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and painful privations. Our fellow travellers 

 would have returned by the shortest way, that 

 of the Pimichin, and the small rivers ; but M. 

 Bonpland preferred like me persisting in the 

 plan of the voyage, which we had traced for 

 ourselves in passing the Great Cataracts. We 

 had already travelled one hundred and eighty 

 leagues in a boat from San Fernando de Apure, 

 to San Carlos (on the Rio Apure, the Oroonoko, 

 the Atabapo, the Temi, the Tuamini, and the 

 Rio Negro). In again entering the Oroonoko 

 by the Cassiquiare we had to navigate three 

 hundred and twenty leagues, from San Carlos to 

 Angostura. By this way we had to struggle 

 against the currents during ten days ; the rest 

 was to be performed by going down the stream 

 of the Oroonoko. It would have been blamable 

 to have suffered ourselves to be discouraged by 

 the fear of a cloudy sky, and by the moschettoes 

 of the Cassiquiare. Our Indian pilot, who had 

 been recently at Mandavaca, promised us the 

 Sun, and " those great stars that eat the clouds," 

 as soon as we should have left the black waters 

 of the Guaviare. We therefore executed our 

 first project of returning to San Fernando de 

 Atabapo by the Cassiquiare, and, fortunately for 

 our researches, the prediction of the Indian was 

 verified. The white waters brought us by de- 

 grees a more serene sky, stars, moschettoes, and 

 crocodiles. 



