THE RAPIDS OF THE MADEIRA AXD THE MAMORE, 
07 
and the Cachoeii-a das Lages are so little above low-water mark, the 
present position of the block seems to have been the original one. 
Unfortunately our knowledge of the history of the South-American- 
Indian races, before the Conquest, is so limited (except, perhaps, 
some half-mythical traditions respecting the empire of the Incas) that 
even the most important periods of this history, the wanderings of 
the Tiipis, for instance, bear the character rather of clever hypo- 
theses than of historical facts. We know of gi’eat conquering ex- 
peditions of the Incas. Can it be that the inscriptions in the Madeira 
Valley are connected -with them; or arc they older even than that? 
Researches and comparative studies of Peruvian antiquities can, alone, j 
best explain whether the origin of these hieroglyphs is to be sought 
in their empire, tliat land of a long departed civilisation and grandeiu’. i 
They could hardly be the work of the forefathers of the Caripunas, if 
they were, as we imiy well assume, on the same low level of civilisation j 
as their descendants. A rude nation of hunters is not likely to spend 
months on the troublesome task of engiwung figures on hai'd rocks I 
Avith imperfect flint implements. If they, however, took such a fancy, 
their weak and narroAv minds would have chosen rather to delineate what 
struck them most of all the objects around them ; the sun, or the moon, 
or the animals they hxmted ; or the alligators, turtles and fishes, Avhich * 
Humboldt found inscribed on the rocks of the Valley of the Orinoco. On * 
the rocky shores of the Araguaya, that huge tributary of the Tocantins, 
there are similar rude outlines of animals near a rapid called Martirios, 
from the first Portuguese explorers fancying they recognised the 
instruments of the Passion in the clumsy representation.* 
In passing the long rapid of Eibeiuao, we had again to unload ' 1 
everything, even before we reached the real fall at the upper end. i 
Of the misery and annoyance of such repeated unloading and carrying ■ 
of heavy chests over glowing, bare rocks, under the burning rays of the I 
sun, against Avhieh the stmited growth on the stony soil offers no shelter | 
Avorth mentioning to the poor Indians, only he call form an idea who has 
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* Unfortunately M. VaUee, avIio, commissioned by tlie Brazilian Grovemmont, 
descended tRe Ai-aguaya a few years ago, does not give oven a description of these 
figures in his official report, which is equally deficient in all other respects. Of the 
hydrographic results of this voyage my colleagues wiU foi-m an idea if I tell them that 
M. VaUee, having made neither levellings nor astronomical observations, simply copied 
an old inexai^ little map of the Araguaya on a considerabb' larger scale, and offered 
it to the Minister on his retiun. 
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