210 
UNCOMFORTABLE ARRANGEMENTS. 
tara, or at Grand Para, the two capitals situated on the 
hanks of the Orinoco and the Amazon, the fore-deck of 
which boats might be fitted up with two rows of cages shel- 
tered from the rays of the sun. Every night, when we esta- 
blished our watch, our collection of animals and our instru- 
ments occupied the centre ; around these were placed first 
our hammocks, then the hammocks of the Indians ; and on 
the outside were the fires which are thought indispensable 
against the attacks of the jaguar. About sunrise the mon- 
keys m our cages answered the cries of the monkeys of the 
forest. These communications between animals of the same 
species sympathizing with one another, though unseen, one 
party enjoying that liberty which the other regrets, have 
something melancholy and affecting. 
In a canoe not three feet wide, and so incumbered, there 
remained no other place for the dried plants, trunks, a 
sextant, a dipping-needle, and the meteorological instru- 
ments, than the space below the lattice- work of branches, on 
which we were compelled to remain stretched the greater 
part of the day. If we wished to take the least object out 
of a trunk, or to use an instrument, it wa3 necessary to 
row ashore and land. To these inconveniences were joined 
the torment of the mosquitos which swarmed under the 
toldo, and the heat radiated from the leaves of the palm- 
trees, the upper surface of which was continually exposed to 
the solar rays. We attempted every instant, but always 
without success, to amend our situation. While one of us 
hid himself under a sheet to ward oft’ the insects, the other 
insisted on having green wood lighted beneath the toldo, in 
the hope of driving away the mosquitos by the smoke. The 
nainful sensations of the eyes, and the increase of heat, 
already stifling, rendered both these contrivances alike iui- 
Dracticable. With some gaiety of temper, with feelings o* 
mutual good-will, and with a vivid taste for the majestic 
grandeur of these vast valleys of rivers, travellers easily 
support evils that become habitual. 
Our Indians showed us, on the right bank of the river, 
the place which was formerly the site of the Mission 
Pararuma, founded by the Jesuits about the year 1733. 
The mortality occasioned by the small-pox among the Satire 
Indians was the principal cause of the dissolution of the 
