CHAPTEH X. 
My Departure from Pirara — Experiences at Wai-ipukari Inlet — Remarks 
on the Kaiman — ^tart of the Expedition up the Rupunnni — Mouth 
of Maurukiamu-Curua Settlement — Attalea speoiosa — Aripai 
kiCttlcmcnt — Caiffiivus i)ersi(MS and hacmorrhus — Jlurpyia des- 
tructor — Burukuiuau-yari Peak — Kuiaraton Settlement — S)nall- 
pox — Curuayari Falls — Ruru-ruru, Trcmital and Trckutaratepau— 
Mats^iendaua Mts. — Mouth of Catuan-uru — Parmuku Portage — 
Fryers Cataract- — Cnta-tarua Fall, Corona of the Portuguese — 
Sarata. Fall — Sources of "the R^upununi — Landing-place of Watu- 
ticaha — Waruau — Wntu-ticaba Srttlrnirnt — Myroxylon Toluifera 
■ — The Last of the [Amaripa Tnhe — Extinction of th<€ Atorais, 
Daurais, Tarumas — The Woyaivai — Separation of the Expedition — 
^fy Return to Pirara- — Colonel Matoz and his Determination of the 
Boundary Line — Departure from Pirara — Running down the 
Cataracts ^of the i Essequiho — Waraputa — Mr. Poliert— Bartika 
Grove — The Xew Penal Settlrnient — Return to Georgetown. 
658. Xews ooininfi to hand that the Rupunnni was heoinninp; to 
rise, I left for Wai-ipnkari Tnlet in company with Mr. Ooodall and 
several of the paddlers, to take delivery '.of the bajjfiajje and to see it 
packed in the corials that meanwhile had heen once more repaired by 
Hendrick. We f^pent the interval in hnntinj? kaiman which, as I have 
already said, resided in larjje numbers not only in the Inlet and in those 
spots where the current of the Rupunnni is less rapid, but particularly 
in the Awaricuru, and were so jiiven to plunder that, one night, they 
actually dragged into their own element a tame jabiru of mine that 
slept close to the water-side. In the same way, also at night, they seize 
dogs coming down to the banks to drink. The latter, however, are so 
well aware of the danger threatening them that as soon as they per- 
ceive the enemy lying in wait they commence barking loudly and con- 
tinue at it until the kaiman leaves its lurking place. They are undoubt- 
edly the most rapacious and voracious of animals: they even .swallow 
the sticks and stones, that in their greed they ^consider palatable : on dis- 
section I found, even in the small kinds, heaps of such articles in their 
insides. 
659. To see hoAv the kaiman seizes its prey, I often tied birds or 
large fish on to a piece, of wood and then let it float. The bait was 
tardly noticed bygone of the animals before it would slowly swim up 
towards it without disturbing the surface of the water. As soon as it 
got fairly near, it bent its body sideways into a sort of half -circle and 
then with its tail — for it can cur\'e its tail round to its snout — swung 
everything within this semi circular space into^its open jaws^ which now 
closed : disappearing under the surface of the water with its victim, it 
put in an appearance a few minutes later close to the water edge, and 
would devour it here or on a sandbank. If not top big, it would only 
