6th of December, we set sail up the Atabapo, 

 a stream one-half a mile in breadth, whose low, wooded 

 banks were submerged by the overflow of the river. Its 

 waters were of a brownish color, and yet so transparent that 

 objects could be seen at the depth of three and even four 

 fathoms. The temperature of these aguas negras is much 

 lower than that of the white waters of the Orinoco, and 

 afibrded a more grateful beverage than the turbid element 

 we had been compelled to use for so long a time. "We 

 were now no longer annoyed by the torment of insects, 

 for mosquitoes and sancudos are seldom found on black- 

 water rivers. Neither do crocodiles haunt the limpid 

 stream of the Atabapo, and the splash of the falling igua- 

 nas docs not startle the voyager. The forest, too, seemed 

 hushed in silence ; the plaintive cry of monkeys was no 

 longer heard, and but few birds were seen. Not a leaf 

 rustled, for no breeze ever disturbs the quiet of these deep 

 solitudes — all was silent as the grave. The mountains 

 were also wanting, and our eyes scanned in vain the forest 

 horizon for the slightest elevation to relieve the same- 

 ness of the landscape. 



The first night upon the Atabapo we passed with our 

 boat anchored to a rock in the middle of the dark stream. 

 When some distance on our way the following morning, 

 we discovered that a little basket belonging to Senor 

 Level, containing several letters he was conveying to 

 individuals upon the Rio Negro, twenty dollars in gold, 

 and, what he seemed to regret most, his cigarettes, with 

 which he was intending to regale himself upon the jour- 

 ney, had somehow been lost overboard where we had 

 spent the night. Comforting himself with the assurance 



