233 



Southern Cross, and the two large stars in the 

 feet of the Centaur. I found the latitude of San 

 Balthasar 3° 14' 23". Horary angles of the Sun 

 gave 70° 14' 21" for the longitude by the chro- 

 nometer. The dip of the magnetic needle was 

 27*8° (cent. div.). We left the mission at a 

 late hour in the morning, and continued to go 

 up the Atabapo for five miles ; then, instead of 

 following that river to it's source in the east, 

 where it bears the name of Atacavi, we entered 

 the Rio Temi. Before we reached it's conflu- 

 ence, a granitic hummock, that rises on the 

 western bank, near the mouth of the Guasacavi, 

 fixed our attention ; it is called the Rock of the 

 Guahiba woman*, or the Rock of the Mother, 

 Piedra de la Madre. We inquired the cause 

 of so singular a denomination. Father Zea 

 could not satisfy our curiosity ; but some weeks 

 after, another missionary, one of the predeces- 

 sors of this ecclesiastic, whom we found settled 

 at San Fernando as president of the missions, 

 related to us an event, which I recorded in my 

 journal, and which excited in our minds the 

 most painful feelings. If, in these solitary 

 scenes, man scarcely leaves behind him any 

 trace of his existence, it is doubly humiliating 

 for a European to see perpetuated by the name 

 of a rock, by one of those imperishable monu- 



* Piedra de la Guahiba, 



