152 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



hatch some one casually broke his, which action led to 

 the discovery that it contained no shells; neither were the 

 others loaded. One of the men while cleaning them that 

 afternoon had removed the cartridges and failed to reload 

 them. Fortunately, the jaguar is not quite as savage as 

 he is usually pictured, or there might have been a lively 

 scene on the playa. 



There is but one other rapid of importance in the 

 Orinoco before reaching the cataracts of Atures, and that 

 is San Borja, not far above the mouth of the Meta. Just 

 above this narrow stretch of seething water we met another 

 boat about the size of the Hilo de Oro, which was cruising 

 back and forth near the bank, her crew directing loud shouts 

 toward the forest at frequent intervals. Upon inquiry 

 we found that one of the men had gone into the woods to 

 cut a pole; the other members of the crew had heard him 

 chopping, as he had not entered the matted vegetation 

 more than fifty feet; suddenly the chopping ceased, but 

 the man did not come out; although they had searched 

 far and near, no trace of him had been found, and this was 

 the fourth day after his disappearance. The supposition 

 was that he had been killed and carried away by Indians. 



Perrico was formerly the port of call for sailing craft be- 

 low Atures. At the time of our arrival there was nothing 

 whatever there, not even a single hut. We continued up 

 the river half a mile to a place called Vagre; here we found 

 the remains of two palm-leaf huts, long since fallen down 

 and overgrown with vegetation. In the small clearing a 

 few cotton-stalks, beans, pawpaws, and castor-bean bushes 

 still struggled for existence with the invading hosts of 

 creepers and second-growth sprouts; the forest was rapidly 

 reclaiming its own. On the sandy river-bank were the 

 tracks of jaguars and caimans. At this point the river 

 is divided into a number of branches by islands, and the 

 one on which Vagre was situated is not over five hundred 

 feet wide. Beyond this point a boat of any size cannot 

 proceed; it is the foot of the series of cataracts, six miles 



