726 



When a vessel coming from sea would en- 

 ter the principal month of the Oroonoko, the 

 boca de Navios, it should make the land at the 

 Punta Barima. The right or southern bank is 

 the highest : the granitic rock pierces the marshy 

 soil at a small distance in the interior, between 

 the Canno Barima, the Aquire, and the Cuyuni. 

 The left, or northern bank of the Oroonoko, 

 which stretches along the delta toward the Boca 

 de Mariusas and the Punta Baxa*, is very low ; 

 and is distinguishable at a distance only by the 

 clumps of Mauritia palm-trees, which embellish 

 the passage. This is the sago-tree -f* of the 



cachacares) divide the passage, which is three or four leagues 

 broad (between the north-west cape of the island of Trini- 

 dad, near the port of Chaguaramas, and the Punta de la 

 Fena, the eastern extremity of the coast of Paria) into four 

 small channels ; Boca de Monos, B. de Huebos, B. de Navios, 

 and B. grande. These mouths collectively are called Bocas 

 de Dragus. There are some other small islands nearer the 

 eastern coast of Paria [El Fraite, El Pato 3 and El Patito), 

 the existence of which attests the convulsions, to which this 

 country has been exposed. 



* According to Churruca, lat. 9° 35' 30" (or 0° 54' 55" 

 farther north than Punta Parima). I find the longitude 

 to be 63° 21', as deduced from my observations at Cumana. 



f The nutritious fecula or medullary flour of the sago trees 

 is found principally in a group of palms, which Mr. Kunth 

 has distinguished by the name of calamece. It is collected 

 however in the Indian Archipelago as an article of trade from 

 the trunks of the cycas revoluta, the phoenix farinifera, the 

 corypha umbraculifera, and the caryota urens. (Ainslie, Ma- 



