8 



they had to surmount, will judge them with 

 more indulgence. 



April the 15th. We left the Island of Panu- 

 mana at four in the morning, two hours before 

 sunrise. The sky was in great part obscured, 

 and lightnings furrowed thick clouds at more 

 than forty degrees of elevation. We were sur- 

 prised at not hearing the sound of thunder ; was 

 it on account of the prodigious height of the 

 storm ? It appears to us, that in Europe the 

 electric flashes without thunder, vaguely called 

 heat lightning, are seen generally nearer the 

 horizon. Under a cloudy sky, that sent back 

 the radiant caloric of the soil, the heat was sti- 

 fling ; not a breath of wind agitated the foliage 

 of the trees. The jaguars as usual had crossed 

 the arm of the Oroonoko by which we were 

 separated from the shore, and we heard their 

 cries extremely near. During the night the 

 Indians had advised us to quit our station in the 

 open air, and retire to a deserted hut belonging 

 to the conucos of the inhabitants of Atures. 

 They had taken care to barricade the opening 

 with planks, a precaution which seemed to us 

 superfluous ; but near the cataracts tigers are 

 so numerous, that two years before, in these 

 very conucos of Panumana, an Indian returning 

 to his hut, toward the close of the rainy season, 

 found a tigress settled in it with her two young. 

 These animals had inhabited the dwelling for 



