400 



and painful privations. Our fellow travellers 

 would have returned by the shortest way, that 

 of the Pimichin, and the small rivers ; but M. 

 Bonpland preferred like me persisting in the 

 plan of the voyage, which we had traced for 

 ourselves in passing the Great Cataracts. We 

 had already travelled one hundred and eighty 

 leagues in a boat from San Fernando de Apure, 

 to San Carlos (on the Rio Apure, the Oroonoko, 

 the Atabapo, the Temi, the Tuamini, and the 

 Rio Negro). In again entering the Oroonoko 

 by the Cassiquiare we had to navigate three 

 hundred and twenty leagues, from San Carlos 

 to Angostura. By this way we had to struggle 

 against the currents during ten days; the rest 

 was to be performed by going down the stream 

 of the Oroonoko. It would have been blamable 

 to have suffered ourselves to be discouraged by 

 the fear of a cloudy sky, and by the moschettoes 

 of the Cassiquiare. Our Indian pilot, who had 

 been recently at Mandavaca, promised us the 

 Sun, and " those great stars that eat the 

 clouds," as soon as we should have left the 

 black waters of the Guaviare. We therefore 

 executed our first project of returning to San 

 Fernando de Atabapo by the Cassiquiare, and, 

 fortunately, for our researches, the prediction 

 of the Indian was verified. The white '.'waters 

 brought us by degrees a more serene sky, stars,, 

 moschettoes, and crocodiles. 



