THNEUAKV. XXXI 



El Dorado, tlie gildeJ king, lived in his golden city on the banks of 

 Lake Parimd. "iVas but a little to the west that Sir Walter Raleigh 

 heard of that headless tribe with nioutlis in their stomachs and an eye 

 on each shoulder. What wonder then that strange legends still exist. 

 The people are not much changed from the days when Raleigh and 

 Keyrics first passed the dense forests and reached the level savannas 

 beyond. 



It is almost impossible to imagine what these first travellers must 

 have sufl[ered in their search for gold and adventure, marching day 

 after day and month after month through stifling swampy forests, 

 reeking with moisture and the odour of decaying A^egetation, weighed 

 down vrith heavy armour, weakened by malaiia, obtaining provisions 

 with difficulty from the Indians, and all the time unceitain whither 

 they were going. We know that captured Indians were made to serve 

 as guides ; but guides ai'e of little use to people wdiose object is to reach 

 a place which exists only in the imagination. We know the difficulties 

 that suri'ound the modern explorer who stai'ts equipped Avith portable 

 boats, tinned provisions, breech-loader, a w^ell-stored medicine-chest, 

 and generally a very good idea of the point at which he wishes to 

 arrive. How much greater must have been the difficulties faced by 

 those early travellers who passed from the mouth of the Orinoco to the 

 Magdalena River, or fi-om the Amazon mouth to the Andes — this 

 latter being equal in length to the journey from the Congo to 

 Zanzibar. 



Since its discovery several attempts have been made to explore 

 Roraima and examine the forests on its summit and the deep lakes 

 filled with dolphins and strange fish, of which the Indians spoke but 

 whicli they had never seen — all unsuccessfully until in 1884, Messrs. 

 Southern and Perkins found a practicable path of ascent to the top. 



Sir R. Schombiu-gk in 1838, and again in 1842, when he was 

 accompanied by his brother Richard, made little or no attempt to 

 ascend the vertical walls, apparently aegarding it as impracticable. 

 Barrington Brown in 1869, while engaged in making a survey of the 

 Colony, approached from the south-west, but, pi'ovisions failing, was 

 forced to return, having merely reached the lower slopes; Avhile again 

 in 1872 he approached from the north, but did not actually reach the 

 mountain. 



McTurk and Boddam-Whetham in 1878 started from tlie coast with 

 the special intention of making an ascent, but, after walking round and 

 examining three sides of the mountain, abandoned the attempt as 

 iinpracticjible. Their provisions being almost exhausted and their 

 l)Oots V^eyond repair, they were compelled to return, but not before 

 they were convinced that any further attempt would be futile. The 

 vertical walls of the lofty pediment had been to them, as to former 

 travellers, an insuperable barrier. As Boddani-WJietham remarks :- — 



•' Out of a sea of green rises a perpendicular w.-ill of red rock 



1500 feet in height. Hardly a shrub bioke the sheer descent of the 

 shining dift"; scarcely a lino of veidure marked where clinging grasses 

 had gained a footing on its smooth face. The south-eastern corner 

 was slightly rounded and its tower-like appesirance increased its general 

 resemblance to a Titanic fortification a few miles in length, rising fronv' 



