2 



rapids of Atures and of Maypures. When you 

 are so stationed, that the eye can at once take 

 in the long succession of cataracts, the immense 

 sheet of foam and vapours, illumined by the 

 rays of the setting Sun, it seems as if you saw 

 the whole river suspended over it's bed. 



Scenes so astonishing must for ages have 

 fixed the attention of the inhabitants of the new 

 world. When Diego de Todaz, Alfonso de 

 Herera, and the intrepid Raleigh, anchored at 

 the mouth of the Oroonoko, they were informed 

 by the Indians of the Great Cataracts, which 

 they themselves had never visited, and which 

 they even confounded with cascades farther to the 

 east. Whatever obstacles the force of vegeta- 

 tion under the torrid zone may be to the inter- 

 course among nations, all that relates to the 

 course of great rivers acquires a celebrity, which 

 extends to vast distances. The Oroonoko, the 

 Amazon, and the Uruguay, traverse, like in- 

 land arms of seas, in different directions, a land 

 covered with forests, and inhabited by tribes^ 

 part of whom are cannibals. It is not yet two 

 hundred years since civilization, and the mild 

 light of a more humane religion, have pursued 

 their way along the banks of these ancient ca- 

 nals traced by the hand of nature ; long however 

 before the introduction of agriculture, before 

 communications for the purpose of barter were 

 established among these scattered and often 



