4.1 S cgndamine's travels 



On the 4th of July, in the afternoon, 1 went on board a fmall two-oared canoe, 

 preceded by the Balfe, and efcorted by all the Indians of the hamlet. They were up 

 to the middle in the water for the.purpofe of guiding the Balfe through difficult chan- 

 nels, and preferving it from rocks, and down the gentle falls, from the violence of the 

 current. The fucceeding day, after a very tortuous courfe, I entered the Maraiion 

 about four leagues north of the fpot where I embarked. Here it isjhe Maranon begins 

 to be navigable. It now became neceflary to enlarge and ftrengthen the raft, which, 

 before, had been proportioned to the bed of the river I had floated down. During the 

 night, the river rofe ten feet, and rendered neceflary a hafl;y removal of a bower which 

 had ferved me for ftielter, and which the natives raife with marvellous flvill and promp- 

 titude. In this fpot I was detained three days by advice, or rather by order of the 

 guides, on whom I was obliged to rely. They had in confequence full leifure to pre- 

 pare the Balfe, and I alfo to make obfervations. I meafured the breadth of the river 

 trigonometrically, and, though narrower than before by from 15 to 20 toifes, I found 

 it 135 toifes wide*. Many rivers which it receives above Jaen are much broader, 

 which made me conclude its depth to be very confiderable : in fa£t, though I founded 

 with 28 toifes of cord, this did not reach its bottom at a third of its breadth from the 

 fide. In the middle of the fliroam I was unable to obtain foundings, as a canoe in this 

 part was carried along at the rate of a fathom and a half in a fecond. The barometer, 

 higher by four lines than at the port, indicated the level of the river to be lower by 

 50 toifes than at Chuchunga, from which place I had been but eight hours in defcend- 

 ing. At the fame place, I found the latitude 5° i' fouth. 



On the 8th, I continued my route, and pafled the fl:rait of "Cumbinamba, dangerous 

 on account of the fl:ones with which it is filled. It is fcarcely 20 toifes broad. The 

 next day I came to that of Efcarrebragas, which is one of a different defcription. The 

 river, arreflied in its courfe by the fide of a fteep rock, againfl; which it fl:rikes, is di- 

 verted fuddenly, fo as to form a right-angle with its former diredion. The fliock of 

 the tide, rendered more impetuous by the narrownefs of the channel, has hollowed a 

 deep bay, where the waters of the margin, feparated by the rapidity of the mid-flream, 

 are kept back. My raft, on which at that time I happened to be driven by the cur- 

 rent into this bay, for an hour and fome minutes, was inceflantly whirled about, the 

 fport of eddies. The waters, as they revolved, bore me towards the mid ftream, where 

 the waves, occafioned by the revulfion of the eddies, would infallibly have overwhelmed 

 a fmall canoe ; the fize and folidity of the float fecured it from this danger, but repeat- 

 edly did the force of the current drive me back to the bottom of the bay, from which 

 I was indebted for my ultimate releafe to the fliill of four Americans, whom I had re- 

 tained with a fmall canoe in cafe of accident. Thefe, navigating their bark along the 

 margin, climbed the rock, from which, with much difficulty, they threw Lianas, the 

 fubft:itutes in this country for cords, on board the raft, and, by means of thefe, dragged 

 it into the current. The fame day, I pafled a third fl:rait, called Guaracayo, in 

 which the bed of the river, confined between two immenfe rocks, is only thirty toifes 

 broad ; this ft:rait is dangerous only at the period of great fwells. ^n the evening of 

 the fame day, I met the large canoe from Sant Yago 5 but it would have taken it fix 

 days more to have reached the fpot from which I had fallen down fince the morning, 

 and which had taken me only ten hours. 



* 840 Englifti feet wide ; depth upwards of 175 feet ; diftance from the fea more than 2,600 Britifli 

 miles. 



9 On 



