MAJESTIC SCENERY—SAN BORJA. 237 
uninhabited ; but to the westward of these rapids an 
enterprising individual, Don Felix Relinchon, had 
formed a village of Jaruro and Otomac Indians. 
At nine in the morning they arrived at the mouth 
of the Meta, which, next to the Guaviare, is the 
largest river that joins the Orinoco. At the union 
of these streams the scenery is of a very impressive 
character. Solitary peaks rise on the eastern side, 
appearing in the distance like ruined castles, while 
vast sandy shores intervene between the bank and 
the forests. They passed two hours on a large rock 
in the middle of the Orinoco, upon which Hum- 
boldt succeeded in fixing his instruments, and in 
determining the longitude of the embouchure of the 
Meta ; a river which will one day be of great politi- 
eal importance to the inhabitants of Guiana and 
Venezuela, as it is navigable to the foot of the An- 
des of New Grenada. Above this point the current 
was comparatively free from shoals; and in the 
evening they reached the Rapids of Tabaje. As 
the Indians would not venture to pass them they 
were obliged to land and repose on a craggy plat- 
form having a slope of more than eighteen degrees, 
and having its crevices filled with bats. The cries 
of the jaguar were heard very near during the 
whole night; the sky was of a tremendous black- 
ness; and the hoarse noise of the rapids blended 
with the thunder which rolled at a distance amongst 
the woods. 
Early in the morning they cleared the rapids, and 
disembarked at the new mission of San Borja, 
where they found six houses inhabited by uncate- 
chised Guahiboes, who differed in nothing from the 
wild natives. The faces of the young girls were 
. 
