THE CAVERN OF THE GUACHARO. 77 



In a country where the people loved the marvellous, a 

 cavern which gave birth to a river, and was inhabited 

 by thousands of nocturnal birds, the fat of which was 

 employed in the Missions to dress food, was an everlast- 

 ing object of conversation and discussion. The cavern, 

 which the natives called " a mine of fat," was not in the 

 valley of Caripe itself, but three short leagues distant 

 from the convent. 



Humboldt and Bonpland set out for it on the 18th 

 of September, acompanied by the alcaldes, or Indian 

 magistrates, and the greater part of the monks of the 

 convent. A narrow path led them at first towards the 

 south, across a fine plain, covered with beautiful turf. 

 They then turned westward, along the margin of a small 

 river which issued from the mouth of the cavern. They 

 ascended sometimes in the water, which was shallow, 

 sometimes between the torrent and a wall of rocks, on a 

 soil extremely slippery and miry. The falling down of 

 the earth, the scattered trunks of trees, over which the 

 mules could scarcely pass, and the creeping plants that 

 covered the ground, rendered this part of the road fa- 

 tiguing. They were within four hundred paces of the 

 cavern, and yet they could not perceive it. The torrent 

 ran in a crevice hollowed out by the waters, and they 

 went on under a cornice, the projection of which pre- 

 vented them from seeing the sky. The path wound in 

 the direction of the river ; and at the last turning they 

 came suddenly before the immense opening of the 

 grotto. Pierced in the vertical profile of a rock, the 

 entrance faced the south, and formed an arch eighty 

 feet broad, and seventy -two feet high. The rock 

 which surmounted the grotto was covered with trees 



