296 Some of Our Macusis Deseut Us. 
that the poles for the tent« had to be fetched out of the forest tkat 
encloses the base of Matzieiidaiia. 
705. On the morning of 11th May four of our Macusis had diis- 
a])peared. The difficult and dangerous work at the falls and rapids, the 
reduced rations, and the certainty tliat every fresh day would be piling 
up new troubles on the old, had prevailed upon them to leave their 
wages behind and seek fresh fields: the entire absence of rum, that 
nuirvellous remedy for an Indian's every mood, may also have con- 
tributed a good deal to their defection. But as these four individuals 
were the idlest and laziest of the whole company, we did not have much 
to growl at when they ran away, tliough we Avere afraid of souiething 
worse — the bad example — and this had to be jireveuted. My brother 
therefore gathered them all round him in a circle, and appealed to their 
sense of honour not to leave us in the lurch, Avhen Ave Avould indeed liave 
found ourselves in a sorry i)light. ''Of your own free will," said he, 
"you followed us: none of you Avere foi-ced to- go, but now four of you 
have broken your Avord and run away like a thief or a night murderer 
(kanaima)." The experience, he continued, had pained him. He did 
not wish to learn that his friends the Macusis were liars. With this, he 
let everyone withdraw his word, and everybody who wanted to return 
home was free to stand forward and say so openly, l)ut not to seek flight 
like a cheat, for conduct such' as that would be uuAA'orthy of the honour- 
able Macusis. They stood around us in silence, with doAVU-cast eyes and 
none stepped forward out of the circle, luit each returned ^quietly to his 
Avork, although the uiore Ave pushed on to-day, the more uumerous and 
dangerous Avere the rapids. During the dry season the river must be 
fairly overgrown with the bushes of Psulinm aqiniticum Benth. : on the 
present occasion only their tiiis emerged above the roaring surface of 
tlu' water, and were of no little assistance in surmounting the smaller 
rai)ids, because they served as points of support up to which we could 
drag the corials behind us. 
706. In the course of the forenoon we reached the well-knoAvn 
portage of Paruauku, l>y means of which onel can reach the already men- 
tioned Sawara-auuru, a tributai-y of the Takutu. This portage is a low 
savannah stretching W.S.W. to the Saeraeri Eanges, on the eastern slope 
of Avhich the SaAvara-auuru takes its rise. The eastovn peak of this range 
Avas situate S. 73° W., some 10 to 12 miles aAvay, the highest point of the 
Cursato Eange S. 65° W., and of Burukutuau-yari. at the foot of which 
we spent the night, N. 20° E., 5 miles distant. In the neighbourhood of this 
portage, already known a hundred years ago, some scattered hills rise 
from the savannah. The first to cross them was the surgeon Hortsmann 
of Hildesheim in 1739 full of hope of being near tlie yearned-for 
treasures of gold and diamonds, the dreamed-of El Dorado, which the 
mountains, that he noticed to the northward, must be hiding. In 1775 
lie w^as followed by Don 'Antonio Santos in his journey from Angostura 
to Para, and by Don Francisco Jose Eodriguez Barata in 1793 when he 
was sent by the Government on matters of state fi'om Para to Surinam. 
My brother, in the course of his journey in 1838, saw just as little of 
those "rochers converts de figures ou de varias letras'' mentioned by 
