MOUNTAINS OF 1>UIDa. 233 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Route from Esmeralda to Angostura, 



Mission of Esmeralda — Curare Poison — Indians — Duida Moun- 

 tain—Descent of the Orinoco — Cave of Ataruipe — Raudaiito of 

 Carucari — Mission of Uruana — Character of the Otomacs — 

 Clay eaten by the Natives — Arrival at Angostura — The Travel- 

 lers attacked by Fever — Ferocity of the Crocodiles. 



Opposite the point where the division of the river takes cHAP. XIX. 

 place, there rises in the form of an amphitheatre a group j)„j,|~ 

 of granitic mountains, of which the principal one bears mountain. 

 the name of Duida. It is about 8500 feet high ; and 

 being perpendicular on the south and west, bare and 

 stony on the summit, and clothed on its less steep decliv- 

 ities with vast forests, presents a magnificent spectacle. 

 At the foot of this huge mass is placed the most solitary 

 and remote Christian settlement on the Upper Orinoco, 

 — the mission of Esmeralda, containing eighty inhabi- 

 tants. It is surrounded by a beautiful plain, covered 

 with grasses of various species, pine-apples, and clumps 

 of Mauritia palm, and watered by limpid rills. 



There was no monk at the village ; but the travellers HospitaWe 

 were received with kindness by an old officer, who, reception, 

 taking them for Catalonian shopkeepers, admired their 

 simplicity when he saw the bundles of paper in which 

 their plants were preserved, and which he supposed the}- 

 intended for sale. Notwithstanding the smallness of the 

 mission, three Indian languages were spoken in it ; and 

 among the inhabitants were some Zamboes, mulattoes, 



