250 
NATURAL RAFTS. 
the New "World. The more imposing and majestic the objects 
no describe, the more essential it becomes to seize them in 
their smallest details, to fix the outline of the picture^ we 
would present to the imagination of the reader, and to 
describe with simplicity what characterises the great and 
imperishable monuments of nature. 
The navigation of the Orinoco from its mouth as far as 
the confluence of the Anaveni, an extent of 2(50 leagues, is 
not impeded. There are shoals and eddies near Muitaco, 
in a cove that bears the name of the Mouth of Hell (Boca 
del Iufiorno); and there are rapids (raudalitos) near Cari- 
chana and San Boija; but in all these places the river is 
never entirely barred, as a channel is left by which boats 
can pass up and down. 
In all this navigation of the Lower Orinoco travellers 
experience no other danger than that of the natural rafts 
formed by trees, which arc uprooted by the river, and swept 
along in its great floods. Woe to the canoes that during 
the night strike against these rafts of wood interwoven with 
lianas! Covered with aquatic plants, they rest lble here, 
as in the Mississippi, floating meadows, the chinampns or 
floating gardens of the Mexican lakes. The Indians, when 
they wish to surprise a tribe of their enemies, bring 
together several canoes, fasten them to each other with 
cords, and cover them with grass and branches, to imitate 
this assemblage of trunks of trees, which the Orinoc° 
sweeps along in its middle current. The Caribs are 06 ' 
cused of having heretofore excelled in the use ot the* 
artifice; at present the Spanish smugglers in the neigh' 
bourhood of Angostura have recourse to the same expedient 
to escape the vigilance of the custom-house officers. 
After proceeding up the Orinoco beyond the Rio An 3 ' 
veni, we find, between the mountains of Uniana and Sipap u ; 
the Great Cataracts of Mapara and Quibtuna, or, as the.' 
are more commonly called by the missionaries, the Raudal efl 
of A.tures and Maypures. These bars, which extend ft' 011 ’ 
one bank to the other, present in general a similar aspect 1 
they are composed of innumerable islands, dikes of roc**' 
and blocks of granite piled on ono another and covered wn 
palm-trees. But, notwithstanding a uniformity of aspe c ’ 
each of these cataracts preserves an individual character 
