44 



Mr. Vater W 9 and lately on a more comprehen- 

 sive plan by my brother, Mr. William de Hum- 

 boldt, on the structure of the American lan- 

 guages. 



On quitting the mission of Cari, we had some 

 difficulties to settle with our Indian muleteers. 

 They had perceived to our great astonishment, 

 that we had brought skeletons with us from the 

 cavern of Ataruipe *\* ; and they were firmly 

 persuaded, that the beasts of burden, which car- 

 ried " the bodies of their old relations," would 

 perish in the journey. Every precaution we 

 had taken had been useless ; nothing escapes 

 the penetration and the sense of smell of a 

 Caribbee, and it required all the authority of 

 the missionary, to forward our baggage. We 

 had to cross the Rio Cari in a boat, and the 

 Rio de agua clara, by fording, I might almost 

 say by swimming. The quicksands of the bed 

 of this river render the passage very difficult at 

 the season when the waters are high. The 

 strength of the currents seems surprising in so 

 fiat a country ; but the rivers of the steppes are 

 precipitated, to use a fine expression of Pliny 

 the younger " less by the declivity of their 



* Mithridates, vol. hi, p. 685. Father Gili had no know- 

 ledge of this manuscript. Saggio, vol, iii, p. 410. 



t See above, vol. v, p. 615 — 23. 



%Epist. } lib. viii, ep. 8. " Clitumnus non loci devexitate, 

 sed ipsa sui copia et quasi pondere impellitur." 



