460 



the retreat of wandering Indians, expelled either 

 from the missions, or from tribes that are not 

 subjected to the government of the monks. 



Struck with the extreme breadth of the Oroo- 

 noko, between the mouth of the Apure and the 

 rock Curiquima, I ascertained it by means of 

 a base measured twice on the western beach. 

 The bed of the Oroonoko in it's present state of 

 low water, was 1906 * toises broad; but this 

 breadth, attains 5517-J- toises, when, in the rainy 

 season, the rock Curiquima, and the farm of 

 Capuchino near the hill of Pocopocori, become 

 islands. The swelling of the Oroonoko is aug- 

 mented by the impulse of the waters of the 

 Apure, which far from forming, like other rivers, 

 an acute angle with the upper part of that into 

 which it flows, meets it at right angles. The 

 temperature of the waters of the Oroonoko, mea- 

 sured in several parts of it's bed, was in the 

 middle of the thalweg, or deepest part of the 

 channel, where the current has the most swift- 

 ness, 28*3°, and toward the banks, 29*2°. 



We went up first toward the South- West, as 

 far as the shore of the Guaricoto Indians, on the 

 left bank of the Oroonoko, and then toward the 

 South. The river is so broad, that the moun- 



* 3714 metres, or 4441 varas, supposing 1 metre =0*51307 

 of a toise == 1*19546 vara. 



t 10753 metres, or 12855 varas. 



