499 



account of the immense number of birds that 

 frequent it ; and, on our left, the mission of 

 Uruana, vulgarly called the Conception de 

 Urbana. This small village, which counts five 

 hundred souls, was founded by the Jesuits about 

 the year 1748, by the union of the Otomack and 

 Caveres or Cabre Indians. It is placed at the 

 foot of a mountain, composed of detached blocks 

 of granite. This mountain I believe bears the 

 name of Saraguaca. Heaps of stones, separated 

 one from the other by the effect of decomposi- 

 tion, form caverns, in which we find indubitable 

 proofs of the ancient cultivation of the natives. 

 Hieroglyphic figures, and even characters in 

 regular lines, are seen sculptured there. I doubt 

 whether these characters bear any analogy to 

 alphabetic writing *. We visited the mission of 

 Uruana at our return from the Rio Negro, and 

 saw with our own eyes those heaps of earth 

 which the Otomacks eat, and which are become 

 an object of such lively discussion in Europe. 



On measuring the breadth of the Oroonoko 

 between the islands called Ida de Uruana and 

 Isla de la Manteca, we found it, during the high 

 waters, 2674 ^ toises, which make nearly four 



* See my Monuments of the ancient Inhabitants of Ame- 

 rica, vol. i, (or vol. xiii, of the present work,) Eng. edit, 

 p. 153. 



f Or 5211 metres ; or 6230 vara*. 



2 k 2 



