178 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



rounded by plantations of manioc growing almost to the 

 size of trees, A flock of 20 to 30 goats was a novel sight ; 

 but the master being absent, we could not purchase one. 

 The women sold us some manioc, and gave us ajar of water. 

 At the upper end of the valley we found a complete banza 

 of ant hills, placed with more regularity than the native ban- 

 zas ; they were very large, and had the shape of a mushroom, 

 but sometimes with double and treble domes, the latter evi- 

 dently intended to carry off the water in the rains. At four 

 o'clock we reached the river at Mavoonda Boaya, Avhere we 

 found it still lined with rocks and vast heaps of sand, but 

 free from all obstruction in the middle, from two to three 

 hundred yards wide ; the current gentle (not above two 

 miles an hour), and a strong counter current running up 

 on the north shore ; its direction N. W. 



The Macaya of Mavoonda being told of our arrival, visit- 

 ed us in a few hours, and was very civil, and seemingly re- 

 joiced to see white men ; in return for his civility and his 

 palm wine, I gave him a cotton umbrella. The information 

 received here, of the upward course of the river, was more 

 distinct than any we have yet had ; all the persons we spoke 

 to agreeing that, after ten days in a canoe, we should come to 

 a large sandy island, which makes two channels, one to the 

 N.W. and the other to the N.E.; that in the latter there is a 



