XII 
IN HUMBOLDT'S COUNTRY 
395 
in it, and a great many children were running 
about. His widow is living, and she also had been 
brought up by the Padre Juan, in proof of which 
she still knows all the prayers of the Church, and 
speaks a pure Castilian which contrasts strongly 
with the imperfect speech of the modern Indians. 
She recollects two travellers coming down the 
Casiquiari when she was a very little girl — the one 
a German and the other a Frenchman (Humboldt 
and Bonpland) — who occupied themselves with 
gathering flowers by day and gazing at the stars by 
night. She did not herself see them, being absent 
in the cuniico, but Ponciano did, and used frequently 
to speak of them. 
There is much Piassaba at the back of the 
pueblo, but . the trade of the inhabitants is chiefly 
in timber and turtles. Passed the Cano Itiniuini, 
along which there is a passage from Guainia to 
Casiquiari at high-water. 
Dec, 13. — Early this morning we reached the 
site of the deserted Pueblo de Capibara, where a 
bed of grass sloped down into the water. About 
half a mile back in the forest are large, flat, naked 
beds of granite interspersed with low caatinga. 
There is much picture-writing here, of which I 
copied the principal figures ; they are usually very 
perfect, but in some places are obliterated by the 
shaling of the rock. 
Just above Capibara stand two rocks out of the 
river at a distance of 3 or 4 feet, which have 
obviously been riven apart. At this time they 
stood some 15 feet out of water. (See next page.) 
Dec. 15. — . . . This afternoon we reached an 
angle whence we got an actual, though dim, view 
