208 



CATARACTS OP THE OlilNOCO. 



Insalubrity 

 of cliinute- 



Destnic- 

 tioii of 

 cliildi'eii. 



CHAP.xviil. they retain during the night, which was found to be 

 — 9()-8^ while that of tlie air was 78-8°. In the day their 

 temperature was 118-4°, and the heat which they 

 emitted wivs stifling. 



Among the causes of the depopulation of the missions, 

 Humboldt mentions the general insalubrity of the cli- 

 mate, bad nouiishment, want of proper treatment in the 

 diseases of children, and the practice of preventing 

 pregnancy by the use of deleterious herbs. Among the 

 savages 'of Guiana, when twins are produced one is 

 always destroyed, from the idea that to bring more than 

 one at a time into the world is to resemble rats, opos- 

 sums, and the vilest animals, and that two children born 

 at once cannot l)eIong to the same father. When any 

 physical deformity occurs in an infant, the father puts 

 it to death, and those of a feeble constitution sometimes 

 unilergo the same fate, because the care which they 

 require is disagreeable. " Such," says Humboldt, " is 

 the simplicity of manners, — the boasted happiness of 

 man, in the state of nature ! He kills his son to escape 

 the ridicule of having twins, or to avoid travelling more 

 slowly, — in fact, to avoid a little inconvenience." 



The two great cataracts of the Orinoco are formed by 

 the passage of the river across a chain of granitic moun- 

 tains, constituting part of the Parime range. By the 

 natives they are called Mapara and Quittuna ; but the 

 missionaries have denominated them the falls of Atures 

 and Maypures, after the first tribes which they assembled 

 in the nearest villages. They are only 41 miles distant 

 from each other, and are not more than 845 miles west 

 of the Cordilleras of New Grenada. They divide the 

 Christian establishments of Spanish Guiana into two 

 unequal parts ; those situated l)et\vccn the lower cata- 

 ract, or that of Apures, and the mouth of the river, 

 being called the missions of tlie Lower Orinoco, and 

 those between the upper cataract and the mountains of 

 Duida, being called the missions of the Upper Orinoco. 

 The length of the lower section, including: its sinuosities, 

 ia 807 miles, while that of the upper is 57G miles. The 



Great 

 CaCaructs, 



Mission 

 EtaliOiis. 



