4o8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
become depopulated, a few Indians from the cano 
above San Miguel (Uarikena) came and settled 
in it. . . . When by death or migration the popula- 
tion had again become reduced to an old woman 
with her daughters, grand -daughters, and her 
nephew, several Manaca Indians came and married 
the women. There seem to be now eight or ten 
families of mixed Manacas and Uariquenas. The 
old woman speaks excellent Castilian. The men 
all speak Castilian imperfectly, but nearly all know 
something of Lingoa Geral ; this is accounted for 
by the captain of the Manacas being a Brazilian (an 
escaped murderer from Barra), and also by the 
Manaca Indians trading with Brazilian merchants 
in salsa, passing from their river (the Manaca) by 
the Castafio and Maran' to the Padauiri. 
[Leaving Esmeralda on Dec. 28, Spruce de- 
scended the Orinoco to the mouth of the Cunu- 
cunuma river, which enters the former from the 
north about as far below the mouth of the Casi- 
quiari as Esmeralda is above it. It is a rather 
shallow black-water river, somewhat smaller than 
the Casiquiari, but full of small rapids, several of 
which can be ascended when the river is full ; 
while the river has its source among the lofty 
Marayuaca mountains at the back of Duida. 
On the I St of January 1854 he passed the first 
fall, a ledge of rock extending quite across the 
river, and on the second had an uninterrupted 
passage till the evening. The Journal tells the 
rest of the story why he was unable to prosecute 
the ascent of this unknown and very promising 
river as he had intended.] 
