XI 
SAN CARLOS 
357 
I have been twice to the junction of the Guainia and the Casi- 
quiari. The water of the latter is not very white, which is 
explained by its having received during its course from the 
Orinoco two considerable rivers of black water, the Pacimoni and 
Siapa. The Guainia and Casiquiari seem of nearly equal bulk, 
but neither can compare with the Uaupes. It should be noted 
that the name " Guainia " does not extend below the mouth of the 
Casiquiari, the junction of the two constituting the Rio Negro. 
"Quiare" is the ancient name of the Rio Negro,^ and "Casi- 
quiare " has evidently some connection with it, but what I am not 
prepared to say. Possibly the prefix " casi " is pure Spanish (Lat. 
" quasi ") ; for the Rio Negro is here considered the continuation of 
the Casiquiari ("as it were the Quiare "), and not of the Guainia. 
I am now preparing a boat to ascend the Casiquiari and, if 
possible, explore the mountains at the back of the Duida of 
Esmeralda, for which purpose the preferable course seems to be 
to enter the Rio Cunucunuma, whose mouth is half a day's journey 
on the Orinoco, below the Casiquiari. The summit of the Duida 
is said to be inaccessible on account of the perpendicular walls of 
rock on every side of it ; yet everybody seems to know perfectly 
well that there is a round lake on the very top, inhabited by a 
large turtle, the "genius" of the mountain. Whether I shall 
proceed direct from the Cunucunuma towards the sources of the 
Orinoco, or first return to San Carlos, will depend on the 
intelligence I receive from Don Gregorio on his reaching San 
Fernando. 
The gratification I naturally feel at finding myself fairly in terra 
Humboldtiaiia is considerably lessened by various untoward cir- 
cumstances, not the least of which is the very great difficulty 
experienced here in procuring the necessaries of life, so great 
indeed that it occupies nearly all a person's time, especially when 
the river is filling, and we think ourselves well off at San Carlos 
when we can eat once a day. Anciently when there were missions 
in most of the pueblos on the Orinoco and Rio Negro, travellers 
had in them a ready resource ; but for some twenty years past 
there has not been a padre resident in the Canton del Rio Negro, 
and scarcely one on the Orinoco out of Angostura. A country 
without priests, lawyers, doctors, police, and soldiers is not quite 
so happy as Rousseau dreamt it ought to be ; and this in which I 
now am has been in a state of gradual decadence ever since the 
separation from Spain, at which period (or shortly after) the 
inhabitants rid themselves of these functionaries in the most un- 
scrupulous planner. . . . 
[I will now give, in the order of their occurrence, 
the record in the Journal of the chief excursions 
^ See Baena, Ensaio Corografico sobre a Provincia do Para, p. 530. 
