mallei^ J PETROGLYPHS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 39 



the natives were probably as rude then as at the present time. But it must not be 

 forgotten that * * nations of very different descent, when in a similar uncivilized 

 state, having the same disposition to simplify and generalize outlines, and being im- 

 pelled by inherent mental dispositions to form rythmical repetitious and series, may 

 be led to produce similar signs and symbols. * ' * Some miles from Encaramada, 

 there rises, in the middle of the savannah, the rock Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. 

 It shews several figures of animals and symbolical outlines which resemble much 

 those observed by us at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara, in 7° 5' to 

 7° 40' lat., and 66° 28' to 67° 23' W. long, from Greenwich. Rocks thus marked are 

 found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (in 2° 5' to 3° 20' lat.), and what is 

 particularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles farther to the East in the solitudes 

 of the Pariiue. This last fact is placed beyond a doubt by the journal of Nicholas 

 Hortsman, of which I have seen a copy in the handwriting of the celebrated D'Auville. 

 That simple and modest traveller wrote down every day, on the spot, what had ap- 

 peared to him most worthy of notice, and he deserves perhaps the more credence be- 

 cause, being full of dissatisfaction at having failed to discover the objects of his 

 researches, the Lake of Dorado, with lumps of gold and a diamond mine, he looked 

 with a certain degree of contempt on whatever fell in his way. He found, on the 16th 

 of April, 1749, on the banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot where the river winding be- 

 tween tho Maearaua mountains forms several small cascades, and before arriving in 

 the district immediately round Lake Amucu, " rocks covered with figures," — or, as he 

 says in Portugese, " de varias letras." We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on 

 the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters, arranged in lines — 

 but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly bodies, boa-serpents, and the uten- 

 sils employed in preparing manioc meal. I have never found among these painted 

 rocks (piedras pintadas) any symmetrical arrangement or any regular even-spaced 

 characters. I am therefore disposed to think that the word "letras" in Hortsmann's 

 journal must not be taken in the strictest sense. 



.Schomburgk was not so fortunate as to rediscover the rock seen by Hortsmaun, but 

 he has seen and described others on the banks of the Essequibo, near the cascade of 

 Warraputa. " This cascade," he. says, "is celebrated not only for its height hut also 

 for the quantity of figures cut on the rock, which have great resemblance to those 

 which I have seen in the islaud of St. John, one of the Virgin Islands, and which I 

 consider to be, without doubt, the work of the Caribs, by whom that part of the An- 

 tilles was formerly inhabited. I made the utmost efforts to detach portions of the 

 rock which contained tho inscription, and which I desired to take with me, but the 

 stone was too hard and fever had taken away my strength. Neither promises nor 

 threats could prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with a hammer to these 

 rocks — the venerable monuments of the superior mental cultivation of their predeces- 

 sors. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit, and the different tribes who 

 we met with, though living at a. great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with 

 them. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who appeared to 

 expect every moment that the lire of heaven would fall on my head. I saw clearly 

 that my endeavors would he fruitless, and I contented myself with bringing away a 

 complete drawing of these memorials." Even the veneration everywhere 



testified by the Indians of the present day for these rude sculptures of their predeces- 

 sors, shews that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. There is an- 

 other circumstance which should be mentioned: between Encaramada aud Caycara, 

 on the bauks of the Orinoco, a number of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured 

 on the face of precipices at a height which could now be reached only by means of 

 extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the natives how these figures have been 

 cut, they answer, laughing, as if it. were a fact of which none but a white man could 

 be ignorant, that " in the days of the great waters their fathers went iu canoes at that 

 height." Thus a geological fancy is made to afford an answer to the problem pre- 

 sented by a civilization which has long passed away. 



