459 



The wind blew fresh from East-North-East. 

 It's direction was favourable for our sailing up 

 the Oroonoko, toward the mission of Encara- 

 mada ; but our canoes were so ill calculated to 

 resist the shocks of the waves, that, from the 

 violence of the motion, those who suffered ha- 

 bitually at sea were incommoded on the river. 

 The short, broken waves are caused by the con- 

 flict of the waters at the junction of the two 

 rivers. This conflict is very violent, but far from 

 being so dangerous as Father Gumilla asserts*. 

 We passed the Punta Curiquima, which is an 

 isolated mass of quartzose granite, a small pro- 

 montory composed of rounded blocks. There, 

 on the right bank of the Oroonoko, Father Ro- 

 tella founded, in the time of the Jesuits, a mis- 

 sion of Palenka and Viriviri or Guire Indians. 

 At the period of inundations, the rock Curiqui- 

 ma and the village placed at it's foot were sur- 

 rounded every where by water. This serious 

 inconvenience, and the sufferings of the mission- 

 aries and Indians from the innumerable quan- 

 tity of moschettoes and niguas^, led them to 

 forsake this humid spot. It is now entirely de- 

 sert, while opposite to It, on the right bank of 

 the river, the little mountains of Coruato are 



* Orinoco illustrado, vol. i, p. 47. 



f The chego, pulex penetrans, which penetrates under the 

 nails of the toes in men and monkeys, and there deposits it's 



