127 



have distinct words to denote God, the Moon, 

 and the Sun. We shall soon see how much the 

 missionaries of the Oroonoko are afraid of em- 

 ploying, in their translations of the prayers of 

 the church, the native words, which denote the 

 Divinity, the Creator ( Amanene), the Great Spi- 

 rit who animates all nature. They choose rather 

 to Indianize the Spanish word Dios, converting 

 it, according to the differences of pronunciation, 

 and the genius of the tongues, into Diosi, Tiosu, 

 or Piosu. 



Again embarked on the Oroonoko, we found 

 the river free from shoals ; and after a few hours 

 passed the raudal of Garcita, the rapids of which 

 are easy to go up, when the waters are high. A 

 small chain of mountains is seen to the east, 

 that of Cumadaminari, which consists of gneiss, 

 and not of stratified granite. We were struck 

 with a succession of great holes, which are per- 

 ceived at more than one hundred and eighty feet 

 above the present level of th e Oroonoko, and which 

 notwithstanding appear to be the effects of the 

 erosion of the waters. We shall see hereafter, 

 that this phenomenon occurs again nearly at 

 the same height, both in the rocks that border 

 the cataracts of Maypures, and fifty leagues to 

 the east, near the mouth of the Rio Jao. We 

 slept in the open air, on the left bank of the 

 river, below the island of Tomo. The night was 

 beautiful and serene, but the stratum of mos- 



