CHAPTER IV. 



UP THE OEIKOCO, 



The next journey that the travellers made was to the 

 Orinoco. In the afternoon of the 30th of March, they 

 set sail from San Fernando in a large canoe, managed by 

 a pilot and four Indians. They constructed, near the 

 stern, a cabin covered with palm-leaves, sufficiently 

 spacious to contain a table and benches. These were 

 made of ox-hides, strained tight, and nailed to frames of 

 brazil-wood. The canoe was loaded with provisions for 

 a month ; fowls, eggs, plantains, cassava, and cocoa, not 

 forgetting sherry wine, oranges, and tamarinds, which 

 were given them by the Capuchins. 



They soon entered a land inhabited only by tigers, 

 crocodiles, and tapirs. They saw flocks of birds, crowded 

 so closely together as to appear against the sky like a 

 dark cloud which every instant changed its form. The 

 river widened by degrees. One of its banks was barren 

 and sandy from the effect of inundations ; the other was 

 higher, and covered with lofty trees. In some parts the 

 river was bordered by forests on each side, and formed a 

 straight canal nine hundred feet broad. The manner in 

 which the trees were disposed was remarkable. First 

 were bushes of sauso, forming a kind of hedge four feet 



