1851.] 
THE CASSIQUIARE. 
235 
Soon after leaving tlie village we passed the mouth of 
the Cassiquiare, that singular stream which connects the 
Rio Negro with the Orinooko near the sources of both. 
It is a mixture of white and black water, and swarms 
with piums, which are abundant down to Sao Carlos ; 
but on passing the mouth of the Cassiquiare they cease 
immediately, and up to the sources of the Rio Negro 
there is a freedom at least from this pest. In the even- 
ing we staid at an Indian cottage, and bought a fine 
cabegudo, or big-headed turtle, for a basin of salt : it 
furnished us with an excellent supper for eight persons, 
and even the next day we did not finish it all. The 
weather was now hot, and brilliantly fine, contrasting 
much with the constant rains of Guia ; and, marvellous 
to relate, the people here told us they had not had any 
rain for three months past. The effects were seen in 
the river, which was very low and still falling, and so full 
of rocks and shallows as to render it sometimes difficult 
for us to find a passage for our canoes. 
After passing the village of Sao Miguel these diffi- 
culties increased, till we came to a place where the 
whole channel, a mile wide, appeared but one bed of 
rocks, with nowhere water enough for our canoe to 
pass, though eighteen inches would have sufficed. We 
went wandering about over this rocky plain in search 
of some opening, and after much difficulty succeeded in 
pushing and dragging our boat over the rocks. We 
passed by two or three “ Canos,'’ or channels leading 
to the Cassiquiare, up which many of the inhabitants 
were now going, to lay in a stock of fish and cabe^udos 
against the “ tiempo del faminto ” (time of famine), as the 
