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man figures, surroiioding an animal with horns, 
much higher in the fore than the hinder part of 
the body. 
In the voyage made by M. Bonpland and 
myself to ascertain the communication between 
the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, we were told 
of an inscription, which it was asserted was 
found in the chain of granitic mountains, that, 
in the seventh degree of latitude, extends from 
the Indian village of Uruana, or Urbana, as far 
as the western banks of the Caura. A mission- 
ary, Ramon Bueno, a Franciscan monk, hav- 
ing accidentally entered a cavern formed by 
the separation of some ledges of rocks, beheld 
in the middle of the cave a large block of gra- 
nite, on which he saw what he believed to be 
characters formed into various groups, and 
ranged on the same line. Unfortunately, the 
difficult circumstances, in which we were placed 
on our return from Rio Negro to St. Thomas 
de la Guayana, did not permit us to verify per- 
sonally this observation. The missionary gave 
me a copy of part of these characters, of which 
the following is an engraving. 
Some resemblance to the Phoenician alphabet 
