XII 
IN HUMBOLDT'S COUNTRY 
425 
About 4 P.M. on February 4 we reached a new 
pueblo established a year ago by a mulatto named 
Custodio who, many years ago, escaped from slavery 
in Brazil. He counts some sixty souls (of whom a 
very large proportion are children) in his township, 
the other families, besides his own, being relatives 
of his wife (a Yabahana Indian from the source of 
the Marania), and one Baria Indian. The ground 
is high — perhaps rising to 150 feet from the river — 
and the soil good, but cold winds sweep over it 
from the cerros, especially by night, and squalls 
come with such force as to threaten to overthrow 
the houses.^ To this point my piragoa ascended 
without difficulty, but a little higher up the stream 
narrows considerably, and many canos and lagoons 
open into it. At a short day's journey above, and 
at the foot of an abrupt conical cerro (Araucana), 
is a small pueblito where Custodio first established 
himself. . . . 
I stayed a day with Custodio, and then leaving 
the piragoa, proceeded in my curiara to visit the 
pueblo of Sta. Isabel. 
The Pacimoni above Custodio narrows considerably and winds 
more. Several canos and lakes communicate with it There are 
small islands here and there. Clustered Mauritia is frequent, 
and on the second day the stream winds as if it would never find 
its way out of a Morichal {M. imtifera). . . . 
Midway up we encountered a Posoqueria (Cinchonacese), 18 to 
25 feet high, bending over the water, and clad with a profusion of 
white odoriferous flowers. At the bottom of a long tube was a 
quantity of honey which my Indians sucked with great relish. 
It took us two days to reach the carlo of Sta. 
Isabel (Uaranaka), w^hich branches off to the left 
1 These are real hurricanes like those of the West Indies, but of brief 
duration, and apparently not spiral. 
