153 



man figures, surrounding an animal with horns, 

 much higher in the fore than the hinder part of 

 the body. 



In the voyage made by M. Bonpland and 

 myself to ascertain the communication between 

 the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, we were told 

 of an inscription, which it was asserted was 

 found in the chain of granitic mountains, that, 

 in the seventh degree of latitude, extends from 

 the Indian village of Uruana, or Urbana, as far 

 as the western banks of the Caura. A mission- 

 ary, Ramon Bueno, a Franciscan monk, hav- 

 ing accidentally entered a cavern formed by 

 the separation of some ledges of rocks, beheld 

 in the middle of the cave a large block of gra- 

 nite, on which he saw what he believed to be 

 characters formed into various groups, and 

 ranged on the same line. Unfortunately, the 

 difficult circumstances, in which we were placed 

 on our return from Rio Negro to St. Thomas 

 de la Guayana, did not permit us to verify per- 

 sonally this observation. The missionary gave 

 me a copy of part of these characters, of which 

 the following is an engraving. 



Some resemblance to the Phoenician alphabet 



