272 MOUNTAINS OF DUIDA. 
CHAPTER XIX. 
Route from Esmeralda to Angostura. 
Mission of Esmeralda—Curare Poison—Indians—Duida Moun- 
- tain—Descent of the Orinoco—Cave of Ataruipe—Raudalito of 
Carucari—Mission of Uruana—Character of the Otomacs— 
Clay eaten by the Natives—Arrival at Angostura—The Travel- 
lers attacked by Fever—Ferocity of the Crocodiles. 
OpposiTE the point where the division of the river 
takes place, there rises in the form of an amphi- 
theatre a group of granitic mountains, of which 
the principal one bears the name of Duida. It is 
about 8500 feet high ; and being perpendicular on 
the south and west, bare and stony on the sum- 
mit, and clothed on its less steep declivities with 
vast forests, presents a magnificent spectacle. At 
the foot of this huge mass is placed the most solitary 
‘and remote Christian settlement on the Upper Ori- 
noco,—the mission of Esmeralda, containing eighty 
inhabitants. It is surrounded by a beautiful plain, 
covered with grasses of various species, pine-apples, 
and clumps of Mauritia palm, and watered by lim- 
pid rills. 
There was no monk at the village; but the tra- 
vellers were received with kindness by an old offi- 
cer, who, taking them for Catalonian shopkeepers, 
admired their simplicity when he saw the bundles 
of paper in which their plants were preserved, and 
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