228 



MISSION OF SAN CARLOS. 



Reception. 



The Casi- 

 quiare. 



CHAP. XVIII. received Father Zea with great joy, and two young 

 wonien prepared cassava-cakes ; after which the tra- 

 vellers retired to rest. The family slept only till two in 

 the morning, when they began to converse in their 

 hammocks. This custom of being awake four or five 

 hours before sunrise Humboldt found to be general among 

 the people of Guiana ; and hence, when an attempt is 

 made to surprise them, the first part of the night is 

 chosen for the purpose. 



Proceeding down the Rio Negro they passed the 

 mouth of the Casiquiare, the river by which a commu- 

 nication is effected between the former and the Orinoco ; 

 and towards evening reached the mission of San Carlos 

 del Rio Negro, with the commander of which they 

 lodged. The military establishment of this frontier- 

 post consisted of seventeen soldiers, ten of whom were 

 detached for the security of the neighbouring stations. 

 The voyage from the mouth of the Rio Negro to Grand 

 Para occupying only twenty or twenty-five days, it 

 would not have taken much more time to have ,gone 

 down the Amazon to the coast of Brazil, than to return 

 by the Casiquiare and Orinoco to that of Caraccas ; but 

 our travellers were informed that it was difficult to pass 

 from the Spanish to the Portuguese settlements ; and it 

 was well for them that they declined this route, for they 

 afterwards learned that instructions had been issued to 

 seize and convey them to Lisbon. This project, however, 

 was not countenanced b}' the government at home, who, 

 when informed of the zeal of its subaltern agents, gave 

 instant orders that the philosophers should not be dis- 

 turbed in their pursuits. 



Among the Indians of the Rio Negro they found some 

 of those green pcl)blcs known by the name of Amazon- 

 stones, and which are worn as amulets. The form 

 usually given to them is that of the Persepolitan cylin- 

 ders longitudinally perforated. These hard substances 

 denote a degree of civilisation superior to that of the 

 present inhabitants, who, so far from being able to cut 

 them, imagine that they are naturally soft when taken 



Extent of 

 vojage. 



Indian 

 amulets. 



