606 



Ventuari, approaches near it's source those lofty 

 mountains, the northern ridge of which gives 

 birth to the Cuchivero. It is a prolongation of 

 the chain of Baraguan ; and there Father Gili 

 places the table-land of Siamacu, of which he 

 vaunts the temperate climate*. The upper 

 course of the Rio Ventuari, beyond the con- 

 fluence of the Asisi and the Great Raudales, is 

 almost unknown. I was informed only, that 

 the Upper Ventuari bends so much toward the 

 east r^, that the ancient road from Esmeralda 

 to the Rio Caura crosses the bed of the river. 

 The proximity of the tributary streams of the 

 Carony, the Caura, and the Ventuari, has fa- 

 cilitated for ages the appearance of the Carib- 

 bees on the banks of the Upper Oroonoko. 

 Bands of this warlike and trading people went 

 up from the Rio Carony, by the Paragua, to the 

 sources of the Paruspa. A portage conducted 

 them to the Chavarro, an eastern tributary 

 stream of the Rio Caura ; they descended with 

 their canoes first this stream, and then the Caura 

 itself, as far as the mouth of the Erevato. After 

 having gone up this last river toward the south- 

 west, and traversed vast savannahs for three 

 days, they entered by the Manipiare into the 

 great Rio Ventuari J. I trace this road with 



* See above, p. 565. f See above, p. 572, note. 

 J The Rio Cuyuni, the Paragua, and the tributary 

 streams of the Caura (the Chavarro and the Erevato), flow 



