THE KAPrDS OF TELE MADEIRA AND THE MAMORE. 
SO 
brciultli und thieJmciss of 5 feet. The figui’es, three ijiiarters to one and a 
quarter melies higli, were incised ontj' one-sixth of an inch deep. Our 
curiosity being awakened by this discovery, we fonnd aftt'rw'ards the 
even more remarkable inscription near the groat fall of IIibe;ik.\o, which 
I copied exactly, as well as one of the Caldcirao and one of Lages 
farther up. And here a reflection I had before made at the dangerous 
passage of the Caldeirao Falls again proved true, viz., that there is no 
following implicitly either the coimsels of other travellers, or even 
one’s self-acquired experience in former expeditions, as to the host 
water-way for the boats, which is so easily changed by the slightest 
variation of level. At all events, it is necessary that the canoes should 
stojE upon approaching a rapid, and a clear view of the channels and 
of the cliffs to be avoided should he obtained from the shore as near 
as possible to the obstruction itself. This often is difficult enough ; 
and hi the last deciding moment, especially in the descent, the fate 
of both boat and crew depends chiefly on the quick eye and the strong 
V arm of her pilot. 
•- The Caldeirao do Inferno has, as I mentioned before, the worst 
If reputiition among the falls of the Madeira; indeed, more than one 
ti richly laden canoe has been dashed to jJieces against its black rocks, 
and many lives have been lost there. The chance solution of a 
* geographical problem found its tragic conclusion, at this ill-famed fall, 
in the death of the discoverer. Eight or ten years ago, a Peruvian 
j- of the name of Maldonado embarked on the Madrc de Dios to escape 
the persecutions of his political adversaries, and by this river had 
,, reached the lieni and the Madeira, thus dispelling all doubt as to 
the course of the Madi'e do Dios, which for a long time had been taken 
^ to be one of the tributaries of the Purus. 
_ Maldonado took his hazardous flight on one of those singular little 
crafts called Balsas, composed of bundles of a sort of reed, as they are 
used on Lake Titicaca. As it was in the most wi'etched condition 
when he entered the Madoma, he obtained by barter from the Caripumi 
Indians whom ho found there one of their light canoes, in which he 
^ continued his descent. Having passed •without accident totally unknown 
regions, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, he had reached the 
conqiaratively safer regions of the Madeira, when his fragile vessel was 
liiu'lod against the rocks of the Caldeufio do Inferno, and the hardy 
^ navigator was siibmergcd in the roaring cataract. 
