UNEXPLOEED REGIONS. 
321 
of several txerman and Spanish Jesuits, who in 1734 fe’ 1 
victims to their zeal for religion, by the hands of the Caribs 
on the now desert banks of the Vichada. 
Having passed the Cano Pirajavi on the east, and then a 
small river on the west, which, issues, as the Indians say. 
from a lake called Na,o, we rested for the night on the shore 
of the Orinoco, at the mouth of the Zama, a very conside- 
rable river, but as little known as the Vichada. Notwithstand- 
ing the * black waters’ of the Zama. we suffered greatly from 
Insects. The night was beautifm, without a breath of wind 
in the lower regions of the atmosphere, but towards two in 
the morning we saw thick clouds crossing the zenith rapidly 
from east to west. "When, declining toward the horizon, 
they traversed the great nebulae of Sagittarius and the Ship, 
they appeared of a dark blue. The light of the nebulae is 
never more splendid than when they are in part covered by 
sweeping clouds. We observe the same phenomenon in 
Europe in the Milky Way, in the aurora borealis when it 
beams with a silvery light ; and at the rising and setting of 
the sun in that part of the sky that is whitened* from causes 
which philosophers have not yet sufficiently explained. 
The vast tract of country lying between the Meta, the 
vichada, and the Guaviare, is altogether unknown a league 
fforn the banks ; but it is believed to be inhabited by wild 
Indians of the tribe of Ohiricoas, who fortunately build no 
boats. Formerly, when the Caribs, and their enemies the 
I' ah res, traversed these regions with their little fleets of 
r aft s and canoes, it would have been imprudent to have 
Passed the night near the mouth of a river running from the 
West. The little settlements of the Europeans having now 
paused the independent Indians to retire from the banks of 
| : b e Upper Orinoco, the solitude of these regions is such, 
bat from Carichana to Javita, and from Esmeralda to San 
r ernando de Atabapo, during a course of one hundred and 
ei ghty leagues, we did not meet a single boat. 
v A t the mouth of the Ilio Zama we approach a class ol 
'Vers, that merits great attention. The Zama. the Mata* 
' 6Q *> the Atabapo, the Tuamini, the Temi, and the Guainir, 
a re aguas negras, that is, their waters, seen in a large body, 
* The dawn : ii French aube (alba, albente ccelo.) 
Y 
T or,. ii, 
