168 ATABAPO AND UPPEE EIO NEGRO, 



which we were to go as far as Movoa, we commenced 

 lloating down the meandering Cano Phnichin which leads 

 to the Rio Negro. The breadth of this black-water rivulet 

 where we embarked is scarcely thirty yards, and a more 

 crooked stream it would be difficult to imagine, its wind- 

 ings taking us to every point of the compass. The forest 

 bordering the river was, like those of the Atabapo and 

 Temi, inundated, and exhibited but few signs of animated 

 life. We jiassed two rapids in the descent of the stream, 

 at one of which we ran upon a rock, and for a moment 

 stuck fast, while the current, breaking against our frail 

 bark, made it quiver like a reed from stem to stern. Five 

 hours from the time we embarked at the village of Pinii- 

 chin, we arrived upon the Rio Negi'O, or Guainia, as the 

 river is called above Moroa. A long line of huge bowlders, 

 appearing like the central moraine of an ancient glacier, 

 stretched down the middle of the stream directly in front 

 of the mouth of the CaGo Pimichin. The Rio Negro 

 (black river) has been rightly named, for it is inky black, 

 nor do the many white-water tributaries which it re- 

 ceives, in its course of over twelve hundred miles from its 

 source among the isolated group of hills in the plains to 

 the east of Javita, seem to affect perceptibly its peculiar 

 colorization. The water itself as it pours from the paddle 

 appears of a reddish tinge. 



A short distance below the mouth of the Pimichin, 

 upon the left bank, is the village of Morcia, where we soon 

 landed and took possession of the casa real, while our 

 Indians dispersed through the place, and ScSor Level 

 sought the domestic retirement of his own cottage. He 

 had never married, still his family was quite an extensive 

 one, consisting of a number of Indian women and girls, 

 together with several youngsters of various complexions 

 who called him padre. In this country of loose morals, 

 where social tics are little regarded, such ecenS are not 



