9 



several months ; they were dislodged from it 

 with difficulty^ and it was only after an obsti- 

 nate combat, that the former master could 

 take possession of his house. The jaguars are 

 fond of retiring to deserted ruins, and I believe 

 it is more prudent in general for a solitary tra- 

 veller to encamp in the open air, between two 

 fires, than to seek shelter in uninhabited huts. 



On quitting the island of Panumana, we per- 

 ceived on the western bank of the river the fires 

 of an encampment of Guahibo savages. The 

 missionary, who accompanied us, caused a few 

 musket-shots to be fired in the air, which he 

 said was to intimidate them, and prove to them, 

 that we were in a state to defend ourselves. 

 The savages were no doubt destitute of canoes, 

 and had no wish to trouble us in the middle of 

 the river. We passed at sunrise the mouth of the 

 Rio Anaveni, which descends from the eastern 

 mountains. On it's banks, now deserted, father 

 Olmos had established, in the time of the Je- 

 suits, a small village of Japuins* or Jaruroes. 

 The heat of the day was so powerful, that we 

 rested a long time in a woody spot, to fish with 

 a hook and line, and it was with some trouble 

 we carried away all the fish we had caught. 

 We did not arrive till very late at the foot of 

 the Great Cataract, in a bay called the lower 



* Gili, vol. 1, p. 36. 



