594 



tributary streams of the Essequibo. Where this 

 river, full of small cascades, winds between the 

 mountains of Macarana, he found % before be 

 reached lake Amucu, u rocks covered with 

 figures, or (as he says in Portugueze) with 

 varias letras" We do not take this word letters 

 in it's real signification. We were also shewn 

 near the rock Culimacari, on the banks of the 

 Cassiquiare, and at the port of Caycara in the 

 Lower Oroonoko, traces, which were believed 

 to be regular characters. They were however 

 only mishapen figures, representing the heavenly 

 bodies, and tigers, crocodiles, boas, and instru- 

 ments used for the fabrication of the flour of 

 cassava. It was impossible to recognize in 

 these painted rocJcsjf (the name by which the 



the great branch of the Maypure, Cabre, Guaipunave, 

 Avane, and Pareni tongues. 



* April the 18th, 1740. Nicholas Hortsmann noted 

 daily on the spot every thing, that appeared to him worthy 

 of observation. He deserves confidence the more, as, being 

 disappointed by the failure of the object of his researches 

 (the lake Dorado, and the mines of gold and diamonds), he 

 seems to regard with disdain every thing he met on his way. 



+ In Tamanac, tepumereme. (Tepu, a stone, rock ; as in 

 Mexican, tetl, a stone, and tepetl, a mountain ; in Turcota- 

 tarian, tepe.) The Spanish Americans also call the rocks 

 covered with sculptured figures piedras pintados ; those for 

 instance, which are found on the summit of the Paramo of 

 Guanaeas, in New Grenada, and which recall to mind the 

 tepumereme of the Oroonoko, the Cassiquiare, and the Rupu- 

 nuvini. 



