22 
Botanical Reniinisce7ices. 
PART II. — Acnoss THE Savannas. 
After six weeks struggle up the Rivers Essequibo and 
Rupununi, the expedition landed at Wai-ipucari or Morocco, a 
small inlet which the Rupununi forms in S'" 42' N. latitude. 
The Macusi settlement, Pirara, our intended head-quarters^ 
is about eleven miles distant from the landing-place, and is 
situated near the Lake Amucu, through which flows the 
River Pirara, its source being in the neighborhood of the 
village. 
On leaving the River Rupununi we passed over undulating 
ground, thickly covered with small trees of the Guratella 
americana, Lin., and shrubs of stunted growth. The stately 
palm, Mauritia flexuosa, Lin., which gives to the savannas of 
South America so characteristic an appearance, in the lower 
grounds formed little groves. The savannas, which ex- 
tended to the distant Pacaraima mountains, might be com- 
pared to a sea of verdure, which illusion was powerfully 
increased by the waving motion of the deceptive mirage. On 
the west the savannas were bounded by the horizon. 
The village Pirara was situated on a rising ground, 
affording an extensive view over the savannas to the pic- 
turesque mountain chain, known to the geographers by ^the 
name of Pacaraima. The village, the largest I met during 
my travels, contained forty huts and about 200 inhabitants, 
who received us friendly, and had emptied two huts for us to 
take possession of during our stay. I still look back with 
pleasure, when on the first morning I jumped out of my 
hammock and stepped before the door of the hut, and gazed 
at the landscape before me. I stood on traditional, classical, 
and mythical soil, which Keymes described as the site Mar 
de Aguas blancas. The Mar- del- Dorado, the sea with the 
gold-covered capital Manoa, which was built on a vast lake, 
surrounded by mountains, so pregnant with the precious 
metal, that they shone with dazzling splendor. After which 
the most daring adventurers of England, Spain, and Portugal, 
as Walter Raleigh, Domingo de Vera, Keymes, Don Manuel 
Centurion, in the 16th century, followed the phantom that 
led them to encounter dangers, privations, and a waste of 
human life, unparalleled in the history of imaginary schemes. 
The great and unlucky Walter Raleigh, from 1595 to 1617, 
having alone undertaken four expeditions. 
