Journey from Kalacoon to the Orinocco. 91 
labour, and there was no particular necessity for taking both batteaux further, 
I determined to send the larger one back with such things as I could do without. 
From hence I took with me only such necessaries as I should require for my return 
journey. The water was so low in the river that most of our impedimenta had 
to be put in the woodskins we had brought from the mouth of the Uruan. We 
camped early this afternoon at a Fall and portage called El Salto de la Muerte 
(death jump) as I had been suffering from fever all day. 
A notable feature while ascending the Uruan and Yuruari was the number of 
hieroglyphics or Indian picture writings on the rocks. Such as were turned away 
from the direction of the prevailing winds and rain had a compartively new 
appearance, but like other markings of a similar character mm other parts of the 
Colony, their age and meaning continue subjects of conjecture. Carib tradition 
asserts that at one time there was resident in these parts a tribe of Indians 
known as Carias and that the Caribs in one of their marauding excursions on 
the upper Cuyuni came into contact with this tribe by whom they were defeated. 
In the after cannibal feast that ensued the Carias placed a wounded Carib on a 
stump and bade him look on and go back to his tribe and tell them what would 
happen if they again came into the Caria Country. In Some way according to 
tradition, this man succeeded in getting back to his tribe and delivered his 
message ; the result of which was that at the next dry season there was a large 
gatherung of the Caribs who went up to the Cuyuni to the Caria Country. In the 
fight that ensued all the males of the Carias were killed. 
It must be remembered that in remote days the Caribs were the dominant 
tribe and quite capable of having acted as their tradition asserts. It would ap- 
pear however that after the fight all the Carib men did not leave but some of 
them remained taking to themselves Caria wives. This is confirmed by present 
conditions as there is now resident in the locality a people or tribe called Kamara- 
cot and who speak the Carib language. It may be that asa record of their victory 
and to commemorate the event the conquering Caribs were the authors of the 
picture writing in the locality. O* course this is only conjecture. 
Hieroglyphics of a like character are to be found in other parts of the Colony, 
at Waraputa on the Essequebo and on the Corentyne; their similarity creates 
the impression that they are the work of one and the same people. It may be 
that they are the work of a people who at one time lived on the skirts of early 
Peruvian or Mexican civilization and by force of circumstances were driven from 
those countries and brought with them crude ideas of the picture writing then 
extant in those countries. We know that Cortes on his arrival at San Juan de 
Ulua on the coast of Mexico had his movements reported to Montezuma by a 
system of picture writing sent by that Monarch’s officials to him from the coast 
by special messengers. This is I believe the first record we have of communica- 
tion of this character on the American Continent. Probably some relics of 
this or of a similar correspondence may exist in Spanish Museums or Monasteries. 
It would be most interesting could we decipher these writings—not only those 
that exist in our near vicinity, but also on the isthmus and other parts of South 
America ; but there is no bilingual language or contemporary writing, asin the 
case of the Rosetta stone, to help in their interpretation and beyond conjecture 
their meaning remains obscure, 
